The last time all of Canada’s premiers sat down around the same table, their attention was focused on getting Ottawa to pay more to fix the understaffed, hospitals, shuttered emergency rooms, surgical backlogs and health-worker shortages threatening the viability of their health systems.
When they sit down in Winnipeg for their annual summer gathering this week, the attention will turn more to how to use the new money Ottawa has now promised.
After two years of provincial pleading and sabre rattling for a new health care deal, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finally put new money on the table at a first ministers’ meeting in Ottawa in February. That $46 billion-deal fell far short of what provinces had asked for but they were left with little choice but to accept it….