Roundup: Blame the premiers for the paediatric health crisis

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The crisis in our hospitals, particularly paediatric ones, continues to get worse. In Ottawa, CHEO now has Canadian Red Cross staff assisting. In Newfoundland and Labrador, their children’s hospital had to cancel surgeries. In Alberta, they are sending children in palliative care home because they need to redeploy those staff elsewhere. So what are people doing? Telling people to bother the federal government.

No.

This is squarely on the premiers. They have been consistently underfunding their healthcare systems, even with higher transfers the federal government has been sending the past couple of years, both because of the pandemic and with additional funds intended to help reduce wait times, but has that money gone to good effect? Nope. But you have several provinces who sent out vote-buying cheques to people, nearly all of them are running surpluses, and New Brunswick and Quebec are promising tax cuts, particularly for high-earners. They have been playing chicken with the federal government, driving the crisis so that they can be sent more money with no strings attached (this is one of Danielle Smith’s many complaints), and it really looks like they want the system to collapse so they can blame the federal government and bully them into acceding to their demands. But so long as everyone keeps fixating on what the federal government is going to do to fix the problem rather than playing blame on the premiers, where it belongs, this state of affairs is going to continue. It’s only when the premiers start feeling the pressure that they’ll make changes, and right now, they are being let off the hook by too many people. Don’t let them. Put the pressure where it needs to be, and that is the premiers.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 285:

Ukrainian forces held a three-day amnesty for those looking to cross the Dnipro river in the Kherson region from the Russian-held side, in order to reunite families and get civilians to safety, but it sounds like Russian forces killed at least one person crossing the river. Meanwhile, the US’ intelligence chief says that the slower tempo of action in the conflict could wind up favouring Ukraine as Russian forces continue to be outmatched. Here’s a look at the fiscal situation Ukraine finds itself in, trying to finance the war without printing more money and driving up inflation. And here is a slideshow of the conflict.

Good reads:

  • It has been reported that sports minister Pascale St-Onge refused to go to Qatar for the World Cup (for obvious reasons), so the PMO sent Harjit Sajjan instead.
  • Ministers David Lametti, Marco Mendicino and Harjit Sajjan have declined to testify at a Senate committee about not allowing humanitarian workers in Afghanistan.
  • Here is a preview of the COP15 biodiversity international conference that starts in Montreal this week.
  • Immigration from China has reached a new peak in Canada, and some are pointing to the strict lockdown measures in that country as a reason for people to leave.
  • The national housing advocate is pointing to a lack of investment in housing in the North, and Nunavut in particular, to the point of human rights violations.
  • The Star has a longread about the Emergencies Act public inquiry, and the revelations it uncovered particularly about jurisdictional wrangling throughout.
  • Here is a deeper look into the Senate resolution to strip former Senator Don Meredith and a few others of their “honourable” titles.
  • Danielle Smith says she’ll amend her “Sovereignty Act” to curb the ability to give Cabinet unchecked power, but I’ll believe it when I see it, given its incoherence.
  • Chantal Hébert notes that Poilievre’s deliberate absence from legacy media is giving room to his provincial fellow travellers, just as a by-election is coming up.
  • Althia Raj wonders, somewhat naively, why conservatives more broadly aren’t calling out Danielle Smith for undermining democracy and the rule of law.

Odds and ends:

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