(Ottawa) The federal Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos, hopes that one of the elements that will emerge from the meeting scheduled between Justin Trudeau and François Legault is that Ottawa and Quebec are “there to help each other, others” in terms of health.
Mr. Duclos, by the same token, seemed to want to soften the tone of the debates about a possible increase in health care transfers, which seemed to harden lately according to several observers.
“We are here to help each other. We saw how we did it during COVID-19. It has saved hundreds of thousands of lives and we know we can continue to do so by working to use financial and other resources, […] to support the efforts of the provinces and territories, ”he said Thursday in a scrum in Ottawa.
The federal Minister of Health will not be present at the meeting scheduled for Friday between the Premier of Quebec, François Legault, and his federal counterpart, Justin Trudeau. He was nevertheless questioned – while on his way to a meeting of the Council of Ministers – on what he hopes to see as advancement at the end of the tête-à-tête between prime ministers.
After Mr. Duclos’ press scrum, his office would not comment on the intention behind the minister’s comments, namely whether he really wanted to soften the tone. “I think the goal is never to harden the tone,” we replied when questioned by The Canadian Press after the press scrum.
“The intention has always been to have constructive discussions,” it added.
Moreover, Minister Duclos assured, once again, that the federal government’s intention is to respect provincial jurisdiction over health.
“The Canadian government should never want or even pretend to take care of the management of health care in any province,” he insisted.
Asked whether he is of the opinion that the federal government will have to water down its wine, during the year 2023, which is fast approaching, in order to resolve the impasse on the way forward to increase funding for health care, Mr. Duclos had a vague answer.
“I’m sure we’ll come to a good agreement in 2023. It’s going to require doing things differently, but we’re used to doing things differently, with colleagues from the provinces and territories,” he said. he argued.
For his part, Mr. Trudeau made a brief comment as he also went to his cabinet meeting, the day after the House of Commons adjourned for the holiday season.
“I think Canadians clearly want to see improvements in their health care services,” he said. We, as the federal government, are there to work with the provinces, to invest more with the provinces, but as I have said from the beginning, we must see improvements in services for Canadians. »
All the provinces and territories have been asking for more than two years for an increase in federal health transfers in order to increase Ottawa’s contribution from 22% to 35% of costs in this area.