QUESTION PERIOD — Health
Health Care Transfers
November 22, 2022
Senator Gold, my question is about the conflict between Minister Duclos and the provinces over health transfers. Health is a provincial responsibility, which is what makes this impasse so frustrating. This is not shared jurisdiction.
The nub of the problem seems to be the federal government’s desire to attach certain conditions to the transfers so that everyone works toward building “a world-class health data system.” We already have the Canadian Institute for Health Information, a not-for-profit organization whose board of directors includes a Health Canada deputy minister, an official from Statistics Canada and officials from the provincial health care systems.
Why is the government trying to reinvent the wheel and add another layer of bureaucracy rather than speedily transferring its fair share to the provinces?
Thank you for the question. I’ll answer briefly, but it raises some complex issues. Life would be very simple if every time the provinces asked for more money, no matter how it was used, the federal government said yes. That’s not how responsible government works.
Unfortunately, discussions between Minister Duclos and his counterparts were unsuccessful because of the premiers’ influence over their health ministers. They insisted that the money should be transferred without conditions and that they wanted a meeting with the Prime Minister as soon as possible. This is not how the Government of Canada should respond on an issue as important as health care funding.
With respect to your question, I think it’s appropriate for the federal government to ask the provincial and territorial governments to share their data in order to give Canadians, no matter where they live, access to the most appropriate health care system possible for a developed country.
I agree with you on the issue of sharing data. However, we already have the Canadian Institute for Health Information, which involves the provinces and the federal government. I understand what the government wants to create, according to the expert advisory group that it established, and I will quote what this new organization is supposed to be so that you can properly understand my question:
Implementation . . . would be advised by a competency-based Health Information Stewardship Council (Council) and facilitated by one or more representative Learning Health System Table(s) (LHS Table(s)), accountable to the Federal/Provincial/Territorial (FPT) Conference of Deputy Ministers of Health. . . .
The LHS Table(s) would work with the Council to establish integrated roadmaps to implement the learning health system and secure investment . . . .
Senator Gold, my question is simple. Why does the government prefer to create a new organization that it describes with such administrative gibberish rather than using an existing organization that has a clear and functional mandate?
I have to admit that I don’t have a direct answer to your question. The reason why the government asked the provinces to share their data is clearly because what we had was inadequate to best serve Canadians. That said, I’ll inquire with the government and try to obtain a more direct answer to your question. Thank you.
