B.C. premier approaching health care talks without 'any red lines'
B.C. premier approaching health care talks without 'any red lines'
British Columbia Premier David Eby says he's going into next week's health-care meeting between the premiers and prime minister with an open mind — and without a red line dollar ask for the federal government.
Canada’s premiers are set to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday after months of pushing for a sit down to hash out a health-care funding deal. They want the federal government to increase funds through the Canada Health Transfer from 22 per cent to 35 per cent of health-care costs, about an additional $28 billion a year.
But Eby told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos, in an interview airing Sunday, he’s open to seeing what the federal government brings to the negotiating table, even if it’s not the full ask from the provinces.
And when pressed on whether he’s specifically looking for the federal government to increase the escalator — the percentage by which the federal government increases the Canada Health Transfer annually — the B.C. premier wouldn’t say.
“I'm not going into this meeting with any red lines,” Eby said. “I'm going to this meeting with mindset of how can I deliver health care for British Columbians? And what is the federal government going to be bringing to that shared responsibility that we both have?”
Eby said that after overcoming the “hurdle” of getting the premiers and the prime minister around the negotiating table, he hopes the federal government comes with a “good faith offer.”
“We're going to sit around the table and the prime minister is going to bring his offer, and it’s going to include, I assume, discussion around the escalator piece of it as well as what the core funding amount is going to be and how much is going to be allocated to this bilateral, all these technical things,” Eby said. “And we're going to sit down as premiers and come to a resolution with the prime minister.”
“I'm looking forward to that,” he said. “But that's going to happen at that table.”
Eby added he’s open to a bilateral agreement with the federal government to meet the needs of British Columbians specifically, as long as there’s also an agreement about core funding across the board for all the provinces.
“There are two hours that have been set for the meeting,” he said. “So obviously, this isn't going to be the meeting where we get to the deal.”
Other provinces, meanwhile, are sticking by their push for a 35-per-cent share of health-care costs from the federal government, and an increase to the escalator.
“I think it's important that we don't have a situation where we have an immediate influx of money and then we ended up bleeding back again,” Ontario Health Minister and Deputy Premier Sylvia Jones said on CTV’s Power Play Thursday. “We want a partner who's going to be there not for the short term, but for the long term as we have committed.”
U.S. President Joe Biden heads north next week for his first visit to Canada as president. Ahead of the visit, both countries are laying out a wide range of potential topics spanning from migration policy to continuing support for Ukraine.
More than 130,000 people have signed an e-petition calling on Canada to give transgender and non-binary people fleeing harmful laws in their home countries the right to claim asylum, but that's already possible in this country. Advocates say the popularity of the proposal shows politicians that Canadians want the government to affirm its welcoming position.
The Public Order Emergency Commission has concluded that the federal government met the threshold for invoking the Emergencies Act to bring an end to the 'Freedom Convoy' protests and blockades.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
Governor of the Bank of Canada Tiff Macklem says he thinks Canada is 'turning the corner' on inflation, but he isn't ruling out that the country could enter a 'mild recession.' In an English-language broadcast exclusive interview with CTV National News Ottawa Bureau Chief Joyce Napier, Macklem encouraged Canadians to prepare a 'buffer' to withstand 'tougher times.'
Joe Biden comes for a sleepover next week to make Canada the 18th country he has visited since being sworn in as U.S. president, quite the protocol slippage from that fading, if not forgotten, tradition of Canada being the first foreign presidential pitstop, writes Don Martin in a column for CTVNews.ca.
After weeks of refusing to look further into foreign election interference, Justin Trudeau surrendered to intense pressure and appointed a 'special rapporteur' to review China's actions. In his exclusive column for CTVNews.ca, Don Martin writes this 'startling change of heart' suggests the PMO is in panic mode and reflects badly on the prime minister's decision making.
The Trudeau tipping point is within sight. The moment when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau knows he has to quit for the good of the party or the Liberals realize they can't survive re-election with him at the helm is almost upon us, Don Martin writes in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca.
Bombshell revelations that suggest Chinese agents actively, fraudulently and successfully manipulated Canada's electoral integrity in the last two federal elections cannot be dismissed with the standard Justin Trudeau nothing-to-see-here shrug, Don Martin writes in his exclusive opinion column for CTVNews.ca.
The chances Trudeau's health-care summit with the premiers will end with the blueprint to realistic long-term improvements are only marginally better than believing China’s balloon was simply collecting atmospheric temperatures, Don Martin writes in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca, 'But it’s clearly time the 50-year-old dream of medicare as a Canadian birthright stopped being such a nightmare for so many patients.'
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he feels it is his role to see the Safe Third Country Agreement upgraded, in order to make sure Canadians can continue to have confidence in Canada's immigration system.
The largest recorded earthquake in Alberta's history was not a natural event, but most likely caused by disposal of oilsands wastewater, new research has concluded.
A group of lawyers is racing against the clock to get Canadian children and their foreign-born mothers onto a plane that will soon be dispatched to repatriate detainees from prison camps in northeast Syria.
A federal source says the coming budget will detail how the Liberals plan to go after hidden or unexpected consumer fees, following the United States announcing its own crackdown on these charges.
