TORONTO – That Canada’s healthcare system is limping more and more is nothing new. In addition to the backlog of surgical interventions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, waits in hospital emergency rooms now reach up to 14 hours and it also happens that many are temporarily closed for lack of doctors and nurses. 

A situation in collapse, this, the subject of discussion at today’s summit in Moncton between the Premier of Ontario Doug Ford, that of New Brunswick Blaine Higgs, of Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) Dennis King and Nova Scotia Tim Houston (in the pic above).

Concerns about the state of the health care system emerged in the words of all four provincial leaders.

On the table, said the premiers present, there are currently all the options, nothing should be excluded in this delicate moment for the health system. From the need to hire more staff – both doctors and professional nurses – to that of speeding up the process to bring into the world of work health workers who have attended schools and have perhaps even worked abroad. There has not been a precise position regarding the creation of private health facilities – already illustrated in Ontario by the Minister of Health Sylvia Jones among a thousand controversies – but even this turning point could be taken into consideration by the premiers of the Atlantic provinces.

It has become clear, however, that the provinces are pointing the finger at Prime Minister Trudeau when it comes to funding the health system. More funds, at this time more than necessary to revive the state of the sector and ensure citizens the necessary care.

And while Ford, Higgs, King and Houston judged the meeting positive, for the oppositions this meeting was just a waste of time.

A useless summit, according to NDP MP France Gélinas. “Premier Doug Ford’s meeting with the premiers of the Atlantic provinces will not recruit, retain or return a single health worker to Ontario. Saying that the crisis in the province is all the fault of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will not solve the crisis,” Gélinas said. His are vitriolic words. “Ontario’s NDP strongly agrees that transfers to health care by the federal government should increase, but the problem is that Ford isn’t even spending its budget on health care. Last year it left $1.8 billion in funding for the sector.”

According to France Gélinas “the crisis of hospitals that we have today is rooted in wrong decisions and in the serious underfunding and cuts by conservatives and liberals even before them. Ontario spends less, per capita, than elsewhere in Canada.”