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The Advocacy CommuniquÉ
The National Advocacy Committee (NAC), made up of members from the National Board of Directors, the Divisional Advocacy Committees and community at-large, meets every six-to-eight weeks and reports on its activities through a Communiqué shortly afterward.
The Advocacy Communiqué gives details on current NAC activities, advocacy news, upcoming initiatives, and advocacy campaigns. Check out the latest Communiqué:
Advocacy Alerts
Canada Health Transfer for 2014-2-2024
The federal government funds a portion of health spending in Canada through the Canada Health Transfer (CHT). In 2004, a Health Accord between the federal government and the provinces/territories provided national standards for health care and a predictable CHT for the 10-year duration of the Health Accord.
With the Health Accord expiring in the 2013-14 fiscal year, the federal government has determined a new paradigm for the CHT from 2014-2024. This new funding was announced on December 19, 2011 at a meeting of the federal/provincial/territorial finance ministers in Victoria, BC. The federal government is committing that the CHT will increase by 6% each fiscal year from 2013-14 to 2017-18. In the fiscal years 2018-19 to 2023-24, the CHT will increase in alignment with the year’s “nominal GDP”, which is Canada’s rate of real growth and Canada’s inflation rate combined. However, the federal government will not allow increases each year to fall below 3%. The federal government also commits to a review of the CHT in 10 years’ time.
Canada Health Transfer Amounts, 2013/14 – 2017/181
The federal government is committing to this paradigm without a requirement that the provinces and territories achieve new national health standards. This paradigm also allows the provinces and territories to be flexible in their appropriation of the CHT; that is, while the funding does not allow provinces and territories to implement fully privatized care delivery, user fees, or any other major violations of the Canada Health Act, the federal government will allow some private delivery of publicly funded care.
Next Steps
Federal Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq has requested to meet with the provincial and territorial health ministers in early 2012 to “further map out [ways to] make Canada’s health system more sustainable, to improve accountability and to get better results for Canadians”2. The First Ministers also have a meeting scheduled January 16-17, 2012 in Victoria to discuss health care and fiscal arrangements.
The First Ministers met in January, 2012 to discuss healthcare and fiscal arrangements. Agreeing to the new CHT formula, the First Ministers decided to strike two working groups to pursue innovation in healthcare (headed by Premier Wall of Saskatchewan and Premier Ghiz of Prince Edward Island) and the effect of the new CHT formula on per-capita health budgets (headed by Premier Selinger of Manitoba).
1 Department of Finance
2 Letter from Minister Aglukkaq to provincial/territorial health ministers, December 20, 2011.