EDITORIAL – Premiers got a good offer from Trudeau; they should take it
(Image: Justin Trudeau, Facebook)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
PROVINCIAL PREMIERS should jump at the healthcare deal offered up yesterday by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
He put an extra $46.2 billion on the table, bringing federal health transfers to a total of $196.1 billion over the next 10 years. That includes an unconditional $2 billion for things like pediatric hospitals and emergency departments.
Another $25 billion will be put toward “shared priorities” in which the provinces will have to kick in some of their own money.
Yet the premiers’ response to this new money was tepid. Some felt it was promising, some expressed disappointment that it wasn’t more. Some will, no doubt, come back with more demands and complaints about there being too many strings.
But why shouldn’t there be strings?
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops, alternate TNRD director and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
It is far easier to complain (also considering the easily tapped-into general anger towards the federal government) than effectively manage the available funds. For example here in BC we have an extremely thick health care bureaucracy and millions spent for vague outcomes in mental health help just to name two obvious issues. It takes courage and a strong resolve to get off the rhetoric.