Premiers who gathered in Moncton, NB, on Monday for a health care summit called for significant changes in service delivery in their provinces and hinted at the possibility of more services being offered across the sector private
“The status quo is not working, folks,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said at a news conference after the meeting.
“We have to be creative, we have to come up with ideas of the [health care] sector”.
Ford met with Premiers Blaine Higgs of New Brunswick, Tim Houston of Nova Scotia and Dennis King of Prince Edward Island during the summit.
Ford, who met with Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc ahead of the meeting, said health care was “the number one priority” cited by prime ministers.
Ford also said he had a “phenomenal conversation” with LeBlanc about the challenges facing provincial health systems.
“Urgent action is needed if the federal government is to ensure the sustainability of health care and services across Canada,” said Higgs.
WATCH / Need to see better health outcomes, says New Brunswick premier
Federal health care funding must be matched with improved outcomes: Premier Higgs
“It doesn’t prescribe where we put the money, but let’s agree on what a better health system looks like,” says New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs of federal health funding. “It has to be combined with directly improving outcomes for people in every province.”
Disagreements over health care funding have strained the relationship between Canada’s premiers and the federal government for years, but the increasingly dire situation in hospitals and emergency departments has pushed premiers to drive change more aggressively.
At a meeting of all provincial and territorial leaders in July, British Columbia Premier John Horgan said Canadian health care had deteriorated to the point that Canada would have to “re-imagine” how public health care is provided.
Premiers say Ottawa must increase its share of health care funding from 22 to 35 per cent in order to build a system that is sustainable and works properly.
The federal government says the calculations used by the provinces do not accurately take into account Ottawa’s contributions to provincial health services.
One more option for private care
Ford’s Progressive Conservative government has outlined a plan to ease pressure on Ontario’s health care system by funding more surgeries performed at private clinics, among other proposed changes.
Hundreds of Ontario health sector organizations have pledged to fight what they see as the growing privatization of the system.
But after Monday’s meeting, Ford wasn’t the only prime minister who had the idea of moving more services to the private sector.
Higgs said he would consider changes in New Brunswick if they can be done “in a constructive way that will see results.”
“Everything is a possibility in relation to how we improve health care,” he said.
He later noted that any changes to be considered would still have to be considered “publicly funded health care.”
WATCH / Privatization is not the answer, says the president of the CMA
CMA chairman says privatization ‘will not solve’ health problems
Newly elected CMA president Dr Alika Lafontaine says she agrees with prime ministers that the status quo in healthcare is “no longer an option”. He says support for the public health system must be addressed before looking at other options.
Dr. Michael Gardam, CEO of Health PEI, said he was pleased to see the premiers frankly discussing the challenges facing their health systems.
“I’m personally very encouraged that we’re not hearing the rhetoric that we might have heard a few years ago about how we have the best health care system in the world and nothing needs to change,” Gardam told CBC News Network.
Gardam, who runs PEI’s public health authority, warned against using more privatizations as a blanket solution.
“We have to think carefully about whether we’re going to get the best benefit or whether we’re just going to starve the public system in order to get better access for people in another setting,” he said.