Health Care Talks Resume Yet Again on Familiar Note
By MURRAY CAMPBELL
Globe and Mail
January 24, 2003
It should be so simple. The provincial and territorial governments desperately need money to run their health-care systems. The federal government has a wheelbarrow full of money and has indicated it's willing to spend some of it. And the public wants more spent on health care.
But this is Canada and nothing comes easily. Ottawa, the 10 provinces and the three territories are in rough agreement about the future of health care, but old habits die hard and it seems likely that the way forward won't become clear until the preliminary bouts are over.
Provincial officials came to Toronto yesterday to make sure they were all singing from the same page of the songbook. They had before them some sketchy notions from federal Health Minister Anne McLellan that were largely based on the recommendations of health-care commissioner Roy Romanow.
Her proposals had elicited a variety of responses, with some of the provincial leaders expressing concern that the federal government was trying to call the shots on health-care delivery. Those divisions largely evaporated yesterday although the unity may not have been exactly what everybody expected.
Ottawa just couldn't leave well enough alone and the provincial leaders reacted badly to what they saw as a clumsy attempt to influence their deliberations.
First, they received a letter from Prime Minister Jean Chrétien in which they were cautioned that health-care reform was built on a partnership "rather than trying to score political points against one another." A deal of compromise with winners and losers would only deepen the public cynicism about the political process, he added.
Then, they were presented with a draft "accord" on health-care reform that represented nothing more than Ottawa's views on the subject. The provincial leaders took a dim view of the fact that the document, which did not answer their demands for flexibility in deciding where new money should be spent, was then widely leaked.
Alberta Premier Ralph Klein smelled red meat. "This is raw power politics," he thundered when asked at a news conference about the federal document. "And there's no denying the feds are good at it."
Ottawa's action had galvanized the provinces into action. They had come to Toronto without a specific document of their own but they decided early yesterday to produce a rival "accord" dealing with health-care reform.
It was largely drawn from the ideas that had been circulating for a couple of years and is similar in many ways to the federal document. The big difference is that Ottawa refused to be pinned down on any numbers, it offered only a vague "$x-billion" expenditure. The premiers threw down the gauntlet and challenged Mr. Chrétien to commit to funding at least 18 per cent of total health spending, up from the current 14 per cent. "The federal documents are a menu without prices," Manitoba Premier Gary Doer said.
Ontario Premier Ernie Eves, who has been trying to cultivate a role as a helpful fixer in federal-provincial affairs, also sniffed at the inadequacy of Ottawa's document.
"I'm trying to be conciliatory here," he said. "Their accord is a position by one government in Canada. Our accord is a true agreement by 13 governments in Canada who deliver front-line services every day and we're saying to the 14th government in Canada: 'Do you want to be a full partner committed to this or not'?"
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Like a flashback from Meech Lake, Charlottetown or any of the dozens of less noteworthy gatherings that characterize public policymaking in this country.
So now there will be two competing documents when the premiers arrive in Ottawa on Feb. 4 for two days of talks with the Prime Minister. As Mr. Klein noted, "They have an accord, we have an accord, and we put the two documents on the table and start the negotiations from there."
In other words, it's politics as usual.
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