QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Health
Hiring of Physicians and Nurses
February 9, 2022
Thank you, minister, for being with us during this pandemic.
The pandemic has revealed the fragile state of our health care systems, which have been crippled by years of underfunding. While waiting for the necessary reinvestment in transfers to the provinces — which we hope will increase the federal government’s contribution to health care costs to 35% — Canadians are wondering what has happened to the government’s election promise to hire 7,500 physicians and nurses.
My question is twofold. We understand that it is the responsibility of Quebec, and accordingly the provinces and territories, to hire health care workers. However, given the urgency of the situation, can you tell us if the funding of $3.2 billion or so has been disbursed to the provinces? If yes, how many physicians and nurses have been hired?
Thank you, Senator Forest.
I will limit my remarks to two aspects. First, as I mentioned a little earlier, not only has there been ongoing collaboration among the different levels of government, but it has yielded several results. In the past few weeks alone, I have attended seven meetings with my fellow health ministers from across the country.
The Prime Minister has held nearly forty meetings with his counterparts, the premiers of the provinces and territories. Many of these meetings have focused on the health response and investments in health care to protect health. In my case, the meetings have always been about that, of course. We just spoke about $2.5 billion for rapid tests, on top of investments of several hundreds of millions made a little earlier for Pfizer’s Paxlovid treatment courses.
In the meantime, vaccines are being provided free of charge to Canadians by the Government of Canada and, in my opinion, in a relatively efficient manner.
However, more needs to be done. That is why, knowing the priorities of the provinces and territories, we identified elements during the election campaign and in our platform that we believe could form the foundation for a relationship that respects provincial jurisdictions. By recognizing the government’s shared responsibility and by focusing on results, I think this relationship will continue to progress over the coming years, because we’re all in the same boat and we all have a responsibility to take care —
I’m sorry, minister, but your time is up and I have to move on to the next speaker on the list.
