Roundup: No health deal with the provinces

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So that was that. The federal government came to the table yesterday with some more money for health transfers plus another $11.5 billion over ten years for targeted priorities, and the provinces balked, so there’s no deal and the federal government is sticking to the existing 3 percent or GDP growth (whichever is higher) escalator. But really, the whole thing was a bit of a charade to begin with.

Andrew Coyne pretty much savaged the whole affair over the Twitter Machine all day, and he’s certainly not wrong about any of it.

So both Bill Morneau and Jane Philpott say that they’re willing to work on ways to help the provinces, but Morneau went into it basically saying they’re in the middle of writing the budget, so now is the time. They said no, so that may be it. Well, except that New Brunswick is saying they’re open to a bilateral deal, because with their stagnant population growth, the current escalator is a lot of money for them. Will this shame other provinces into signing on, or at least enough that the rest will start looking foolish for rejecting it out of their ritualized Busting of the Gaskets? I guess the next couple of weeks will tell. Incidentally, Justin Trudeau seems to be having difficulty in remembering just what was promised on funding during the election, for what it’s worth.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau says that one should judge the emissions trend line by the 2019 election to see if his government made progress or not.
  • Trudeau also was present for the opening of BlackBerry QMX’s new research centre on autonomous car software.
  • Here’s an interesting read about the intersection between more women in politics and harassment linked to dudes with fragile masculinity lashing out.
  • The trade tribunal fight over drywall tariffs could be a big headache for the government, while the US government looks into softwood lumber.
  • The federal government is asking the Supreme Court of Canada to hold off on hearing the court challenge on expat voting while they put a new law into place.
  • A court challenge on the Saudi LAV deal seems to ignore that every party in the election promised the deal would go through to preserve those jobs.
  • Here’s the look at the existence of a “VIP” programme in Ontario that bumps dignitaries to the front of any line.
  • A former Progressive Conservative MP from PEI says that the modern Conservative party has lost its soul and leadership candidates should bear that in mind.
  • Maclean’s spoke to Conservative leadership candidates about the problem of skilled immigrants being unable to re-certify their skills once in Canada.
  • Colby Cosh looks at the debate in Alberta over ending daylight savings in that province.

Odds and ends:

Here’s the tale from the AP photographer who witnessed the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Turkey.

2 thoughts on “Roundup: No health deal with the provinces”

  1. Just as a matter of curiosity, how does a court challenge on whether the government has properly applied the law in the case of LAV sales to Saudi Arabia have anything to do with whether or not “every party in the election promised the deal would go through to preserve those jobs”?

    • More about the headline about how Dion privileged jobs over human rights. All parties gave the same lines until after the election.

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