Roundup: Encouraging noises on health transfers

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There seems to be a noticeable shift in tone coming from several premiers when it comes to the federal government’s demands that there be more strings attached to future federal health care transfers, and that they seem to be realizing that their time-old tactics of simply blaming the federal government isn’t working as well as it used to. In part, I think that Justin Trudeau has stepped up his game on communication around this issue more than he usually does, and made effective use of his round of year-end interviews on this file, and showed that he was willing to give them more money, but that there needs to be changes rather than putting money into a broken system that won’t get meaningful results. I also think that shit is getting real for the premiers as we are now seeing an increasing number of deaths in ERs that should have been preventable, and that the patience of the population when it comes to children’s hospitals in particular is now gone, and they are being forced to wear it more than they would normally have had to in the past.

So, this sounds like an increased willingness to rebrand federal strings as “shared priorities,” and that’s a climbdown that premiers seem to be increasingly willing to live with. But then again, I wouldn’t trust all of the premiers, and in particular Doug Ford, whose math about new beds is false advertising, and who is hilariously claiming that new private surgery clinics won’t cannibalise hospital staff or resources, because of course they will. That’s the whole gods damned point. His “safeguards” will be as effective as toddler gates whose latches can be figured out and overcome within seconds. So, while it’s good to hear the shift in tone, I wouldn’t count any unhatched chickens just yet.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 325:

Russians are once again claiming that they are now in control of the remains of Soledar, but the Ukrainians continue to say their units are still there and still fighting.

https://twitter.com/bachyns/status/1613939963237732365

Good reads:

  • Sean Fraser is pushing back against the naysayers of the government’s increased immigration targets.
  • Mélanie Joly has levied more sanctions against political elites in Haiti.
  • David Lametti announced $1.5 million in federal funds for Métis Nations to develop their own justice systems as part of work to rebuild Indigenous legal systems.
  • Mona Fortier says that civil servants who refuse to return to the workplace will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
  • Both the CRA and Treasury Board have filed grievances against the largest public sector union, claiming they are not bargaining in good faith.
  • Here’s an explainer about the rise in cyber-attacks.
  • The Commons’ industry committee wants to take another crack at the proposed Rogers-Shaw merger (which will likely be a lot of showboating).
  • Pierre Poilievre is under fire for giving a speech at the Frontier Centre “think tank” in Winnipeg, which has recently trafficked in residential school denialism.
  • My weekend column delves into the issue of outside consultants in government, and how Trudeau has not lived up to his promise to crack down on their use.

Odds and ends:

For National Magazine, I preview some of the cases coming up this session at the Supreme Court of Canada.

https://twitter.com/lindsaytedds/status/1614037770837819392

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