Ottawa supports premiers' call for health-care deal reviews: Duclos
The federal government supports calls from the premiers to establish a five-year review of health-care funding, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said in a letter to his Ontario counterpart.
Canada's premiers have been urging regular reviews to be established as part of the talks, saying the system needs predictability.
Duclos' letter to Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the province's bilateral agreement will include working toward certain health indicators, agreeing to provide "equity of access" for underserved groups and uphold the Canada Health Act to strengthen the public health system.
It also includes a commitment to streamline foreign credential recognition for internationally educated health professionals and multi-jurisdictional recognition of health professional licences. Ontario must also provide an action plan of how money will be spent and how progress will be measured and reported.
Duclos wrote that the review would consist of two phases, the first to "assess results and determine next steps" for existing bilateral funding deals the provinces made with Ottawa in 2017 to upgrade mental health and home care programs.
The second phase would be to formally review the current deal that's being ironed out after five years.
"This review will consider results achieved thus far in shared health priority areas of family health services, health workers and backlogs, mental health and substance use and health system modernization," Duclos wrote.
It would include "an assessment of progress-to-date on public reporting to Canadians using the common indicators, sharing depersonalized health information, and other health data commitments," he wrote.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford wrote Thursday on Twitter that he had been hearing from Ontarians concerned that the health data provisions in the federal agreement would mean their private information gets shared.
"I want to be clear, the Ontario government will never share anyone's personalized health information - digital or otherwise - with the federal government," he wrote in a statement.
"The only discussion that is taking place is how to better use non-personalized health-system statistics to improve performance, such as wait times for surgeries and the availability of family doctors."
Ottawa has offered more than $46 billion to provinces and territories to augment the Canada Health Transfer but the country's premiers say they're "disappointed" with the amount.
"While this first step marks a positive development, the federal approach will clearly not address structural health-care funding needs, nor long-term sustainability challenges we face in our health-care systems across the country," the premiers wrote Thursday to Trudeau.
are prepared to accept the offer for now, but further discussions are needed to establish longer-term predictability and stability in health care.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 16, 2023.
IN DEPTH
Jagmeet Singh pulls NDP out of deal with Trudeau Liberals, takes aim at Poilievre Conservatives
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has pulled his party out of the supply-and-confidence agreement that had been helping keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's minority Liberals in power.
'Not the result we wanted': Trudeau responds after surprise Conservative byelection win in Liberal stronghold
Conservative candidate Don Stewart winning the closely-watched Toronto-St. Paul's federal byelection, and delivering a stunning upset to Justin Trudeau's candidate Leslie Church in the long-time Liberal riding, has sent political shockwaves through both parties.
'We will go with the majority': Liberals slammed by opposition over proposal to delay next election
The federal Liberal government learned Friday it might have to retreat on a proposal within its electoral reform legislation to delay the next vote by one week, after all opposition parties came out to say they can't support it.
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
DEVELOPING Events across Canada set to mark one year since Oct. 7 attacks, Israel-Hamas war
Ceremonies, events and protests are being held across Canada today to mark the anniversary of a Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.
Timeline: What has happened in Canada since Oct. 7, 2023
The Oct. 7 attack by Hamas fighters on Israel last year, and the immediate Israeli retaliation that followed, sent shockwaves throughout the world that have shaken Canada culturally and politically.
Israelis, scarred and battling on multiple fronts, mark a year since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack
Israelis were holding vigils and sombre ceremonies on Monday to mark a year since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, the deadliest in the country's history, which sparked the war in Gaza and scarred Israelis indelibly.
Madonna's brother, Christopher Ciccone, dead at 63
Christopher Ciccone, a multihyphenate artist, dancer, designer and younger brother of Madonna, has died. He was 63.
The cooking method you need to learn to get excited about vegetables this fall, expert says
'Eat more vegetables,' doctors and dietitians say over and over. But for many people, it’s hard to do, because they aren’t excited about veggies or just don’t like them.
Hurricane Milton is growing stronger as it blows toward Florida's Tampa Bay region
People across Florida were given notice Sunday that Hurricane Milton is intensifying rapidly and will likely be a major hurricane before slamming midweek into the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast.
A unique form of clouds made an appearance over the skies of Ottawa on Sunday evening.
Advocacy groups suspend use of 'suicide capsule' pending Swiss criminal probe into its first use
Advocacy groups behind a so-called suicide capsule said Sunday they have suspended the process of taking applications to use it as a criminal investigation into its first use in Switzerland is completed.
Weeneebayko Area Health Authority and the Government of Ontario have awarded a $1.8 billion fixed-price contract to design, build and finance a new Far North hospital.
Local Spotlight
Bernie Hicks, known as the ‘Batman of Amherst,’ always wanted to sit in a Batmobile until a kind stranger made it happen.
Bubi’s Awesome Eats, located on University Ave West took to social media to announce the closure on Friday.
Weeneebayko Area Health Authority and the Government of Ontario have awarded a $1.8 billion fixed-price contract to design, build and finance a new Far North hospital.
Some Manitobans are cleaning up Sunday morning, after intense winds barreled through southern parts of the province Saturday.
Avry Wortman, 13, scored two touchdowns on Sunday during her team's win in the under 14 Greater Moncton Football Association.
A gargantuan gourd – affectionately named ‘Orangina’ by the urban gardeners who grew it in the front yard of their Vancouver home – earned the massive honour of being named B.C.’s heaviest giant pumpkin Saturday.
Chantal Kreviazuk is set to return to Winnipeg to mark a major milestone in her illustrious musical career.
From the beaches of Cannes to the bustling streets of New York City, a new film by a trio of Manitoba directors has toured the international film festival circuit to much pomp and circumstance.
A husband and wife have been on the road trip of a lifetime and have decided to stop in Saskatchewan for the winter.