It is unfortunate that the weather prevented Justin Trudeau from meeting François Legault on Friday, because Quebecers can’t wait any longer.
Wait for a passport. Wait for immigration. Wait for French protection. And of course, waiting for health services worthy of the name.
With overflowing emergencies, lives are at stake.
In Quebec, patients wait 19 hours before being admitted to the floors. Some even died without ever having received treatment, in Montérégie and Outaouais. The situation is particularly critical in pediatric emergencies, which are experiencing a historic crisis across the country.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Trudeau, who had nevertheless promised billions of dollars in the election campaign, does not seem in a hurry to agree with the provinces, which have been calling for an increase in federal health transfers for years.
It’s time to fix it, because the pressure is mounting.
It is rising as New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh says he is ready to tear up the deal that allows the Liberals to stay in power until 2025 if the government does not tackle the crisis in children’s hospitals .
The pressure is also mounting, as the next federal budget is due in a few months. Justin Trudeau will lose politically if the budget does not contain health commitments, when it is a national emergency.
In short, the Liberals cannot stay on the sidelines forever, trying to negotiate piecemeal with certain provinces to break their common front, as in 2017.
It must be said that the provinces played their cards badly.
By granting electoral tax cuts, several provinces, including Quebec, have sent the message that they are not short of money at all.
Moreover, they have locked themselves into a rhetoric that does not hold water in their demands to improve health transfers. The provinces have constantly repeated that the federal government, which paid half the bill at the birth of the health system, only pays 22%, which is true. They are calling for the federal share to rise to 35%, which represents $28 billion a year. Except that considering transfers of tax points from the 1970s, Ottawa already pays more than a third of the bill1.
Still, Ottawa needs to do more. Because beyond these battles of numbers, one fact remains. Our population is aging. And the costs of the health system will explode from 7.5% of GDP in 2019 to 9.5% in 20501.
As a possible solution, Ottawa could therefore offer funding related to excess expenditures due to the aging of the population, which is more glaring in certain provinces such as Quebec.
We would like the federal Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos to submit a quantified offer, once and for all. So far, he has focused on the conditions imposed on the provinces in exchange for subsidized transfers, provoking an outcry from the provinces.
Ottawa wants the provinces to sign on to a national data system. At first glance, that doesn’t seem unreasonable. But it’s a slippery slope that could lead to greater provincial accountability…and add a layer of federal bureaucracy to the already cumbersome health care system.
Need we remind you that it is the provinces that are on the ground in terms of health? Services are far from perfect. And the provinces must review their ways of doing things to be more efficient, more productive.
But Ottawa certainly has no lesson to give to the provinces in the delivery of services to the population.
Think of the passport crisis which is far from over. What does Justin Trudeau say to the citizen who paid $160 in August for his request and who still hasn’t received the precious document that was supposed to arrive before December 6?
Patience, patience.
Consider also the immigration file where Justin Trudeau has the arrogance to suggest that Quebec double the number of immigrants to maintain its demographic weight within Canada, while federal officials do not even provide on demand. In particular, they make the 36,000 refugees who have arrived in Quebec via Roxham Road since the beginning of the year languish for many months, an issue in itself.
Patience, patience.
And the French language? Quebec comes up against 28 recalcitrant companies that do not want to apply the rules of Bill 96, because they are waiting for the reform of the Official Languages Act that Ottawa is slow to put on track.
Mr. Trudeau, patience has its limits. In view of your meeting with François Legault, postponed to next week, keep in mind that citizens are tired of waiting.