Justin Trudeau has outright mocked provincial and territorial premiers with his lousy deals for health funding.
Soft as a rag doll, François Legault participated in a press conference with his counterparts to accept the unacceptable. A shame, when the federal government remains so far from its health obligations.
Remember that the initial “deal” was 50-50. The federal government was to pay 50% of the costs of this new universal system, which offered an interesting feature for national unity: it ensured, for all Canadians, coverage that could be transposed from one province to another.
Today, we end up with 78-22 instead, the provinces having to pay the lion’s share.
Premiers wanted the federal share closer to 35%. The provinces would thus have paid two-thirds of the bill and Ottawa, one-third.
It was reasonable and realistic.
But there is nothing to do. Trudeau is stubborn and the federal share will not exceed 25%. Good faith is presumed, but there, the presumption no longer holds.
Where was the accountant?
François Legault is a great lesson giver.
He usually lectures all political actors, present and past, for their insufficient reactions to an arrogant and smug federal government.
But this week, we saw the reality. Trudeau who invents numbers. And Legault who now only asks for one thing: “Where do I sign, Justin? »
Moreover, a shameless lie in the figures from Ottawa reported an additional contribution of $196 billion. Only the state radio, CBC, swallowed this snake, as big as an anaconda.
Justin’s Game
In fact, what Ottawa has offered is $4.6 billion a year for the whole country, which represents $1 billion for Quebec.
Legault is an accountant, but he must have forgotten his calculator.
Meanwhile, Trudeau’s ministers publicly snubbed his decisions and some of his MPs argued among themselves.
The immigration system is still in tatters, social housing is not being built, New York acts as a smuggler at our border with impunity, and an employment insurance check is as difficult to obtain as a passport.
With all this in the background, one would have hoped that Trudeau was looking for good news. But it was very bad to know him. He was rather looking to impose himself and the reaction of François Legault certainly encouraged him.
Trudeau said his health care offer was take it or leave it.
Legault took the money and… he took his hole.
Nurses salary
As if we needed additional proof that things are no longer going well in the field of health care here in Quebec, we learned, in an open letter published this week, that the government is now imposing a reduction in the starting salary of clinical nurses. (those who come out of universities).
Our nurses are already the lowest paid in Canada… This is one more incentive for them to accept Doug Ford’s invitation to leave our network to work in Ontario!
I continue to believe that Christian Dubé, with his vast experience in the field of management, his determination and his dedication, is the only person in the Council of Ministers capable of raising the bar.
I will be following with great interest his reaction to the revelations about this preposterous decision, to see if he can bring the incompetents who made it to heel.