Ottawa has role in health care, but provinces set own priorities: Aglukkaq

YELLOWKNIFE – Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq says there’s been “a lot of negative, over-the-top rhetoric” in the last year from organizations and individuals about Ottawa’s role in health care, but she suggests they need to look at the bigger picture.

Aglukkaq’s government has come under fire for mishandling the national drug shortage and been accused of failing to take a leadership role in ensuring Canadians have equitable access to health-care services across the country.

“As federal minister of health, I will not dictate to the provinces and territories how they will deliver services, or set their priorities,” Aglukkaq told the annual meeting of the Canadian Medical Association in Yellowknife on Monday.

“But this does not mean there is not a role for the federal government. Because clearly there is.”

Aglukkaq said besides providing $27 billion in health transfers to the provinces and territories in 2011-2012, the government has made significant investments to increase the number of qualified health-care professionals, including the training of more than 100 family physicians to serve rural and remote communities.

And each year, almost $1 billion is invested in research and innovation aimed at improving health-care delivery to patients, she said.

“We are putting long-term, stable funding in place across the country to allow all the provinces and territories to focus in areas of health, to focus on health as opposed to the financial piece,” Aglukkaq told reporters. “Long-term, stable funding will allow them also to focus in areas of their priorities.

“I think it’s very important to recognize that the priorities in Ontario are not the same as in Nunavut or the Northwest Territories. And we need to allow the jurisdictions to be able to have the flexibility to focus in areas that are their priorities.”

Ontario, along with the rest of southern Canada, has an aging population that dictates a different focus on health care provision compared to territories in the North, which have a “very young population,” she said.

_ By Sheryl Ubelacker in Toronto.