Next steps on new $46B health care deal tops agenda in annual gathering

As the premiers sit down in Winnipeg for the three-day meeting this week, the attention will be most on how to use the new money Ottawa has promised in healthcare.

The last time all of Canada’s premiers sat down around the same table, their attention was focused on getting Ottawa to pay more to fix the understaffed, hospitals, shuttered emergency rooms, surgical backlogs and health-worker shortages threatening the viability of their health systems.

When they sit down in Winnipeg for their annual summer gathering this week, the attention will turn more to how to use the new money Ottawa has now promised.

After two years of provincial pleading and sabre rattling for a new health care deal, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finally put new money on the table at a first ministers’ meeting in Ottawa in February. That $46 billion-deal fell far short of what provinces had asked for but they were left with little choice but to accept it.

Dr. Kathleen Ross, the president-elect of the Canadian Medical Association, said health must remain at the top of the agenda.

“We are really on the peak of our challenges at the moment,” Ross said in an interview.

“We have to change how we are managing and delivering health care in Canada.”

Health care is expected to dominate the first day of the three-day meeting. Economic issues and affordability are also on the agenda.

Trudeau’s new health deal includes an increase to the annual federal health transfers, which provinces use to help pay for their health care systems, as well as money for still to be negotiated one-on-one deals tailored to each province and territory to address their specific needs.