Trudeau watching as Ford plans to expand private delivery of public health care, Singh calls for conditions

Ottawa reviewing Ont.'s health-care reform bill Canada's federal government says they are 'closely reviewing' Ontario's new health-care reform plan.

As Ontario moves to allow private clinics to perform more surgeries, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he'll be watching to ensure the principles of Canada's universal public system are respected.

"It is one of the primary responsibilities of the federal government in matters of health-care delivery, to ensure that the Canada Health Act is always respected," Trudeau told reporters at an event in Saskatchewan on Monday, referencing the law that outlines Canada’s publicly funded health-care insurance system and spells out national health policy objectives.

"That's what we're going to continue to watch across the country as people are responding in different ways to delivering better services to Canadians in health care," Trudeau said.

On Monday, Ontario unveiled a three-step plan that will see some for-profit community surgical and diagnostic centres take on certain additional surgeries and other medical procedures with the aim of reducing the provinces' surgical backlogs resulting in considerable wait times for patients.

During the announcement, Ontario Premier Doug Ford indicated the incoming changes to the system would be permanent.

While not stating whether he supports Ford’s move, the prime minister said he and the premiers are "very much on the same page" when it comes to the health-care system needing more investment and, as a result, improved care for Canadians.

"Whether we're talking about more access to primary care doctors and teams, whether it's quicker access to mental health supports, whether it's reducing the surgery backlog. There are lots of things that we're working on with the provinces," Trudeau said.

PROTECTING PUBLIC SHOULD BE A CONDITION: SINGH

Ford's announcement caught the ire of federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who sounded alarm bells in a statement claiming that Ford was handing part of Ontario's health-care system over to for-profit corporations at the expense of patients.

“World-class health care should be waiting for you when you need it. We can best deliver that by rebuilding and growing our public system — not allowing Conservative premiers to decimate it with American-style for-profit health corporations," Singh said.

The NDP leader called for Trudeau to make protecting the universal public health-care system a condition of any future increase to the federal health transfer.

Asked on Monday about the status of a deal with the provinces over increasing the Canada Health Transfer—which some premiers have recently voiced optimism about—Trudeau said he's looking forward to "being able to announce positive steps forward in the very near future."

The premiers are asking for Ottawa to boost transfers to 35 per cent up from the current 22 per cent of coverage for health-care costs, while Trudeau has insisted that any increase in federal funds would have to come with a concrete plan for provincial accountability.

Singh also raised concerns over the potential impact on care and attempts to upsell patients "when profits are the priority."

“Trudeau is ready to let the provinces funnel federal health care dollars into the pockets of for-profit corporate investors. I’m not,” said Singh.

When it comes to privatization, health-care experts have warned about the possibilities of exacerbated staffing shortages in hospitals, arguing that investing in independent centres will squeeze resources from the public sector.

'WE HAVE A PUBLIC SYSTEM THAT I SUPPORT': POILIEVRE

During an interview with CTV News Winnipeg on Friday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he does not support privatized health care when it comes to "essential needs."

"We have a public system that I support. I believe everybody should be able to get public health care. That's the system I've relied on my whole life. And I think it's the system that we need to preserve; a system that gives public insurance for all the basic necessities of our health care," he said.

Poilievre said that if he were prime minister, he'd would work with the provinces on ensuring Canadians get "prompt publicly funded care for their essential needs," while calling the current system "a complete disaster."

With files from CTV News Toronto's Katherine DeClerq