Canada needs a 'Conservative renaissance,' former prime minister Stephen Harper said Wednesday, but he cautioned that Pierre Poilievre should wait until an election before telling Canadians how he might run the country.
The coronation of King Charles III will take place in May, in a ceremony that is expected to be less extravagant, while underscoring a new era for the Royal Family.
Two daughters of a retired optometrist suing Gwyneth Paltrow are expected to testify on Thursday about the lasting effects of their father and Paltrow's 2016 ski collision as the trial takes on an increasingly personal note on the third day of proceedings.
Parks Canada says its new online reservation system to book camping sites and other activities at national parks appears to have worked well during its first week of operations.
Two staff members who were stabbed at a Halifax-area high school have been released from hospital, while the student accused in the stabbing remains in custody.
Parks Canada says its new online reservation system to book camping sites and other activities at national parks appears to have worked well during its first week of operations.
The largest recorded earthquake in Alberta's history was not a natural event, but most likely caused by disposal of oilsands wastewater, new research has concluded.
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) says it receives tens of thousands of complaints from consumers across Canada each year, but once in a while a "quirky" one will take them by surprise.
Some thrill seekers describe bungee jumping as a near-death experience, but few come quite as close as one man who managed to survive his cord snapping in Thailand.
The United States denied Chinese claims Thursday that its military had driven away an American guided-missile destroyer from operating around disputed islands in the South China Sea as tensions rise in the region between the two powers.
The Australian government on Thursday released the wording of a referendum question that promises the nation's Indigenous population a greater say on policies that affect their lives.
French unions on Thursday are holding their first mass demonstrations since President Emmanuel Macron inflamed public anger by forcing a higher retirement age through parliament without a vote. Strikes are upending travel, and blockades are expected at ports, refineries and garbage dumps.
Attempted book bans and restrictions at school and public libraries continue to surge, setting a record in 2022, according to a new report from the American Library Association being released Thursday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he feels it is his role to see the Safe Third Country Agreement upgraded, in order to make sure Canadians can continue to have confidence in Canada's immigration system.
He's hell-bent on restoring blue-collar American manufacturing to its former glory, considers free trade a dirty word and wants Canada to wade voluntarily into a failed, gang-ravaged state that's a quagmire waiting to happen.
Canada's race to procure ventilators for COVID-19 patients in the early days of the pandemic had researchers, scientists, industry and a notable astrophysicist working 'night and day' to design machines that could be quickly manufactured domestically.
Last month, Dr. Michael Yang, a spine surgeon at Foothills Medical Centre, performed a discectomy to remove the damaged part of a herniated disc in the spine, on a patient who was wide awake.
Three years after the start of the pandemic, surgical backlogs and wait times are only just starting to improve, according to new data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, with patients still waiting significantly longer for surgeries than they did before the pandemic.
The CEO of TikTok will make a high-profile appearance Thursday before a U.S. Congressional committee, where he'll face a grilling on data security and user safety while he makes his own case for why the hugely popular video-sharing app shouldn't be banned.
Sky-gazers will be treated to a parade of planets near the end of month when Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Uranus and Mars will appear together in the night sky.
A rocket made almost entirely of 3D-printed parts made its launch debut Wednesday night, lifting off amid fanfare but failing three minutes into flight -- far short of orbit. There was nothing aboard Relativity Space's test flight except for the company's first metal 3D print made six years ago.
Protests continued Wednesday at a university in the Texas Panhandle after the school's president said a planned campus drag show wouldn't be allowed and expressed the view that such events 'discriminate against womanhood.'
Two daughters of a retired optometrist suing Gwyneth Paltrow are expected to testify on Thursday about the lasting effects of their father and Paltrow's 2016 ski collision as the trial takes on an increasingly personal note on the third day of proceedings.
French unions on Thursday are holding their first mass demonstrations since President Emmanuel Macron inflamed public anger by forcing a higher retirement age through parliament without a vote. Strikes are upending travel, and blockades are expected at ports, refineries and garbage dumps.
A Chinese real estate developer whose struggle to manage more than $300 billion in debt rattled global financial markets announced a long-awaited plan Thursday to restructure what it owes to foreign bondholders.
U.S. futures rose modestly Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate while hinting that the end may be near for its economy-chilling policies.
When Ai Weiwei opens his new show in April, visitors will encounter a familiar scene at London's Design Museum: Claude Monet's famed water lilies. But the monumental recreation is made from the studs of Lego bricks — a whopping 650,000 of them.
Bianca Andreescu and Leylah Fernandez completed a first-round sweep for Canadians in the women's singles draw at the Miami Open with wins on Wednesday.
Major League Baseball has clarified its new rules to allow umpires to delay the start of the pitch clock after big swings in which a hitter loses footing or when a pitcher covers first base, third or home, in addition to other clarifications announced Wednesday.
The Chevrolet Camaro, for decades the dream car of many teenage American males, is going out of production. General Motors, which sells the brawny muscle car, said Wednesday it will stop making the current generation early next year.
U.S. auto safety regulators are investigating complaints from Honda Civic drivers that their steering can stick, causing a momentary increase in effort and increasing the risk of a crash.
The 2023 Challenger SRT Demon 170 will deliver 1,025 horsepower from its 6.2-litre supercharged V-8, and the automaker says it will be the quickest production car made.
