Vancouver: Canadian health ministers met in British Columbia for the first in-person meeting about the state of health-care funding in the country in four years.
Earlier, keeping in mind the critical condition of the health care system, health ministers across the country had met in Victoria four months ago.
All provincial and territorial health ministers met with Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos and B.C. Minister of Health Adrian Dix on Monday. This was the first time since 2018 that health ministers from different levels of government had met each other in person.
“Our health workers are experiencing significant strain and facing common challenges across the country. All levels of government owe it to them and to Canadians to come together and find immediate and longer-term solutions to address these challenges. The needs of health workers must be reflected in the discussions of health ministers here in Vancouver, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said in a statement.
Canada’s premiers met in Victoria in July last year, where they called on the federal government to increase the Canada Health Transfer, which every jurisdiction receives for spending on health care, by 35 percent. They said that at present they are getting only 22 percent of the amount for this purpose.
At the time, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the federal government wants to ensure that the billions of dollars given to provinces and territories bring real and best results for Canadians and reduce their waiting time in hospitals and provide them with the best services.
Once again there is a demand from the premiers to increase this amount. For this, an awareness campaign was also launched last month at the Canadian level.