Doug Ford says Ontario will accept Trudeau government’s conditions for new health-care funding

Premier Doug Ford says Ontario can live with federal strings attached to any new health-care funding from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Thestar.com
Jan. 12, 2023
Robert Benzie

Premier Doug Ford says Ontario can live with federal strings attached to any new health-care funding from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“Yes,” Ford said Wednesday at an Etobicoke pharmacy where he was promoting his government’s recent move to allow pharmacists to prescribe medication for 13 minor ailments.

“Everyone has to be accountable. I always say there’s one taxpayer, no matter if it’s municipal, federal or provincial,” the premier said in his first news conference of the year.

“So that’s the least of our issues. Do we want a little bit of flexibility? Yeah, and I think they’re willing to do that,” he said of the federal government.

“Because sometimes you need to shift funds as long as it’s transparent, and people can see it and the feds can see it in the province.”

Ford’s comments are significant because some premiers have bristled at Ottawa having any say in how the additional dollars are spent.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith expressed frustration on Monday with the signals she is getting from Ottawa.

“I think they’ve been pretty clear they are not coming to the table,” Smith told Vassy Kapelos on CTV News Channel’s “Power Play.”

Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos has said there must be conditions to any new funding, including modernizing health data collection, and targeted investments in home and long-term care as well as in mental health.

The Trudeau government has been leery about some premiers moving the additional transfer payments into general revenues instead of earmarking them for specific health-care challenges.

Aside from Ottawa’s insistence on linking new funding to better outcomes for patients, there is an impasse over long-standing federal-provincial accounting differences.

The premiers maintain the provinces pay 78 per cent of health-care costs with the federal government covering the remaining 22 per cent. They want Ottawa’s contribution increased to 35 per cent.

But Trudeau’s government says its share is already about one-third due to a transfer of federal tax points to the provinces decades ago. Ottawa lowered its basic income tax rates in the 1970s so provinces could raise theirs at the same time.

Last month, the 13 provincial and territorial leaders requested a first ministers meeting with Trudeau on health-care funding in January, but Ottawa has been noncommittal about any such summit.

“We’re still trying to get a date. I don’t know what’s so hard about it. I actually went and I called every single premier in the last week to talk to them about different issues,” said Ford.

“And we’re going to keep knocking on the door until the prime minister is able to sit down with us,” he said.

“We want to work collaboratively again with the federal government, as we have in the past ... I’m really confident we’re going to get there.”

Three weeks ago, Quebec Premier François Legault said he was “more optimistic” about a deal following a private meeting with Trudeau at a Montreal coffee shop.

“I understand he doesn’t want a failure,” Legault said of the prime minister on Dec. 20. “I think we are heading in the right direction.”

Ford said Wednesday the COVID-19 pandemic “taught us when it comes to your health, the health of all Ontarians, the status quo is no longer acceptable.”

“We need to be bold. We need to be innovative. We need to be creative. We need to look to other provinces and countries to see what they’re doing differently and for the best ideas,” said the premier, stressing health care must remain publicly funded and universally available.

“Ontarians will always access the health care they need with their OHIP card, never their credit card.”

He pointed to the new authority his government gave to thousands of pharmacists as of Jan. 1 empowering them to prescribe medications for some conditions.

In a move designed to alleviate the crush at doctors’ offices, they can now write prescriptions for pink eye, hay fever, oral thrush, acid reflux, menstrual cramps, dermatitis, hemorrhoids, cold sores and impetigo.

This change is in addition to previous authority to renew prescriptions for medications tackling high blood pressure, diabetes and asthma.