Watching the various media outlets in Canada each day will often focus our attention on the national situation of Healthcare. All Provincial Governments in Canada are demanding more revenue from their Federal counterparts. The Pandemic has forced an opening of all governmental purses whether Regional, Provincial or Federal. Money has been flowing freely often with no regulation these past few years. Low-interest rates allowed the free-scale borrowing of over a trillion dollars, much of that going to the healthcare portfolio. The Liberal Government has usually said yes, of course to all on comers regarding healthcare needs.
The Provincial Governments have not been required to show how they will spend this revenue, with usually no regulations or Federal demands. That has recently changed. The whole scale onslaught of the Provincial Health Minister flowing to Canada’s Health minister, demanding more funds with less Federal oversight has become comical. Has Provincial Governments reimagined their Ministries, and managed them well? Who could possibly know, since there are no studies or accountability with transparency to be found,
Like a child who never manages their allowance and forever demands more money, these Ministers seem to be unable to show how, where, and why they spend the hundreds of millions of dollars that flow first to their general reserves, and hopefully into the Ministry’s intended. Please Prime Minister, I need more they proclaim, yet if a demand is made by a Federal Minister asking how this money is managed, and dispersed within their Provinces cries of Federal medaling and interference are heard. Are the Provincial Governments of Canada properly managing their most costly Ministries? Who knows? We are all left to take the words of each Premier and their Ministers that demand is high(which it is) and money will answer their needs. Money to open more beds, and hire more doctors and healthcare professionals. That is what we will hear from our politicians but are these proclamations true/factual? Ontario’s Government has been holding in accounts billions of dollars it received from the Federal Government long ago, all the while paying their provincial employee’s the minimum while freezing their wages. Each Province has placed the funds they receive for healthcare into their general fund reserves, where money flows where ever needed. Intentions of the Federal Government and its Provincial counterparts are in question. Some premiers use funds supposedly intended for healthcare as props bringing their provincial budgets in line. Great optics indeed. With the ever-increasing use of the non-with-standing clause by Quebec, Ontario, and possibly by other partners in our union, a challenge to the Federal Governments Authority may be on the horizon. Is Canada moving towards a decentralized Americanized type of Confederation where regional governments are often equal in authority to the Federal Government? Provincial Rights and Authority vs Federal Government.
Canada’s Healthcare
Steven Kaszab
Bradford, Ontario
[email protected]
