Interview with Yves-François Blanchet | “The pandemic highlights the underfunding of health care”

(Ottawa) The Trudeau government must act on two fronts if it wants to put an end to the health crisis that has been raging for almost two years: increase health transfers intended for the provinces and work with the international community to accelerate the campaign for vaccination in developing countries.

Joel-Denis Bellavance
The Press

The pandemic has put a strain on the health network in Quebec and elsewhere in the country. Result: the political debate surrounding the increase in the federal contribution to the financing of health care is settled, believes the leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet. At least, it is in the minds of all the premiers of the provinces and all the leaders of the opposition parties in Ottawa.

The time has come to untie the federal purse strings, starting with the next budget to be tabled by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland by the end of spring, argued the Bloc leader in an interview with The Press.

The Bloc Québécois therefore intends to continue to make the increase in transfers to the provinces its main battleground during the return to Parliament scheduled for January 31.

On this subject, Mr. Blanchet spoke recently with the Premier of British Columbia, John Horgan, who assumes the presidency of the Council of the Federation this year. Mr. Blanchet then assured him that the Bloc Québécois would take the cause of the provinces to the Commons to force the hand of the Trudeau government.

The Bloc leader is also pleased that the common front of the provinces has remained intact so far, a sign according to him that the federal government is isolated on this thorny issue.

“Right now, we realize that the health care systems of the provinces and of Quebec are under considerable pressure. The issue is structural. It is not cyclical. The federal government is maintaining its approach of taking full advantage of the situation to try to sell off health transfers in exchange for powers that belong to Quebec and the provinces. We see all the impact that it has, ”supported Mr. Blanchet.

According to him, it is obvious that the health systems would have resisted better the waves which have swept the country during the last 22 months if the federal government had increased its financial contribution.

For several years now, the provinces have been calling in unison for Ottawa to increase health transfers in order to cover 35% of the annual bill, compared to 22% at present. Such an increase would translate into additional annual investments of $28 billion from the federal government.

The context of the pandemic

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he is ready to discuss increased transfers with his provincial counterparts, but only once the pandemic is over. During the last election campaign, the Liberals promised to inject $9 billion into health care over four years, but imposed conditions. Thus, 3 billion should be used to hire 7,500 family doctors and nurses, while 6 billion should be used to eliminate waiting lists.

“It is very clear that the context of the pandemic highlights the underfunding of health care and the health system. Obviously, we have to solve the problem in the short term, and not go piecemeal with an odious political show about the great generosity of the federal government when it puts 1 billion on the table [durant la pandémie] while the needs and requests are in the tens of billions, “said Mr. Blanchet.

According to him, it is equally imperative that Canada redouble its efforts, in concert with other industrialized countries, to accelerate the vaccination campaign in developing countries.

“We must grasp the reality that at the international level, we must accelerate vaccination. Because the probability of emergence of a new variant is proportional to the number of carriers of the virus. Inevitably, when the countries among the most populous are under-vaccinated, the probability of the emergence of variants one after another exists. A variant that had the virulence of those of the past with the ability to spread the Omicron variant would be a huge threat to planetary public health,” he said.

Mr. Blanchet argued that “effective and rapid” vaccination on a large scale must go through the suspension of patents in order to allow developing countries which urgently need vaccines to manufacture them.

“After that, we will arrange for intellectual property. It is normal, when public health demands it, that the short-term economic interest of pharmaceuticals is suspended. I even believe that they are talkable in this regard. »