Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government is alarmed by hints that Ottawa may scale back automatic increases in federal financial transfers to the provinces when the Health Accord is renegotiated in 2014.
It’s part of a looming clash over vital health cash that will break into the open next week when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and his provincial colleagues begin what is expected to be many rounds of negotiations on a future funding formula.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has let it be known that Ottawa may not be ready to continue with the current formula — annual 6 per cent increases — once current arrangements wind down.
“We have committed to the 6 per cent for a few more years,” he said last month in Vancouver. “Over the long term I think all governments recognize — federal government, provincial governments — that the cost of the health-care system cannot continue to rise more quickly than our revenues.”
The issue was revived Tuesday by a report speculating future growth in Ottawa’s cash contribution to the provinces could be capped at the annual rate of economic growth.
Responding to the increasing uncertainty, Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews said, “We think the federal government should do what Canadians want them to do, which is support health care.”
She said she’s surprised by the possibility that Flaherty may not continue with the annual 6 per cent increase the provinces have received from Ottawa since 2004.
“He’s made a clear commitment to continue with the 6 per cent escalator. We need that money to continue to improve high-quality health care for the people of Ontario,” Matthews told reporters at the Legislature.
“Stephen Harper and Jim Flaherty need to understand that people are counting on them,” she said. “I don’t think when it comes to health care that anybody should be pulling the wool over the electorate’s eyes.”
With the current 10-year health deal expiring in 2014, several premiers, including McGuinty, want the federal Conservatives to commit to another decade-long plan that would see health transfers to the provinces continue to rise 6 per cent annually — as then prime minister Paul Martin did in 2004.
But what the provinces will actually get in the years ahead may depend on fierce federal-provincial negotiations in the coming months.
During last spring’s election campaign, Harper defused the health funding issue by promising to continue with 6 per cent increases in health transfers — but only for two years after the current health accord expires in 2014. After that, the Conservatives are leaving it up in the air.
Still, the federal government was keen Tuesday to ward off any notion Ottawa will, after 2016, shortchange the provinces on health transfers, now running at $27 billion a year.
“We will continue to increase funding for health care in a way that is balanced and sustainable,” a senior official said.
Provincial NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said her understanding from the federal election campaign was that the Conservatives would continue with 6 per cent increases in the future. She said she was “quite shocked that the federal Conservatives would simply just blatantly turn their back on a promise that they had made.
“It doesn’t bode well for the accord negotiations, but I would hope that this is just something that they’re putting out . . . as a trial balloon and in fact when we get down to the hard bargaining they’re going to come around,” said Horwath.
But Progressive Conservative deputy leader Christine Elliott at Queen’s Park that said the provinces have to live within their means.
“One would always want to have the 6 per cent (escalator clause) but the reality is we know we can’t afford that and I think that it is not unreasonable to expect that it should be tied to GDP growth,” said Elliott, who is Flaherty’s provincial seat-mate in Whitby—Oshawa, as well as his wife.
“The federal government as I understand it is going to be building in a buffer past the expiry of the 2014 accord for two more years so I think the good news here for the provinces is that the federal government is prepared to continue the transfers and let the provinces run their own health-care file,” she said.
The health funding issue is expected to be front-and-centre when Flaherty attends a federal-provincial finance ministers meeting Monday in Victoria.
Origin
Source: Star
It’s part of a looming clash over vital health cash that will break into the open next week when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and his provincial colleagues begin what is expected to be many rounds of negotiations on a future funding formula.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has let it be known that Ottawa may not be ready to continue with the current formula — annual 6 per cent increases — once current arrangements wind down.
“We have committed to the 6 per cent for a few more years,” he said last month in Vancouver. “Over the long term I think all governments recognize — federal government, provincial governments — that the cost of the health-care system cannot continue to rise more quickly than our revenues.”
The issue was revived Tuesday by a report speculating future growth in Ottawa’s cash contribution to the provinces could be capped at the annual rate of economic growth.
Responding to the increasing uncertainty, Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews said, “We think the federal government should do what Canadians want them to do, which is support health care.”
She said she’s surprised by the possibility that Flaherty may not continue with the annual 6 per cent increase the provinces have received from Ottawa since 2004.
“He’s made a clear commitment to continue with the 6 per cent escalator. We need that money to continue to improve high-quality health care for the people of Ontario,” Matthews told reporters at the Legislature.
“Stephen Harper and Jim Flaherty need to understand that people are counting on them,” she said. “I don’t think when it comes to health care that anybody should be pulling the wool over the electorate’s eyes.”
With the current 10-year health deal expiring in 2014, several premiers, including McGuinty, want the federal Conservatives to commit to another decade-long plan that would see health transfers to the provinces continue to rise 6 per cent annually — as then prime minister Paul Martin did in 2004.
But what the provinces will actually get in the years ahead may depend on fierce federal-provincial negotiations in the coming months.
During last spring’s election campaign, Harper defused the health funding issue by promising to continue with 6 per cent increases in health transfers — but only for two years after the current health accord expires in 2014. After that, the Conservatives are leaving it up in the air.
Still, the federal government was keen Tuesday to ward off any notion Ottawa will, after 2016, shortchange the provinces on health transfers, now running at $27 billion a year.
“We will continue to increase funding for health care in a way that is balanced and sustainable,” a senior official said.
Provincial NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said her understanding from the federal election campaign was that the Conservatives would continue with 6 per cent increases in the future. She said she was “quite shocked that the federal Conservatives would simply just blatantly turn their back on a promise that they had made.
“It doesn’t bode well for the accord negotiations, but I would hope that this is just something that they’re putting out . . . as a trial balloon and in fact when we get down to the hard bargaining they’re going to come around,” said Horwath.
But Progressive Conservative deputy leader Christine Elliott at Queen’s Park that said the provinces have to live within their means.
“One would always want to have the 6 per cent (escalator clause) but the reality is we know we can’t afford that and I think that it is not unreasonable to expect that it should be tied to GDP growth,” said Elliott, who is Flaherty’s provincial seat-mate in Whitby—Oshawa, as well as his wife.
“The federal government as I understand it is going to be building in a buffer past the expiry of the 2014 accord for two more years so I think the good news here for the provinces is that the federal government is prepared to continue the transfers and let the provinces run their own health-care file,” she said.
The health funding issue is expected to be front-and-centre when Flaherty attends a federal-provincial finance ministers meeting Monday in Victoria.
Origin
Source: Star
No comments:
Post a Comment