(Quebec) A strong majority of Canadians want the federal government to increase its share of health funding, according to a poll commissioned by the Council of the Federation.
Posted at 8:00 p.m.
In the main findings of Léger’s survey conducted at the beginning of January, note that the Canadians surveyed believe that health is one of the most important issues of the moment (second in Canada, first in Quebec). In addition, nearly four in five Canadians think the pandemic has had “significant negative impacts on health care systems.”
But an answer is of more interest to the premiers of the Canadian provinces and territories, who will meet on Friday. Nearly 85% of respondents to a Léger poll believe that it is “urgent” for Ottawa to increase its share of health funding. Remember that the Legault government, supported by the other provinces, is asking Ottawa to increase the annual federal contribution from 22% to 35% of the cost of health care across the country.
For Ottawa, this would mean annual disbursements of $28 billion to the provinces. For Quebec, this would mean an increase in federal transfers of $6 billion per year.
The impact of the pandemic
The vast majority of respondents also believe that “an immediate increase in funding and resources is needed to help alleviate the significant burden the pandemic is placing on their provincial or territorial health care system. »
Only one in five Canadians believe that the federal government is doing enough to “provide health care services to citizens”. An even smaller proportion – 10% – still believes it when the pollster explains to him that the federal share in health has decreased “from 50% to 22% since 1960”. More than one in two respondents believe that the quality of health care has deteriorated over the past five years.
The Léger survey was conducted from January 6 to 17 among 2,614 Canadians, in French and in English. Even though health is a very important subject, note that 37% of respondents maintain that the current issue is the cost of living, which is rising with inflation. After health (27%), the other important issues are climate change (25%), the economic impacts of COVID-19 (25%) and housing prices (23%). However, the issue of health is number one in Quebec.
“Provincial, territorial and federal governments have an opportunity to work together to make meaningful investments in health care that will provide Canadians with improved services they can count on now and in the future. Premiers of the provinces and territories will meet on Friday to move forward on this critically important file and look forward to pursuing this issue further with the federal government,” said the Speaker of the Council of the Federation, Premier of British Columbia John Horgan in a press release.