(Shawinigan) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau believes that there is “momentum” in negotiations with the provinces on the increase in health transfers.
While in Shawinigan, where he visited the facilities of the company FLO, which manufactures charging stations for electric vehicles, Mr. Trudeau however stressed that there is still a lot of work to be done before signing an agreement, thus resuming on his own account the words of the Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos.
“There is still work to be done, but we feel that there is very positive momentum,” indicated the Premier at a press conference.
That said, he argued that the provinces have the financial leeway, in the short term, to invest more in health care. Remember that the provinces have been calling for a substantial increase in health transfers for several months, to the tune of $28 billion per year. The provincial premiers also asked Mr. Trudeau to convene a meeting at the end of the year to settle this file.
“Let’s be very clear. The investments that we are talking about on the federal side are investments to ensure the medium and long term to improve our health systems. Yes, we need help now. But the provinces have the fiscal capacity to invest right away in everyday needs,” he said.
“What we’ve learned during the pandemic is that our system and the leadership of our system needs more investment. That’s why we’re here to reach agreements that will last for years and even decades to come to build ways of working, ways of innovating in our health systems,” he said. affirmed.
Mr. Trudeau must continue his tour in Trois-Rivières this afternoon. Coincidentally, the leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, was in the same city at the same time.
Asked about this, Mr. Trudeau could not help but shoot an arrow at his Conservative opponent, who undertook a three-day tour of Quebec which also took him to Montreal on Monday and Quebec City on Tuesday.
“I’m glad to see that Mr. Poilievre is starting to pay a little attention to Quebec,” he said straight away. “It is important that all parties are present across the country. He will perhaps listen to the priorities of Quebeckers. He will perhaps hear that for Quebecers the economy and the environment are not in contradiction. They must go together. If he wants to have a good example of this, he has only to speak to Louis Tremblay (CEO of FLO). He demonstrated with FLO here how much we can create solutions, jobs by building a greener economy for the future,” he said.
“If his visit to Quebec gives Mr. Poilievre a better understanding of how important it is to have a plan to fight climate change, that’s a very good thing. […] I’m glad to see him here, but just because he’s here doesn’t mean I’m coming home. »