QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities
Health Transfers
April 25, 2023
Minister, thank you very much. My question is in regard to your intergovernmental provincial and territorial role, specifically as it relates to the Canadian Armed Forces health system. As you’re probably aware, the fourteenth health system in Canada is actually a federal one. As we are moving forward, the Canadian Armed Forces have always consistently delivered some services but then purchased the rest at exponentially increased rates from the provinces, as well as a few provinces that require a substantial yearly dispensation in order to provide care to Canadians who actually pay taxes within those provinces.
As you know, since 2018, we’ve been trying to negotiate a reasonable rate with provinces, as the Canadian Armed Forces have been excluded from the Canada Health Act for all the reasons we understand.
As of February 7, the Prime Minister announced the one-time payments to the provinces via the Canada Health Transfer, now Bill C-46 before the Senate. He also announced the government’s intent to come to bilateral agreements with each province individually on health care funding. Since then, as we’ve heard, most if not all provinces have signed agreements with the federal government.
Minister, were the rates of reimbursements by the Department of National Defence to the provinces for the provision of health care to members of the Canadian Armed Forces part of those signed agreements?
Your Honour, through you to Senator Patterson, thank you for that interesting question. It’s not a policy area on which I have very precise knowledge. I will ask my colleague Jean-Yves Duclos as well as Anita Anand, the defence minister. I didn’t understand — and I come from New Brunswick where, you can imagine, with a military base as important as Gagetown — what that would represent to the provincial health system in Fredericton, where the senator sitting behind you resides. I know these have been sources of frustration between the Armed Forces’ health services and provinces and territories. I had a sense of the concern you identified.
The good news, senator, is that the agreements that we have reached with the provinces and territories are agreements in principle. The binding bilateral detailed agreements are still being negotiated. The provinces wanted to sign agreements in principle. It allowed them to book the federal money in their budgets. They responded quickly to what the Prime Minister offered, and Jean-Yves Duclos and I did a quick trip around the country to 13 provincial and territorial capitals. We were very happy with the agreements in principle, but the detailed agreements are still to be negotiated.
I’ll take that question back and make sure that Jean-Yves Duclos, who is leading those detailed bilateral negotiations, gets the information from the Canadian Armed Forces. It is an interesting subject and one I didn’t know a lot about, but I’ll ensure we do the appropriate follow-up. Thank you for the question.
