On the eve of a decisive summit on health funding with the Trudeau government on Tuesday, François Legault maintained that his counterparts from other provinces and he were “always forming a beautiful common front” in the negotiations which have dragged on for more than two years.
“We will see the amount. We asked for it to be an unconditional proposal so we will find out tomorrow,” he said on his arrival in Ottawa, where all the provincial premiers will be staying tonight.
Mr. Legault prefers to wait until tomorrow before saying he is “optimistic or pessimistic” about the federal proposal, but like the Prime Ministers who arrived before him, he was delighted to finally have a proposal to put himself under the tooth.
One thing is certain, no one expects a final agreement to be signed on Tuesday.
The 13 provinces and territories have been calling for more than two years for the federal government to increase its contribution to health care from 22% to 35%, unconditionally.
Ottawa has so far kept secret the details of what it will submit to the provinces. We already know that it will require the provinces to share data from their health care system, to which everyone, even Quebec, has agreed. The proposal would cover a period of ten years.
Premiers arrive with “open minds,” said Council of the Federation chair, Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson.
“I would have liked to see what the proposal looks like in advance, no doubt,” she said. Despite a busy schedule, the time allocated to the meeting with Justin Trudeau is – on paper – about two hours, in the afternoon.
That doesn’t leave “a lot of time” for discussion, so it will be “difficult to go into the specifics of what’s on offer for each of our jurisdictions,” Ms Stefanson continued.
It is a safe bet that the meeting will go far beyond the planned framework, since all the premiers at the table, in addition to the federal Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos, feel the need to press on the mushroom given the state of health systems across the country.
The leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, has asked the government to exclude any conditions from its proposal. “It’s a check that we want Justin Trudeau to sign, not an agreement!”, He launched into the press scrum.
Alexandre Boulerice, deputy leader of the NDP, asked the government to clarify its position on the place of private health during question period in the Commons.