Negotiations between the provinces and the Canadian government on medical transfers stalled on Tuesday. The two sides accuse each other of lack of transparency and bad faith.
“We have not been able to know either the amounts or the conditions. So today we said we can’t go any further, ”Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé launched during a press conference that looked like a post mortem.
After announcing Monday that he is willing to increase transfers to provinces, Federal Minister Jean-Yves Duclos joined his provincial counterparts in Vancouver in hopes of reaching an agreement. It didn’t happen.
In the afternoon, while the discussion was still ongoing, the Premier issued a statement in which they expressed their “disappointment” at the lack of “answers” from Minister Duclos.
“The advance declaration of the Council [de la fédération] it shows that he was never ready to take the files forward, “a federal source close to the file said.
There was only one known condition in the offer made to the provinces: the federal government asked them to provide health data and indicators. We recall that Mr. Dubé rejected this proposal a priori.
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Order to be blocked?
Federal Minister Duclos deplored that, “despite the opening gesture we made on Tuesday, the provincial and territorial colleagues [de la santé] they have been ordered by their prime ministers not to make any further progress. “
“The premieres are forcing my colleagues to talk about the same thing: money. ”
By simply asking for a 22% to 35% increase in unconditional federal funding, as has been the case in the past, the provinces are doing “the old way of doing things.”
Despite their obvious “disappointment”, the provinces said they were “optimistic” about the possible resolution of the situation.
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