Formula for health funding ‘genuine threat’ to Manitoba
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$19 $0 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*No charge for 4 weeks then billed as $19 every four weeks (new subscribers and qualified returning subscribers only). Cancel anytime.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/12/2016 (2693 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Brian Pallister is beating the drum for increased federal health transfers in advance of a first ministers meeting next week devoted to green jobs and climate change.
The premier ratcheted up the rhetoric on the file Friday as he and other first ministers attempt to get health funding on the agenda for their meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa.
The Liberal government is implementing a plan laid down by Stephen Harper’s Conservatives to limit increases in health transfers to the provinces to three per cent beginning in 2017 after years of six per cent annual increases.
The reduction “is a genuine threat to the sustainability of the health-care system in the country,” Pallister said Friday.
Eight years ago, Ottawa and the provinces agreed the federal share of health funding would not drop below 25 per cent, but that agreement is not being kept, Pallister said.
“It’s already below that, and it’s looking to dive downward,” he said.
Studies show if annual federal increases are limited to three per cent, the provinces will be picking up $10 for every $11 in new health-care costs, Pallister said.
“That’s just not sustainable unless you’re prepared to have the provincial government get out of everything else it does over the next 20 years and just do health care,” he said.
Pallister said he’s spoken with other premiers about ensuring that health funding is discussed at Thursday and Friday’s meeting, although he didn’t elaborate.
Whether the subject comes up formally or is relegated to more informal talks, it must be addressed, he said.
“It is not an option to back away from this.”
He said Manitoba is more vulnerable than other provinces because the former NDP government failed to look for cost savings and efficiencies in health delivery.
Manitoba also has a large indigenous population that suffers disproportionately from chronic diseases such as diabetes, he said.
A three per cent reduction in transfer increases would mean $39 million in lost revenue to Manitoba, the government has calculated.
“The alternatives, if the federal government doesn’t step up to the plate on health care, are all unappealing — higher taxes, longer waits, reduced services in other departments like education,” he said.
Liberal MLA Jon Gerrard suggested Ottawa’s offer of annual three per cent increases beginning next year is “fairly generous,” given the feds have their own budgetary issues to address.
“I would say to Mr. Pallister, it’s time to manage with the resources you’ve got and get on with the role of governing,” Gerrard said.
The legislative session wrapped up Friday, and the house will not sit again until March 1.
larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
Larry Kusch
Legislature reporter
Larry Kusch didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life until he attended a high school newspaper editor’s workshop in Regina in the summer of 1969 and listened to a university student speak glowingly about the journalism program at Carleton University in Ottawa.
History
Updated on Saturday, December 3, 2016 8:25 AM CST: Edited