NDP MP Lindsay Mathyssen introduced the petition into the House of Commons.
Credit: CPAC Credit: CPAC

A petition signed by more than 30,000 Canadians calling on the federal government to address the country’s health-care crisis is on its way to the House of Commons.

Introduced by Sandy Pennie from London, ON, and sponsored by NDP MP Lindsay Mathyssen, who serves the Ontario constituency of London—Fanshawe, the petition includes seven demands issued to Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos for more accountability in health-care funding and delivery.

Mathyssen argues that the universal public health-care system in Canada must remain publicly administered and continue to be protected under the Canada Health Act. 

The petition comes as some provincial governments are flirting with the idea of private, for-profit health care as a solution for a system failing on their watch. Mathyssen noted these leaders are making the shift while simultaneously “underfunding and misusing federal transfers.”

But in shifting away from public health care, she also argues taxpayer dollars are being funneled “into the pockets of private corporations and their shareholders.”

Last month, the 13 premiers held a virtual press conference calling on the prime minister to meet with provincial leaders to address the health-care crisis across the country.

The premiers are calling for the federal government to pay 35 per cent of health-care costs, up from the current 22 per cent provided to the provinces through health transfers.

But the premiers, led by Manitoba’s Heather Stefenson, were steadfast in refusing to meet any accountability measures, indicators, or data points as a condition of negotiations with the federal government, a condition Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already stipulated.

“It’s an issue of accountability,” Stefenson told reporters. “We’re accountable every day to people within our jurisdictions and will continue to be accountable to them.”

A closer look at the petition

The petition, which was open from October 5, 2022, to January 3, 2023, received nearly 34,000 signatures. More than half of signatories — 21,356 — were from Ontario. Alberta followed up with 4,753 and B.C. rounded out the top three with 3,356.

The petition states more than $10 billion in federal government transfers to the provincial and territorial level are unaccounted for “while they underfund the public system.”

A major concern raised in the petition focused on the outsourcing of both staffing and medical procedures. 

It noted the move “creates a two tiered approach where those that can pay are bumped up the queue [and] those that cannot are forced to wait because it is no longer as lucrative to serve them.”

The first demand in the petition calls on Trudeau to appoint a federal agency that would be responsible for auditing and monitoring how federal health transfers are being allocated and spent.

Another demand would see Canada restrict private capital from charging public health-care facilities for a profit in an effort to minimize the reallocation of health-care funding from public to private.

READ MORE: ‘Schemes for profiting’: Privatizers lick their chops as medicare totters

It also calls for an audit of the Minister of Health’s mandates for public health-care funding.

The fifth call to action would also see health-care service complaints from the public analyzed, as well as reported attempts to force patients into private for-profit billing.

Another oversight measure would examine any bills passed at the provincial level that could be interpreted as a workaround of the Canada Health Act, as well as laws that would limit or restrict fair compensation and health-care standards.

Children’s health-care at risk too

While the bulk of concerns about health care revolve around Canada’s aging population, the reality is young people are also at serious risk, as children’s hospitals struggle to navigate with the overcapacity of patients coming through their doors.

Those concerns became more apparent in early December 2022 when the Canadian Red Cross was called in to assist with health-care workers at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO).

Coupled with a nationwide shortage of children’s cold and flu medicines, the health of children across Canada continues to be jeopardized by a faltering health-care system.

Minister of Health admits ‘hospitals and emergency rooms are overwhelmed’

In a request to Duclos’ office, rabble.ca asked the minister to respond to each of the seven calls to action listed in the petition. 

But the 300-word response issued Wednesday from the Office of the Minister of Health failed to address any of the calls to action, or the concerns at the heart of the petition. 

It reiterated the federal government is prepared to increase health-care investments through the Canada Health Transfer.

While the statement prioritized “work[ing] together,” “collaboration,” and other vague political buzzwords, the Duclos’ office conceded that “Health workers are running out of steam,” adding, “Hospitals and emergency rooms are overwhelmed.”

“We will do so by focusing on the ends before focusing on the means because as we can now see, the old way of doing things does not work,” the health minister’s office wrote. “As our government continues to have frank and difficult conversations with our provincial and territorial partners, we are also committed to respecting their jurisdiction.”

Image: Gilad Cohen

Stephen Wentzell

Stephen Wentzell is rabble.ca‘s national politics reporter, a cat-dad to Benson, and a Real Housewives fanatic. Based in Halifax, he writes solutions-based, people-centred...