Tag: Health transfers

On health transfers, Houston needs to lead ‘Anybody but Conservative’ campaign

On health transfers, Houston needs to lead ‘Anybody but Conservative’ campaign

Posted by | Sep 14, 2021 | |

We’ve seen this play out in previous federal election campaigns. The provinces, constitutionally responsible for health services, unite to demand more federal help in this endeavour. The party in power at the federal level rejects the ask, while the opposition parties initially embrace it. But when the writ is dropped and one of the major opposition parties starts to waffle in its support the provinces fail to react. They put party loyalty ahead of the their populations’ need for adequate federal support for health care. When we observed this in the 2015 campaign and its aftermath it was mainly...

Read More
This election there’s real $$ in the health care debate

This election there’s real $$ in the health care debate

Posted by | Sep 3, 2021 | |

It’s not unusual for health care to be selected by the Canadian public as a top election campaign issue. What is new this go around is the willingness of the Liberals and Conservatives to talk about it. Unlike the vague generalities characterizing their health care commitments in the last two federal elections, the two parties most likely to form government have been quick with some big-ticket commitments. We can probably thank the pandemic for that. It revealed the deficiencies in the health care system and shattered the over-riding obsession with spending restraint. The main plank in the Conservative platform,...

Read More
Post-budget advice to feds: Show us the health care money

Post-budget advice to feds: Show us the health care money

Posted by | Apr 27, 2021 | |

There was a lot packed into the 740 page near $500-billion federal budget tabled last Monday. Somebody counted 230 new spending proposals, the largest of which is the $30-billion over five years for childcare. That’s an important, long-overdue commitment but it wasn’t the most noteworthy thing about the budget. The big story is what’s missing from the longest, most postponed and verbose budget in Canada’s history. Notable in their absence were increased health transfers to the provinces and national pharmacare, while elder care was barely in evidence. To that big three of health care can be added proposals that...

Read More
Despite record in-migration median age of most of Nova Scotia continues to rise

Despite record in-migration median age of most of Nova Scotia continues to rise

Posted by | Jan 24, 2021 | , |

Until capable handling of the pandemic boosted ratings, the McNeil government had precious little it could credibly point to after seven years as evidence of success. Reduced wait times for elective surgery? No, not yet. A family doctor for everyone? Not quite. Poverty reduction and growing incomes? Not so much. Balanced budgets? Past their best-before. But in recent years there has been one reliable set of statistics to trot out to demonstrate progress – population and immigration growth. And the beat goes on. Detailed data released this month by Statistics Canada confirm that Nova Scotia’s population was up almost...

Read More
Update on health transfers: Conservative do a flip flop

Update on health transfers: Conservative do a flip flop

Posted by | Jan 10, 2021 | , |

Any momentum towards an improved deal on federal health transfers to the provinces seems to be slowing. First it was the Justin Trudeau government telling the provinces to wait. And now it seems the official opposition Conservatives are losing their enthusiasm for a sizeable increase in transfer payments. In an interview last week with Brunswick News, Conservative leader Erin O’Toole refused to be pinned down to a dollar or percentage increase in transfers. This represented an about-face from the startling position taken earlier by the deputy leader of the Conservatives, discussed here. Back in October, Manitoba MP Candice Bergen...

Read More

Richard Starr, The man behind the Point

About Richard

RICHARD STARR has had careers as a journalist, public servant, broadcaster, political staffer and freelance policy adviser. He is author of numerous newspaper and magazine articles, a former radio and TV producer and weekly newspaper editor, and the author of three non-fiction books. Starr has lived in Dartmouth for more than 30 years.

Subscribe to Starr’s Point

Support Provided by