Duclos to sit down with Ontario to negotiate bilateral health deal Thursday
Duclos to sit down with Ontario to negotiate bilateral health deal Thursday
OTTAWA -
Ontario will be the first province to sit down directly with the federal government to work on a one-on-one agreement for new health-care dollars.
Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said the plan is to meet Thursday with Premier Doug Ford and Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones.
The meeting would come two days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau put an offer on the table to transfer $196 billion in health care money to the provinces and territories over the next 10 years.
The proposal features $46 billion in new money the provinces weren't expecting in existing health transfer forecasts. It includes an immediate $2 billion top-up to this year's Canada Health Transfer and would accelerate the pace that the transfer increases over the next five years.
There is also $25 billion for one-on-one agreements with each province to address specific areas including family medicine, health worker shortages and surgical backlogs, mental health and health data collection.
The offer is well shy of the province's demands for the federal government to increase its share of health spending to 35 per cent from 22 per cent. The provinces say it will increase the federal share to about 24 per cent for now.
Following the meeting Tuesday, Ford said he would push for more cash but would never turn down new money, and he appears ready to work on a deal.
On Wednesday, he seemed eager to get to work to finalize the deal, which for his province could amount to at least $74 billion in transfers from Ottawa for health care between now and 2033, including about $16 billion in previously uncommitted dollars.
"I'm confident we'll get the t's crossed, the i's dotted," he said. "We're grateful for the offer. We're grateful for sitting down with the prime minister but we want sustainability."
Neither Trudeau nor Duclos will specifically say it's their final offer but they are showing no signs of willingness to negotiate on the dollar amounts.
"The offer was announced yesterday and now we need to see what it will do for people over the next few years," Duclos said in French in an interview Wednesday with The Canadian Press.
Negotiations would focus on the priority areas to which each province wants to devote new cash, and how premiers will meet the federal demands of accountability for how the money is spent.
Duclos hopes to conclude talks with Ontario in a few weeks.
"Lots of the preparatory work has been done on this (and) we can build on that to proceed relatively quickly," he said.
To receive much of the money, the provinces must agree to overhaul their health data collection, including harmonizing digital patient records with other provinces and making them more easily shared and accessible between various health professionals.
Ford said last month he was fine with the data upgrade requests from Ottawa. His announcement helped turn the tide on negotiations between Ottawa and the provinces for new health money, which had fallen apart last fall.
The federal government's biggest concern, beyond improving the health-care system, is showing Canadians how the money is spent and how it helps people.
The $25 billion for priority areas will only be transferred to provinces that lay out a detailed plan for how the money will be spent and how progress will be measured.
Duclos said there will be some specific indicators provinces will have to report publicly on in each area for which they receive money. He said those indicators have been developed by experts and the provinces are already well aware of most of them, including how many more Canadians get access to a family doctor, how quickly surgical backlogs are reduced, or how many young people are connected to appropriate mental health services and how promptly.
The Canada Health Transfer, which was $45 billion this fiscal year, has few strings attached beyond abiding by the principles of the Canada Health Act.
The government topped up that transfer by $2 billion last July, and proposes to add an additional $2 billion before the end of March. The money goes to provinces' general revenues and is therefore difficult to track in terms of use.
Duclos said he and Mental Health Minister Carolyn Bennett will send a letter to each province with more details of the offer and their expectations.
The letters will seek feedback from the provinces about whether they intend to accept the offer.
Duclos said it will largely be up to the public to hold provinces accountable for meeting goals of the proposed health-care spending.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 8, 2023.
U.S President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have announced updates on a number of cross-border issues, after a day of meetings on Parliament Hill.
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.'
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is set to table a federal budget in the House of Commons on Tuesday afternoon, which a federal source says will include plans to go after predatory lending and more details on dental care as part of a pitch to make life more affordable.
Walmart Canada is not trying to profit from food inflation, president and CEO Gonzalo Gebara told a parliamentary committee studying the issue Monday evening.
Hockey Canada says players from the 2018 world junior hockey team will not be considered for international competition until an investigation into an alleged sexual assault involving members of the team is complete.
The suspect in a Nashville school shooting on Monday had drawn a detailed map of the school, including potential entry points, and conducted surveillance before killing three students and three adults in the latest in a series of mass shootings in a country growing increasingly unnerved by bloodshed in schools.
The Vancouver Park Board and Britannia Community Services Centre cancelled an event Sunday that had been advertised as part of an Indigenous concert series in Grandview Park.
Here is a summary of the current COVID-19 vaccination guidelines from NACI, for both children and adults who are at increased risk of serious illness and those who are not.
As artificial intelligence software and advanced computers revolutionize modern technology, some researchers see a future where computer programmers leap from silicon to organic molecules.
The 2023 federal budget will include a one-time 'grocery rebate' for Canadians with lower incomes who may be struggling with the rising cost of food, CTV News has confirmed.
After a few altered images of Pope Francis sporting a white puffer jacket convinced the online world the Catholic leader could be a part-time fashion icon, one expert warns the rapid improvement of AI could pose larger societal problems.
Family and friends of two police officers who were shot and killed while responding to a family dispute gathered in downtown Edmonton Monday to say goodbye to their loved ones.
The Calgary Fire Department says at least 10 people were injured in a 'sudden and devastating' explosion in the city's northeast on Monday that completely destroyed one home.
