Freeland willing to offer health-care help if price is right

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This article was published 24/08/2021 (1476 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DEPUTY Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says the Liberals want to help provinces pay for health-care costs, but can’t write them a blank cheque.

“Where federal dollars are involved in funding health care, we owe it to Canadians to be sure that that money is spent providing the services that we commit to Canadians to provide,” Freeland told the Free Press on Monday.

Freeland was door-knocking in St. James on Monday, and said affordability has been the top issue in the Prairies.

“I’m proud of Winnipeggers for how resourceful they have been; it’s been really hard to get through COVID and I know COVID has hit, at times, particularly hard here,” said Freeland, the Liberal finance minister whose government is seeking re-election on Sept. 20.

“I’m glad we were able to provide a lifeline.”

The NDP had successfully pushed the Liberals to slow down the phasing out of some benefit programs, while the Tories have argued that these subsidies have contributed to inflation.

Freeland said the Liberals are trying to bump up lower earners and subsidize new jobs as the economy starts to recover.

“There are a lot of low-wage workers in Winnipeg, and that’s why one of the programs that was a real priority for me was adding $9 billion to the Canada Workers Benefit.”

She also pointed to a recent daycare deal inked with Manitoba, which will gradually create more child-care spaces and offer $10 per day daycare in the province by 2023.

Constituents in the swing riding of Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley told Freeland they’re concerned about homelessness, climate change and reconciliation, three issues the Liberals are touting despite the NDP calling for more funding and more aggressive goals.

“We have made sustained and continuous investment in reconciliation in Canada, including with the Métis Nation,” Freeland said.

“I would be the last person to suggest that our work on reconciliation is done — far, far from it.”

Freeland opted against the normal practice of having a public event Monday in Winnipeg, instead choosing to hold media interviews, after a Sunday video that Twitter had flagged as having been manipulated.

The video showed spliced-together clips of Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole answering questions about private options to universal health care.

“It’s really important for Canadians to talk about what kind of health-care system we want,” Freeland said

“I think that’s important for us, to have a clear, national debate.”

In February 2020, the Trudeau government threatened to withhold part of Manitoba’s health-care transfers because the province allowed nurse practitioners to charge the public fees for faster access to diagnostic testing.

That same month, the Trudeau government tried to break up a Saskatchewan policy that allows for-profit clinics to charge patients for MRIs and CT scans, when those clinics offer the same number of scans to patients on public waiting lists.

Federal Leader Erin O’Toole has cited the Saskatchewan plan as way to control provinces’ costs while addressing waiting lists.

On Monday, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau reannounced a 2019 pledge for $6 billion over four years for health care, adding a promise to hire 7,500 doctors, nurses, and nurse practitioners.

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Historically, Ottawa has instead sent billions to provinces to run health-care services, with the agreement they offer a list of essential services. Since taking office, the Liberals have signed side deals for things like mental health and home care.

The premiers have instead demanded that Ottawa raise its share of health spending instead of attaching strings to offers of less money. They want Ottawa to raise its share of health-care spending from 22 to 35 per cent, amounting to a $28 billion increase in just one year.

Freeland described Trudeau’s $6 billion offer, over four years, as just the starting point in negotiations, which are expected to take place when the premiers meet in Winnipeg in early October.

“I take what the premiers have to say seriously, but we also need to come into the conversation with our own position, because we represent Canadians, too,” said Freeland.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca