Canada’s health system not working, Trudeau says ahead of summit with premiers – National | 24CA News

Ahead of a high-stakes well being summit on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the nation’s health-care system isn’t working for Canadians and that his negotiations with premiers will give attention to focused investments geared toward enhancing outcomes.

All 13 of Canada’s premiers are in Ottawa for a primary ministers assembly with the prime minister, the primary in-person assembly of the nation’s authorities leaders in additional than two years.

The talks will give attention to Canada’s ailing health-care system, which is presently plagued with plenty of systemic issues stemming largely from a nationwide scarcity of well being employees, a troubling actuality that has left hundreds of thousands of Canadians with out well timed entry to life-saving well being companies.

Speaking to reporters forward of the assembly right this moment in Ottawa, Trudeau didn’t mince phrases in regards to the troubles going through the well being system and the impression it’s having on sufferers and burned-out nurses and docs.

“Canadians are proud of our universal public health-care system, but we all have to recognize it hasn’t been delivering at the level that Canadians would expect,” he mentioned.

“That’s why sitting down with the provinces, working collaboratively, investing significantly in priority areas is going to move us forward in the right way.”

1:58Trudeau will provide ‘significant’ well being funding improve in 10-year deal: sources

Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos mentioned he hopes to see a collaborative strategy taken through the negotiations with the premiers, to make sure sufferers and their entry to obligatory well being companies is stored on the centre of the discussions.

“We need everyone’s efforts, given the situation in which workers and patients are finding themselves these days and these years, because we know these challenges will continue for years to come,” Duclos mentioned Tuesday morning.

“So, we expect everyone to put forward the resources and the plan that they need to do so.”

The premiers have been calling for Ottawa to extend its share of provincial well being prices to 35 per cent, up from what the provinces say is presently solely 22 per cent.

This would quantity to a $28-billion enhance for well being care to the provinces and territories.

Trudeau has mentioned he’ll improve well being funding, however desires the provinces to conform to situations that will guarantee the cash is focused to areas the place want is biggest.

These key priorities embrace: higher entry to household docs in rural and concrete areas, a plan for tackling staffing shortages, higher and extra well timed entry to mental-health care, and agreements from the provinces to modernize and share well being knowledge.

On Monday, a senior authorities official with information of the plan instructed The Canadian Press that Trudeau will lay out a 10-year funding provide to the premiers.

Global News confirmed this with a senior federal authorities supply, who mentioned the provide can have two elements: a rise within the Canada Health Transfer and a proposal to do bilateral offers with the provinces that need particular person flexibility.

But issues are being raised about how provinces might allocate this funding after latest strikes by some provincial governments to sort out lengthy ready lists by transferring publicly-funded surgical procedures and well being appointments to personal clinics.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh known as on Trudeau Monday to make it express in his negotiations with the premiers that any improve in federal funding for well being care shouldn’t be used to fund personal, for-profit well being clinics and companies.

Duclos mentioned Tuesday a part of his function as federal well being minister is to uphold the Canada Health Act, which incorporates ideas that stipulate all Canadians ought to have equitable entry to health-care companies and that medically obligatory care should be offered based mostly on want, not an individual’s means to pay.

“I will do everything that I can do, and I know my colleagues, health ministers in provinces and territories, have also said they would do so, to protect the integrity of our publicly funded health-care system,” Duclos mentioned.

But if that safety of public well being care erodes, there are steps Ottawa can take, Duclos warned.

“There are things that I can do as federal health minister, including emitting fines for not respecting the obligations of the Canada Health Act.”

1:24Trudeau says he’ll defend public well being care forward of premiers assembly

Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc mentioned the main focus of right this moment’s talks might be areas of shared priorities between the provinces and the federal authorities, all with a give attention to affected person entry to care.

Leblanc referenced his personal expertise, spending two months in a Montreal hospital after a most cancers prognosis in 2019.

“I saw myself, the people who work there, how extraordinary they are, the immediate difficulties they face,” he instructed reporters in French.

“I’m going to do my small part in partnership with my colleagues and the premiers of the provinces to give hope to the patients and to the people who work in the health-care system that we found a way to improve the circumstances — and fast.”