Canada’s premiers are hoping for changes to how provinces’ and territories’ health care systems are funded and an increase in the money which flows to them from Ottawa.
Health care funding reform is one of several requests agreed upon by Canada’s premiers on Wednesday at the end of a three-day summit at Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ont.
Ahead of the meeting, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his New Brunswick counterpart, Susan Holt, outlined different demands for how the system should be reformed.
The current setup involves all provinces paying into a central pot through the tax system. The money is then divided across the country using a per-capita formula, which ensures funds are available for people in every province to broadly receive the same care.
That per-capita formula, however, is raising concerns from some premiers.
Holt said her province had an aging, less healthy population than other parts of the country and payments based only on the number of people failed to capture the cost of complex care.
“We certainly think they should respond to the population’s needs,” she told reporters on Wednesday morning.
“I think that we should meet Canadians’ needs for health care and we know it costs more to service somebody who has a chronic health issue and someone who is later in life, and so we think the transfer should recognize that older and sicker Canadians need more investment.”
Ford, however, who leads the country’s most populous province, complained tax revenue in Ontario is being sent to other provinces.
“We are short-changed as far as I’m concerned,” Ford said, talking about transfer payments from the federal government, including for health care. “I just want to speak to the people of Ontario. On equalization and transfer payments, at the end of the day it goes into one big pot.”
Asked if he disagreed with Holt’s push for a needs-based formula, the Ontario premier said he understood the need for smaller provinces to receive extra support.
“I’ve always said, I’ve no problem taking care of the smaller provinces and territories, but in saying that we need our fair share of health care,” he said.
According to the federal government website, Ontario will receive an average payment of $1,728 per person from the federal government across health care, social services and equalization payments. New Brunswick, with its substantially smaller population, will get $5,256 per person.
The total health transfer for Ontario will be more than $21 billion compared to just over $1 billion for New Brunswick.
After the meeting, other premiers voiced their own concerns about funding from the federal government and how they feel it has failed to keep up.
“Premiers also emphasized the importance of enhancing the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) and its escalator,” a statement from the country’s provincial and territorial leaders read after the meeting.
Internal trade and bail reform
Along with health care, the premiers asked Ottawa to improve Canada’s relationship with China in the face of U.S. threats, a request with complicated provincial implications.
“You know what Churchill said, our enemy of our enemy is our friend, and I don’t consider Americans the enemy, but right now President Trump himself is acting like the enemy,” Ford said.
Friction with Canada dates back to last fall, when the federal government imposed a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles — matching a move by the Biden administration in the U.S. — and levies on a range of other goods, including electric vehicle batteries and parts, critical minerals, solar panels and semiconductors.
China hit back with 100 per cent tariffs on imports of Canadian canola oil and meal, and a 25 per cent levy on some pork, fish and seafood products.
“As long as China plays fair and doesn’t undercut our markets, be it the auto sector or any sector, I have no problem dealing with them because we’re already dealing with them,” Ford said, pointing out that Ontario imports about $40 billion worth of Chinese goods and exports back about $3 billion.
The premiers say they want the federal government to work toward removing Chinese tariffs from Canadian canola, peas, pork and seafood.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Ford said they are worried about steelworkers in their respective provinces, with three major steel plants feeling the brunt of U.S. tariffs on steel and concerns about China dumping steel into the market through proxy countries.
The federal government announced protectionist and anti-dumping measures targeting Chinese-made steel last week.
Bail reform was an area where the premiers appeared to find clear consensus. Holt, who is a Liberal and Ford, a Progressive Conservative, both called on the federal government to tighten Canada’s Criminal Code and make it harder for people accused of crime to receive bail.
British Columbia Premier David Eby, a New Democrat, and Saskatchewan’s Moe made similar comments.
Muskoka summit wraps up
The announcements on Wednesday marked the end of a three-day meeting for the Council of the Federation.
Since Monday, Ford has hosted provincial and territorial premiers in Muskoka for discussions dominated by trade talks, including a briefing from the prime minister.
The first day featured a meeting which ran for roughly three hours of talks with Indigenous leaders, before Ford hosted premiers and the prime minister at his family cottage for dinner.
Tuesday was dominated by the threat of tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump. Prime Minister Mark Carney chaired a briefing with premiers on the odds that a deal with the United States can be reached.
Thirty-five per cent tariffs are currently scheduled for Aug. 1.
While the premiers and prime minister appeared to broadly agree about the threat from the United States, the need to improve internal trade and concerns about Trump’s unpredictability, they emerged with few concrete solutions.
They offered one another praise for their ability to work with each other across the three days, all praising the “togetherness.”
A news release issued directly after the meeting wrapped earlier than expected pointed to the need to work quickly on major projects and to coordinate federal tariff responses.
It did not include any specific retaliation that the council had agreed upon, nor did it identify nation-building projects they would all back.
The second day ended with an evening reception for the premiers, Ontario Progressive Conservative caucus members and other major stakeholders.
— with files from The Canadian Press