Roundup: A $28 billion demand

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It was with a certain amount of chutzpah that the premiers assembled virtually yesterday, and demanded that the federal government turn over an additional $28 billion a year to them in Canada Health Transfers – or else they’ll ask the opposition to demand it for them. And yes, all three opposition parties are happy to demand that unconditional transfers be increased for the provinces (the NDP, at the same time, also saying that they can offer more federal money with strings attached for things like pharmacare, under the false assumption that the premiers wouldn’t dare turn it down).

Of course, this is a completely laughable proposition, because without strings, there is no guarantee that premiers will actually spend this money on healthcare, or that they won’t reduce their own spending. It’s almost like we’ve seen variations of this roadshow before – under the older health transfer escalator, health transfers were rising at a much higher rate than healthcare spending growth was, meaning that the additional dollars were not being spent on healthcare by the provinces (in spite of all protests to the contrary – math is math). When the current federal government boosted infrastructure spending with the hopes that it would help boost productivity, the provinces retreated in their spending and lo, those productivity gains didn’t happen. When Stephen Harper agreed to Jean Charest that the fictional “fiscal imbalance” with Quebec existed and decided to placate him with those billions of dollars, what did Charest do? Turn it into a tax cut. Justin Trudeau isn’t an idiot – not to mention, he’s got pharmacare on his agenda to implement, and he wants national standards for long-term care if he’s going to turn over more money for it. Of course, he’s going to put all kinds of strings on this money, and the provinces are going to have to either take it to get the money they claim they are so desperately in need of, or they can throw a tantrum and hope that they can get votes by claiming Ottawa is being mean to them (which, to be fair, will work in some provinces). Either way, their request is laughable, and Trudeau would be a fool to give in to it as is.

Oh, and as a reminder, every time you read a premier saying that healthcare spending used to be 50-50 and now it’s not, that would be true except that Ottawa and the provinces long ago agreed to change the formula in exchange for giving the provinces tax points instead, which they happily accepted at the time, and trying to make the 50-50 claim without mentioning the tax points is revisionist history that should be called out for what it is. You have been warned.

Good reads:

  • Health Canada officials say they will likely approve the Johnson & Johnson vaccine within days. They also say that any booster shots will be easier to approve.
  • Seamus O’Regan says he won’t let Michigan shut down Enbridge Line 5, and insists that this isn’t the same situation as Keystone XL.
  • The government is setting aside $2.75 billion to help cities buy zero-emission busses as part of greening public transport.
  • The former military ombudsman says he was frozen out after making bringing forward the allegations against General Vance to the minister, forcing him to retire.
  • The head of Unifor says that Air Canada is willing to offer refunds for passengers affected by COVID as part of a hoped-for $7 billion-over-ten-years federal loan.
  • Documents show the government was worried about the optics of South Korea donating a million face masks intended solely for Korean War veterans.
  • Kevin Carmichael reads the data to reaffirm that low-income women have been hurt worst by this downturn, and why they need the recovery needs to focus on them.

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3 thoughts on “Roundup: A $28 billion demand”

    • Strangely enough that was my thought. Bartender I will gladly pay my bill if you give me the money.

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