(Djerba, Tunisia) Justin Trudeau tries to reconcile the thorny issue of federal health transfers by stressing that the Legault government is “already doing a very good job” in terms of data collection, a condition for giving more money to provinces.
The Canadian Prime Minister threw flowers to the Legault government, and by extension to the Minister of Health Christian Dubé, by praising the work of Quebec, which is working on improving its data systems in the health network and social services.
“We are discussing to see if the provinces can improve and standardize their data systems. I can point out that Quebec is already doing a very good job, ”said Mr. Trudeau on the sidelines of the Francophonie Summit, which ends on the Tunisian island of Djerba on Sunday.
Justin Trudeau even goes so far as to say that the Quebec model could, like other initiatives elsewhere in Canada, inspire the Canadian provinces “to ensure that we have a better overview of what is happening in the country” .
He thus responded to Mr. Dubé, who was dissatisfied at the last meeting between the provincial health ministers and Ottawa, and replied that “if the federal government wants statistics, we have a public dashboard that is available”.
Plunged into a stalemate that has lasted for months with the provinces, Ottawa showed the first signs of openness at the beginning of the month, saying it was ready to increase federal health transfers. The provinces are united and demanding an increase in funding from 22% to 35%.
But, there remains a catch. Ottawa, on the other hand, wants to create a “world-class” health data system. The provinces, led by Quebec, fiercely oppose it on the grounds that health is exclusively within their jurisdiction. The last meeting in Vancouver of provincial health ministers and federal health minister Jean-Yves Duclos ended without an agreement.
The federal government has withdrawn from the joint press release which was to be published at the end of the exercise, last November.
Justin Trudeau said Sunday that he was hopeful of reaching an agreement with the provinces on the subject of better sharing of data between the provinces and with the federal government. “It’s not so that the federal government can check whether everyone is doing their homework,” he said.
“It’s so that Canadians know for themselves, that if someone in Montreal has found a way of administering health services that is much better than what they do at home in Saskatoon or Halifax, well that we can benefit from it” across the country, added Mr. Trudeau.
PHOTO SEAN KILPATRICK, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Justin Trudeau
In Quebec, Mr. Dubé has rolled out the publication of a dashboard that measures the progress of his Health Plan. He also wants to resume parliamentary work to bring back a new version of Bill 19 which allows the decompartmentalization of data in the network.
The issue of federal health transfers was also discussed during the bilateral meeting between Justin Trudeau and François Legault – the first since his re-election, on the sidelines of the Summit. The interview of about twenty minutes mainly allowed to set the table for that of December.
When an offer?
On Saturday, Mr. Legault said there were currently no federal offers to the provinces on the table. “I know that Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Duclos tell us that it is coming,” he said. On Sunday, Mr. Trudeau did not want to say if his government would arrive with a new proposal to the provinces by the holidays. “We know how urgent it is,” contented himself with saying the Prime Minister.
“It’s going to take more money and we’re here to invest more money, but I think people know it also takes more improvements in our data systems. I think this is something we will be able to agree on, ”summarized Mr. Trudeau, who returns to the country this Sunday after a series of missions abroad.