(Djerba, Tunisia) Justin Trudeau is trying to smooth over the thorny issue of federal health transfers by insisting the Legault government is “already doing a good job” of making data collection conditional on more payments to provinces.
Canadian Prime Minister Legault threw flowers at the government and, by extension, Health Minister Christian Dubey, praised Quebec’s work on improving its data systems in the health network and social services.
“We are discussing to see if the provinces can improve and standardize their data systems. I can point out that Quebec is already doing a good job,” Mr. Trudeau said on the sidelines of a Francophonie summit that ends Sunday in the Tunisian island of Djerba.
Justin Trudeau goes so far as to say that the Quebec model, like other initiatives elsewhere in Canada, could inspire Canadian provinces to “make sure we have a better overview of what’s going on in the country.”
Disgruntled at the last meeting between provincial health ministers and Ottawa, Mr. He responded thus to Dubey, adding, “If the central government wants statistics, we have a public dashboard.”
Embattled in a months-long impasse with the provinces, Ottawa showed its first signs of openness earlier in the month, saying it was ready to increase federal health transfers. The provinces have come together to demand an increase in funding from 22% to 35%.
But, there is a catch. Ottawa, on the other hand, wants to create a “world-class” health data system. The provinces, led by Quebec, strongly oppose it on the grounds that health is only within their jurisdiction. The last meeting in Vancouver of provincial health ministers and federal health minister Jean-Yves Duclos ended without agreement.
At the end of this exercise, the central government withdrew from the joint press release that was supposed to be issued last November.
Justin Trudeau said Sunday he hopes to reach an agreement with the provinces on better sharing of data between the provinces and the federal government. “It’s not like the federal government is checking that everybody is doing their homework,” he said.
“If someone in Montreal finds a way to manage health services better than they do at home in Saskatoon or Halifax, we can benefit,” Canadians themselves said. Mr. Trudeau.
Photo by Sean Kilpatrick, Press of Canada
Justin Trudeau
In Quebec, Mr. Dubey has released a dashboard that measures the progress of its healthcare program. He wants to resume parliamentary work to bring back a new version of Bill 19 that would allow the extraction of data on the network.
The issue of federal health transfers was also discussed during a bilateral meeting between Justin Trudeau and François Legault — the first since his re-election on the sidelines of a summit. The interview, which lasted about twenty minutes, mainly allowed us to set the schedule for the month of December.
When is the offer?
On Saturday, Mr. Legault said there are currently no federal incentives for the provinces on the table. “I knew Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Duclos were going to have it coming,” he said. On Sunday, Mr. Trudeau declined to say whether his government would bring a new plan to the provinces over the holidays. “We know how urgent this is,” the Prime Minister said with satisfaction.
“It’s going to take more money, and we’re here to invest more money, but I think people recognize that it’s going to take more improvements in our data systems. I think that’s something we can agree on,” summed up Mr. Trudeau, who was on foreign trips. Then he returns to the country this Sunday.
