VANCOUVER – Today, NDP Health Critic Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway) called on the federal government to immediately implement an action plan to address the crisis in Canada’s healthcare system. The premiers are gathered in British Columbia to discuss the need for financial support from the federal government. Davies says the lack of federal leadership is hurting Canadians who cannot access the services that they need.
“Canadians are seeing that our healthcare system is on the brink of collapse,” said Davies. “Millions of procedures and surgeries have been delayed, frontline workers are burnt out, emergency departments are closing for lack of personnel, and one in seven Canadians lacks access to a family doctor. The pandemic exposed long-standing issues in our healthcare system that successive federal governments have failed to address. We’ve now reached a breaking point and cannot delay action any longer. The Liberal government must act.”
For many months, the provinces and territories have been calling on the federal government to negotiate more health care support through a First Ministers’ Agreement on Sustainable Health Care Funding. Instead of showing leadership, Prime Minister Trudeau won’t even agree to sit down with the premiers.
Canada’s New Democrats are putting forward constructive proposals to protect and expand our public healthcare system. These include greater financial support through the Canada Health Transfer, measures that address staffing shortages through accelerating foreign credential recognition, incentives to attract more physicians into family care, increasing medical and nursing school seats, investments in preventative care and expanding public long-term care beds.
“Canadians need a government that delivers solutions instead of excuses,” said Davies. “There are a number of common-sense proposals that the Liberals could implement to help address the staffing shortages and improve care for Canadians across the country. But if the Prime Minister isn’t even willing to meet with the premiers, things are not going to get better for Canadians. We are urging the Liberal government to sit down with provincial leaders and make the long-overdue investments in our system so that Canadians have the high-quality they desperately need.”
