March 27, 2000
(Health and Community Services)

Report on provincial territorial meeting of ministers of health

On Friday past, the provincial and territorial ministers of health met in Montreal to assess their state of readiness for a meeting the end of this week with the federal health minister, Hon. Allan Rock.

The federal government has been speaking publicly about some new initiatives as it relates to the future of health care. Over the last several years they have highlighted pharmacare and home care as two of these examples.

While these two areas may be "new" in the minds of the federal health minister and his counterparts, these are areas which we in Newfoundland and Labrador have been supporting for years from provincial source revenues. Next fiscal year we will spend $66 million on pharmacare or drug subsidization for some 100,000 individuals in our province. This is an increase of 25 per cent in funding from 1994-95 to now. On the home care front, health and community services boards will spend nearly $40 million on seniors and persons with disabilities. Since 1994-95, our spending in this area has increased by 47 per cent.

It is important that the federal health minister understand the commitment that this province has made to health care, and to areas which the federal government may become involved in in the future. In the past five years alone, we have increased our health and community services budget by 25 per cent. In this year�s budget alone an extra $136 million is budgeted in new spending. However, we cannot continue to add millions to our system. It is very difficult to maintain the publicly funded system we have come to respect so well.

When we meet as ministers with the federal government later this week, I will be impressing on Minister Rock our concern over the sustainability of the current health system, and I will welcome any areas where the federal government may want to work in partnership to provide a share of the cost of delivering services - such as pharmacare and home care.

We are interested in effective and efficient use of our public health care dollars, and we will prove to the federal government that there are limited opportunities for efficiencies remaining in our system. That�s why we have carried out reviews of our health boards in the past. And, that�s why we have set up a special review team to again work with the boards to identify core services, priorities, new directions and efficiencies. We view the work of the review teams and the boards as essential in identifying ways to optimize our health system, and begin to define the system of the future.

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is willing to work closely with the federal government if the goal is the long term sustainability of the system. We may need to continue to adapt our current system to meet the needs we are currently faced with, and will be challenged with in the future such as increased home care. If our publicly funded health care system is to continue to serve us well as it has in the past, it will need sustainable funding from the Government of Canada as a prerequisite.

I will keep honourable members abreast of what occurs at this upcoming meeting with the federal government, and any other development as it relates to the future of health care in this country.

2000 03 27                                             2:05 p.m.