Are The Premiers Listening?

"Well, you know, I know the provinces will always ask for more money.

"What I think we all want to see now from the premiers who have the primary responsibility here is what their plan and their vision really is to innovate and to reform and to make sure the health-care system's going to be there for all of us. So I hope that we can put the funding issue aside, and they can concentrate on actually talking about health care."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Stating the obvious. Not taking the bother to remind his interlocutor that Health Care, like Education is solely a provincial jurisdiction. With the provinces awaiting cash dispensation from the federal government, in part, to fund their provincial health programs. Originally the dispersal of federal funding was tied to certain cross-provincial health standards, to ensure that wherever Canadians lived, they would be able to access commensurate services, province to province.

Tying the provinces to certain standards that all would be expected to reflect, if they planned on continuing to receive that funding. The provinces complained that this was treating them like unreliable children, incapable of meeting those standards on their own, other than through the cudgel of tied funding. And conventionally, the provinces have been jealous of their provincial entitlements, taking offense at the prospect of any federal involvement.

The federal government has been disengaged from direct involvement through tying transfer payments to specific health program guidelines for some time. The provinces felt this was more like it; they were more than capable of making provisions for health care standards for their populations without the intervention of the federal government. And the Finance Minister simply recognized the provinces' responsibilities when he issued his new funding plan guidelines.

Indicating that the federal government was prepared to continue its agreement to increase annual funding by 6% annually for the next five years. And then tying further annual increases to the country's economic growth, while at the same time guaranteeing that the increase in yearly funding would never fall below a 3% threshhold. Increases in funding remained guaranteed. Perhaps not quite keeping up with increasing costs and inflation, but increased.

And just as all households and the federal government itself is faced with the critical need of balancing its budget, deciding what is to be funded and what can be eliminated or decreased, or folded into something else for greater efficiency in delivery and funding, so too must the provinces. The western provinces in fact, welcomed the new guidelines. Predictably Quebec is outraged, but then it makes a practise of being outraged. As has Ontario's McGuinty government.

The provinces' traditional adversarial stance to anything that the federal government decides, unless it closely consults and assuages the potential for wounded egos, arriving at what the provinces like to term as a 'consensus', which generally translates as the federal government coddling the provincial premiers' sensibilities is in full swing. Don't they trust themselves to make judgement calls that will reflect well on their management skills?

Well, a recent poll seems to indicate that most Canadians don't trust their premiers either. They would, in fact, prefer that the federal government be more involved, tie funding directly to specific guidelines that the provinces must meet to qualify for full funding. They would prefer the federal government to revert to tradition, in that respect.

That must be telling us something. Are the premiers listening?