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The Niagara Independent, April 23, 2021 \u2013<\/em> This week\u2019s federal budget has been characterized as \u201cthe calling card for \u201cspendoholics\u201d \u2013 a political document that has money for everybody and everything \u2013 except for what Canadians desperately need, a long-term federal commitment to improving our country\u2019s public health care system.<\/p>\n In this week\u2019s budget address, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland proudly announced more than $100 billion for the Government\u2019s new green agenda, an additional $17.6 billion for Canada to exceed its 2030 carbon emissions targets, and an additional $18 billion going to Indigenous communities to \u201cimprove the quality of life.\u201d The centrepiece of the spending announcements was the $30 billion expenditure over the next five years to create a nationwide childcare system (with a string attached that it is to be a 50-50 split with cash-strapped provincial governments).<\/p>\n With respect to the country\u2019s ledger, Freeland told us the federal deficit for the past fiscal year (ending March 31, 2021) is $354.2 billion and for the 2021-22 fiscal year it will be $154.7 billion. The budget numbers reveal a federal debt that will top $1.4 trillion by 2026, effectively doubling since the start of the 2020 pandemic. The budget also reveals that this Liberal Government has no plan to return to a balanced budget, ever<\/em>.<\/p>\n So, this federal budget introduced a historic amount of government spending \u2013 pronouncements of billions and billions of dollars \u2013 and not a word of its commitment to the country\u2019s health care system.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>When Tommy Douglas first introduced Canadian medicare it was understood that the federal government was to cover 50 per cent of health care costs. Through the decades that number has been whittled down to 35 per cent. However, the federal government currently covers only 22 per cent of the total cost of health care.<\/p>\n The COVID-19 pandemic exposed that our beloved public health care system has been bending under the strain of federal government under-investment for some time.<\/p>\n Today, Canada\u2019s provinces spend $188 billion on health care and, in some cases, health care costs account for nearly half of a province\u2019s budget. The provinces have repeatedly asked the federal government to honour its previously held promise of 35 percent of health\u00a0care costs.<\/p>\n The total federal investment to the country\u2019s health care should be $70 billion per year. But, at present, the federal government only transfers $42 billion for health care to the provinces each year \u2013 a $28 billion per year shortfall.<\/p>\n In pre-budget consultations, the premiers held a media conference to call on the federal government to announce an immediate long-term funding commitment for the Canada Health Transfer (CHT). The premiers were pleading for financial support to address the structural costs of the health care system and ensure Canadians have timely access to quality services.<\/p>\n Quebec Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault, speaking on behalf of all premiers, stated: \u201c<\/em>We can\u2019t afford to wait until after the pandemic to address this issue. We can\u2019t continue to manage the pandemic, while addressing the future sustainability of our health care systems. The next federal budget must reflect the federal government\u2019s commitment to long-term, sustainable funding for health care through the CHT.\u201d<\/p>\n Remarkably, with the country seized by the largest health crisis Canada has ever experienced, this federal budget said nothing about the CHT. Why were there no new health care dollars announced amid a global health crisis!?<\/em><\/p>\n On a related matter, the pandemic has sadly illustrated the decades of neglect by governments of all stripes toward the country\u2019s long-term care system. The budget did mention long-term care. The federal government stated that starting next year (2022-23) there would be $3 billion spent over five years \u201cto improve long-term care.\u201d In looking at the details, this money will go to Ottawa bureaucrats in Health Canada and Statistics Canada. As for actual dollars to the provinces for supporting staff or better infrastructure, there is nada. This money will not be assisting the strapped provinces with their immediate long-term care COVID-19 issues.<\/p>\n Provincial leaders were quick to voice their concerns on the Trudeau government\u2019s lack of commitment to the country\u2019s health care system. New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs\u00a0was frank in his reaction: \u201cWe\u2019re asking for a stability in a\u00a0health-care system that is in crisis now because it\u2019s clearly demonstrated its weaknesses throughout this pandemic and there\u2019s not one mention. So it\u2019s like, here\u2019s a budget, clearly an election budget designed to appease everyone in some way, but in the main way it\u2019s an election budget that has missed everyone because everyone\u2019s impacted by a health-care system. We\u2019ll look back on this and we\u2019ll say we knew health care was in crisis. We knew, every territory leader and provincial leader knew this, and yet it was completely ignored in the most expensive budget in the history of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n In the House of Commons, when questioned by Conservative Leader Erin O\u2019Toole on the failure to address the CHT, Prime Minister Trudeau said his government will increase health transfers \u2013 in the future. PM Trudeau said, \u201c\u2026the decision about how much, and how to exactly do that, we have decided needed to wait until we\u2019re through the worst of this crisis\u2026 Over the long-term, yes we will increase health transfers.\u201d There has been no further elaboration on the PM\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n Andre Picard, Globe and Mail<\/em> health reporter, made the following observation about this government\u2019s \u201cwe\u2019ll-wait-until-later\u201d attitude regarding health care: \u201cThe federal government made a strategic decision that it will get more political bang for the political and economic buck by investing in child care than spending more on the seemingly bottomless pit of sickness care. That\u2019s probably a good short-term bet. But, eventually, the backlog of neglected care over the past year, and the swelling desire for better elder care in the future, is going to catch up with governments, and that debt will have to be paid \u2013 in full.\u201d<\/p>\n While, President of the Canadian Medical Association Dr. Ann Collins said: \u201c[The association is] disappointed that this budget did nothing to address the problems faced by the nearly five million Canadians who must navigate medical issues without consistent access to a family doctor or primary care provider\u2026 As provinces and territories continue to struggle with the ever-increasing cost of providing care, the federal government must follow through on its own promise to work with premiers on revisiting the CHT.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis has been an enormously difficult year for patients and healthcare providers alike as they have been trapped in a system that has been neglected for too long,\u201d added Dr. Collins. \u201cSmall cracks have become gaping holes. Building resiliency for the future must include real commitments to health care. If anything, this pandemic has shown us where the problems are, but we must address them before it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n Chris George<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is an Ottawa-based government affairs advisor and wordsmith, president of\u00a0CG&A COMMUNICATIONS<\/a>. Contact:\u00a0ChrisG.George@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n