Moe, other premiers push for meeting with Trudeau on health-care cash

Not for the first time, Canada’s premiers are extending an invitation to the prime minister for a meeting in January about health-care funding.

The premiers came together at a Council of the Federation meeting Friday and together sent a letter to Justin Trudeau with the request.

“We have been requesting a meeting to sit down and have that conversation about how are we going to ensure that these health-care services are sustainable into the future?” Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said during a news conference after the meeting.

“And at 22 per cent federal funding (and) 78 per cent provincial funding, I would just put forward that that isn’t sustainable moving forward. The health-care cost-sharing, investment-sharing arrangement that was brought forward decades ago was never anticipated to be with this small of a federal share.”

The premiers are looking for a $28-billion increase to a 35 per cent federal share, and have been asking for both the increase and the meeting with the prime minister for a couple of years now.

Moe said it’s a disappointment to the premiers to not have had the meeting yet, saying it’s a missed opportunity for Trudeau to discuss what is likely the No. 1 priority for Canadians right now.

“We need the prime minister at that table and it needs to happen on behalf of Canadians and I would say it’s an opportunity for the prime minister to participate in that meeting sooner rather than later,” said Moe.

Many of the premiers talked about the struggles they’re having in their own health-care systems from the pandemic and otherwise.

Heather Stefanson, Manitoba’s premier and chair of the Council of the Federation, said the provinces can’t negotiate between themselves and so the prime minister has to come to the table to solve the problem.

Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos has said the government is open to providing more money, but he says Ottawa has certain conditions it wants the provinces to meet in terms of where the funding would go.

Premiers have pushed back against such conditions, with Ontario Premier Doug Ford saying provinces need flexibility.

— With files from The Canadian Press