Dateline: 10/22/00
Legislation Implementing 2000 Health Care Agreement
Legislation implementing the agreement between the Canadian federal government and all 10 provinces to renew Canada's struggling health care system received Royal Assent just before the federal election writ was dropped.
Funding Agreement for Health Care
After a year of wrangling, and last-minute public posturing from the premiers of Quebec and Ontario, all 10 provincial premiers accepted the federal offer of a substantial cash infusion and agreed on general goals and commitments. The federal government will invest a total of $23.4 billion over the next five years - $21.1 billion through Canada Health and Social Transfers (CHST) and another $2.3 billion in targeted funding. The additional funding will go to:
- medical equipment
- health information and communication technology, and
- primary health care.
Health Care Priorities
The First Ministers agreed to collaborate on eight priorities:
- access to health care
- health promotion and wellness
- improvements to primary health care
- supply of doctors, nurses and other health care personnel
- home care and community care
- pharmaceuticals management
- health information and communications technology
- health equipment and infrastructure
Reporting to Canadians on Health Care
The premiers agreed to provide regular and comprehensive public performance reports on the health programs and services their governments deliver. A key to the agreement is that the provincial governments will be accountable to their own publics, not to each other or the federal government, and that federal funding will not be tied to a given level of performance. The provinces will begin public reports by September 2002, and in the meantime will work on developing comparison indicators on health status (e.g. life expectancy), health outcomes (e.g. improved quality of life), and quality of service (e.g. waiting lists).
Details on the Health Care Deal
More details on the September 2000 agreement by Canada's Prime Minister and Premiers to renew health care in Canada can be found in the following documents:
