Another Conservative candidate promises to end the pandemic blockade – but Jean Charest is using his own approach to the problem.
Instead of banning the practice of closing down the pandemic, the former Quebec prime minister has promised to improve Canada’s health care funding to the point where blockades are no longer needed to protect hospitals from congestion.
Charest said he wanted to achieve this by allowing the provinces to use more private health care. He said everything would be paid for by the provinces and insisted that patients would not have to personally cover the cost of care.
Charest said his focus on more private supply would be a “maritime change” for Canadian healthcare.
As an example, Charest describes a private clinic specializing in knee and hip surgery. Under Charest’s government, he said, the clinic will reach an agreement with the province to take on a number of cases and treat patients from diagnosis to surgery and rehabilitation.
“In this way, you earn in efficiency, you earn in costs, and you also free up hospital beds so that you can take care of people who have more serious, more complex cases,” he said.
Charest said he wanted to start consulting with the provinces on a new “Canadian Health Act” and then increase health care transfers to the provinces.
An emergency nurse is caring for a patient at the Cité-de-la-Santé Hospital in Laval, Quebec. (Dave St. Amant / CBC)
But he will not say how much he would increase these transfers. The provinces and territories are calling on the current federal government to increase the federal share of health care spending from 22 percent to 35 percent.
“Yes, we need to move it up,” Charest said. “Can we move it up to 35 percent and move it fast? It will depend on our ability to pay.”
Charest also proposes a public inquiry into the federal government’s response to the pandemic. Other candidates, including MP Mark Dalton, have also called for an investigation – although Dalton has expressed concern about how many choices Canadians have been given in the vaccination process.
Charest’s health record
In 2006, while he was prime minister of Quebec, Charest promised to usher in a “new era in healthcare” by allowing more private care.
Poilievre attacked the results of this effort. He tweeted that he fiercely described Charest on health care as a “disaster” and linked to a 2007 article describing an average waiting time of more than 16 hours in a Quebec emergency department.
As a liberal prime minister, Charest’s medical record was a disaster – 16 hours of waiting time in the emergency department.
Of course, he spent a lot of money – and raised taxes to pay for it – but got terrible results for patients in Quebec.
Why trust him now?https://t.co/UGauzuqlnh
– @PierrePoilievre
Poilievre claims that Charest spent money, but got terrible results for patients.
In fact, Charest’s record is like a mixed bag.
In 2012, the last year Charest was prime minister, the Canadian Waiting Alliance ranked Quebec second in the country after Ontario for the fastest waiting time for hip, knee and cataract surgery, as well as radiation therapy.
However, data released by the Quebec government in 2012 show that only 79% of patients received hip surgery within six months; the figure is 76% for knee surgery.
A report from The Montreal Gazette of the same year said that the waiting time for surgery for ovarian, cervical and breast cancer in Quebec was three times longer than the government figure.
Charest insists his plan to rewrite the health law will give provinces more flexibility to improve waiting times than he had as prime minister because it will open the door to more private delivery.
Poilievre indicates the provinces
At a press conference in North York, Ont. on Tuesday, Poilievre was asked if he thought Canada had the right combination of public and private healthcare.
He said this was a question the provinces had to answer.
“The reality is that provincial governments have jurisdiction over health care and must provide it in the most efficient, flexible and competitive way possible,” he said.
Asked about the increase in health transfers, Poilievre said that during his stay in the government of Stephen Harper, Ottawa had increased these transfers by six percent a year.
“We have always defended health transfers and a future Poalievr government would do the same,” he said.
The Harper government’s decision to inform the provinces and territories that they would be offered a six percent increase met with mixed results at the time. Some prime ministers were upset that no negotiations were taking place.
When Justin Trudeau became prime minister, he accepted the six percent annual increase.
Poilievre has promised to end the blockade “forever” by ending all vaccine mandates.
Brown weighs
Asked to comment on his health policy, the campaign of leadership candidate Patrick Brown offered a statement to the media.
“It’s crazy that governments had to impose and rely on blockades to deal with a critical care system that is distorted by the burden of several hundred emergency patients during each wave of COVID – something I routinely addressed as mayor. of the GTA, “Brown said in a statement.
Conservative leadership candidate Patrick Brown. (Chris Young / Canadian Press)
Brown attacks Poilievre for not using his own platform to answer questions about the health care system during the pandemic.
The answer to Brown’s own policy on the issue is short.
“As I have said all along, the federal government must work with the provinces to find ways and set clear criteria for providing better care and support to doctors and nurses, without significantly increasing the burden on taxpayers to ensure that the blockade never happens again, “he said in a statement to the media.
A spokesman for Leslien Lewis’s leadership campaign said she was pleased to see other candidates trying to find ways to address health problems in Canada.
The campaign said Lewis would soon launch his own health plan and promised to “go further in solving the problems we face”.
Add Comment