Remarks by the Deputy Prime Minister at a press conference following the First Ministers’ Meeting on health care 

Speech

February 7, 2023 - Ottawa, ON

Thank you, Prime Minister.

During the pandemic, the federal government provided eight out of every 10 dollars to support Canadians and Canadian businesses.

In the midst of a once-in-a-century crisis, that was the right thing to do. It kept Canadians safe and solvent, kept Canadian businesses afloat, and supported the provinces and territories in preventing their health systems from being completely overwhelmed.

As noted in a study published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal last summer: If Canada had had the COVID mortality rate of the United States, nearly 70,000 additional Canadians would have died.

Our emergency spending also laid the groundwork for the remarkable economic recovery that Canada has made from the pandemic.

The IMF predicts Canada will see the strongest economic growth in the G7 in the fourth quarter of this year.

We have near record low unemployment, and in December, our labour force participation rate for women in their prime working years was a record 85 per cent thanks to our early learning and child care program.

Because of Canada’s unprecedented economic recovery from the pandemic recession—made possible by emergency federal spending—the Canada Health Transfer will automatically grow, in line with GDP, by 9.3 per cent this year and by more than five per cent next year.

This is in addition to nearly $25 billion in annual federal tax point transfers that we are already providing to provinces and territories.

Since first being elected, our government has also provided billions of dollars in new support for long-term care, to reduce backlogs, and to ensure Canadians receive the mental health and home care they deserve.

The plan the Prime Minister put forward today delivers on the commitment we made to Canadians to strengthen publicly funded universal health care in this country.

All told, it will deliver $198.6 billion in additional federal funding for health care over the next ten years—$196.1 billion of which is to provinces and territories.

Our plan includes $48 billion in new funding that we are announcing today, which is comprised of five different funding streams.

First: an immediate, unconditional Canada Health Transfer top-up of $2 billion to address the real, urgent pressures in our emergency rooms, operating rooms, and paediatric hospitals—and this is in addition to the $6.5 billion in Canada Health Transfer top-ups that the federal government provided during the pandemic.

Second: we will provide annual top-up payments to ensure provinces and territories—who commit to improving health information—see Canada Health Transfer increases of at least five per cent per year for the next five years.

At the end of those five years, the amount of the final top-up would become a permanent funding increase added to the CHT.

Third: we will provide $25 billion over ten years through a set of new bilateral agreements to ensure that every province and territory can address their unique health system needs.

These investments will build on nearly $14 billion that we have previously committed to providing provinces and territories to improve mental health care, home and community care, and long-term care.

Fourth: as we committed to do in the last election, we will provide $1.7 billion over the next five years to support wage increases for personal support workers.

And, fifth: we will also provide $2 billion over ten years to an Indigenous Health Equity Fund—to be distributed on a distinctions basis with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis—to address the unique challenges Indigenous Peoples face when it comes to fair and equitable access to health services.

It is our clear expectation that the funding we are announcing today will not be used in place of planned provincial or territorial health care spending. This funding from the federal government is additional, incremental money to improve the health care Canadians receive. That is what we expect it will be used to do and that is what Canadians, quite rightly, expect as well.

This is a major investment in publicly funded health care.

It is a plan that means Canadians will benefit from a world-class, publicly funded, universal health care system.

A plan that means we’ll be there for the health care workers who are there for us.

A plan that means no matter how much money we make, or what our parents do, or where in Canada you were born—you will receive the care you need.

We are investing in health care because it matters to Canadians. It matters to our children and it matters to our parents.

And for millions of Canadians, a universal, publicly funded health care system is central to what it means to be Canadian.

We also know that a strong and effective health care system is an essential foundation of our country’s economic success.

The latest proof of that came this week from the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, with 46 per cent of the Chamber’s members saying their business confidence was being shaken by concerns about the health care system.

Getting this right matters to Canadians. And it matters to our economy, as well.

This is a necessary investment. It is also a significant investment. It comes on top of the significant and necessary investments the federal government made to support Canadians and the Canadian economy during the pandemic.

And it comes at a moment when Canada also faces a once-in-a-generation imperative to invest in the clean economy of the 21st century—to ensure that Canada seizes this opportunity, rather than being left behind.

These two great imperatives—to invest in health care and to invest in the clean economy—come at a time of great uncertainty in the global economy. They come at a time of real fiscal constraint.

Canada can afford to make essential investments in times of crisis and in times of opportunity—because of our Triple-A credit rating, and because of our country’s proud tradition of sound fiscal management.

As we make difficult choices in the weeks and months to come, we will be mindful of that tradition—and we will continue to be guided by it.

Thank you very much.

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