The Vancouver Park Board and Britannia Community Services Centre cancelled an event Sunday that had been advertised as part of an Indigenous concert series in Grandview Park.
A new study that looked at more than 300,000 patients found that a medical consultation prior to a routine surgery wasn’t connected to a better surgical outcome, suggesting these consultations might not be necessary.
Investigators looking for the cause of a deadly explosion that levelled part of a Pennsylvania chocolate factory faced an even more difficult task Monday as they combed through wreckage that was extensively picked apart and moved around during the intensive weekend search for victims and survivors.
The suspect in a Nashville school shooting on Monday had drawn a detailed map of the school, including potential entry points, and conducted surveillance before killing three students and three adults in the latest in a series of mass shootings in a country growing increasingly unnerved by bloodshed in schools.
In some U.S. states, proponents of gender-affirming care bans have argued for the last few years that minors are too young to make these medical decisions — but in 2023, legislative attempts to limit the health-care options for transgender youth have expanded to a new age group: adults.
Moscow test-fired anti-ship missiles in the Sea of Japan, Russia's Defence Ministry said Tuesday, with two boats launching a simulated missile attack on a mock enemy warship about 100 kilometres away.
A pediatric surgeon who left The Covenant School in Nashville moments before a shooter opened fire, killing six people, says she is horrified by the gun violence that has plagued the U.S.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is set to table a federal budget in the House of Commons on Tuesday afternoon, which a federal source says will include plans to go after predatory lending and more details on dental care as part of a pitch to make life more affordable.
The 2023 federal budget will include a one-time 'grocery rebate' for Canadians with lower incomes who may be struggling with the rising cost of food, CTV News has confirmed.
Despite delayed decision-making by parliamentarians, Canada's massive renovation of Parliament Hill's Centre Block is being effectively managed so far, according to a new audit. However, 'rigorous' cost management will be needed as the work proceeds, cautions auditor general Karen Hogan.
Hershey Co. is looking to reduce 'trace' amounts of lead and cadmium in its chocolate, chief financial officer Steve Voskiul told Reuters on Wednesday, after Consumer Reports found that some dark chocolate bars had potentially harmful levels of the heavy metals.
A new study that looked at more than 300,000 patients found that a medical consultation prior to a routine surgery wasn’t connected to a better surgical outcome, suggesting these consultations might not be necessary.
In some U.S. states, proponents of gender-affirming care bans have argued for the last few years that minors are too young to make these medical decisions — but in 2023, legislative attempts to limit the health-care options for transgender youth have expanded to a new age group: adults.
As artificial intelligence software and advanced computers revolutionize modern technology, some researchers see a future where computer programmers leap from silicon to organic molecules.
Gwyneth Paltrow's attorneys are expected to call a series of experts and read depositions from her two teenage children on Tuesday in the first full day of the movie star's trial that they have to call witnesses to make their case.
Prince Harry returned to a London court Tuesday for a second day of hearings to see if the phone hacking lawsuit he brought with Elton John and other celebrities can withstand a challenge from the publisher of The Daily Mail.
A New Mexico judge said Santa Fe's district attorney shouldn't serve as co-counsel in the manslaughter case against actor Alec Baldwin and a weapons supervisor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer during a 2021 movie rehearsal.
Walmart Canada is not trying to profit from food inflation, president and CEO Gonzalo Gebara told a parliamentary committee studying the issue Monday evening.
Japan is lifting the last of its restrictions against Canadian beef, 20 years after BSE, often called mad cow disease, devastated this country's cattle industry.
North Carolina-based First Citizens will buy Silicon Valley Bank, the tech industry-focused financial institution that collapsed earlier this month, rattling the banking industry and sending shockwaves around the world.
Some 200 protesters gathered beneath Rio de Janeiro's world-famous Sugarloaf Mountain to protest the ongoing construction of ziplines aimed at boosting tourism, alleging it will cause unacceptable impacts.
This past week, Parks Canada opened up its reservation system for the 2023 season, offering places to stay, hikes to take and national historic sites to visit across the country. According to three experts, here's where to travel this summer.
Japanese chef Tomoya Kawada has achieved a feat no other restaurateur has before; he's created the world's only three-Michelin-star Chinese restaurant in a non-Chinese-speaking city.
Tereza Vanisova scored 4:23 into overtime, and the Premier Hockey Federation's Isobel Cup is heading to Canada for the first time in its eight-year history following the Toronto Six's 4-3 win over the Minnesota Whitecaps on Sunday night.
If you're feeling alone or dissatisfied, a new research suggests that watching live sports in person may help you to improve your level of well-being and reduce that feeling of loneliness.
Cristiano Ronaldo is feeling at home again. It took only two games for him to make his peace with Portugal's national team and show he is not done impressing at the international level just yet.
About two-thirds of people with disabilities encountered barriers on federally regulated planes and trains in 2019 and 2020, highlighting a lack of consultation and enforcement by agencies involved, the federal auditor general says in a new report.
Germany and the European Union announced Saturday that they have reached an agreement in their dispute over the future of cars with combustion engines, allowing the registration of new vehicles with such engines even after 2035 provided they use climate-neutral fuel only.
A new survey conducted by Research Co. found that the majority of Canadians support tying speeding ticket fines to income, otherwise known as ‘progressive punishment.’
