NLIS 4
August 1, 2002
(Executive Council )

 

Premier Grimes supports call for new partnership for health care

During discussions on health care at the Annual Premiers� Conference in Halifax, Premier Grimes strongly supported a call on the federal government to work with provinces and territories to revitalize and sustain quality health care for all Canadians.

Today�s call for federal partnership comes on the heels of recent inter-provincial collaboration that has brought about a number of innovations and reforms that include a common drug approval process, streamlining of generic drug approval and establishing health care sites of excellence.

"I am pleased to support my colleagues in these collaborative efforts," said Premier Grimes. "All citizens deserve quality health care no matter where they live in Canada and regardless of their economic situation. At the provincial level, we have continued to work to maintain and improve our health care services within our fiscal capacity. In fact, we are finalizing a Strategic Health Plan which will be a blueprint for improving population health, building community capacity and revitalizing our health and community services system."

Premier Grimes also supported the call for a first ministers� meeting before the next federal budget to discuss federal responsibility in terms of improvements to the health system across Canada.

"The federal government needs to provide more funding for health care," said Premier Grimes. "In Newfoundland and Labrador alone, we spend 45 cents of every program dollar on health care, with an overall budget of $1.4 billion. To put this in perspective, our total spending on health care in the province is approximately $300 million more than we receive in equalization payments annually. This supports my position that the federal government needs to increase its funding for health care through the Canada Health and Social Transfer Program (CHST) as well as enhance the Equalization program.

"I was extremely pleased to see the Report of the Conference Board of Canada which supports the view that there is a fiscal imbalance in Canada and that while federal surpluses will continue to grow, provinces and territories will continue to post deficits as they struggle to provide services to their citizens."

Given the existing and growing federal surplus, premiers reiterated their call on the Prime Minister to join with them in following through on his commitment to achieve adequate and sustainable fiscal arrangements over the immediate to medium term. Immediate work is required on the development of a strengthened and fairer Equalization program formula, restoration of federal health funding through the CHST to at least 18 per cent, and the introduction of an appropriate escalator in recognition of the increasing costs of providing services.

"Our discussions so far have been extremely productive, and I look forward to the remainder of the conference and the opportunity to discuss the issues of foreign overfishing and post-secondary education with my colleagues," said Premier Grimes.

Conference Board of Canada publication - Vertical Fiscal Imbalance (PDF) - Version fran�aise

Media contact: Carl Cooper, Office of the Premier, (709) 729-3960.

2002 08 01                               3:50 p.m.


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