THUNDER BAY — Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP Marcus Powlowski is happy to see the federal government propose billions of dollars in new health care funding.
Following a meeting this week between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the country's premiers, the federal government announced a plan to significantly increase the amount of health funding distributed to the provinces.
“I am absolutely happy about this. A lot of people in northern Ontario don’t have family doctors. Even in Thunder Bay, let alone the outlining regions, the nurses are overworked and the PSWs are underpaid,” the Liberal MP said in an interview on Friday.
Powlowski, who also works as a part-time physician, said he understands the funding is an important step to improve a health care that was under pressure even before the pandemic, but has been under tremendous strain in the last few years.
“We’ve certainly needed more money in the system for a while. Certainly, I’ve been advocating for that and a whole bunch of measures including making it easier for foreign-trained graduates to be able to work in Canada because that’s really the only way to rapidly address doctor, nurse, and PSW shortages. So, I am really glad to see that come to fruition,” Powlowski said.
The federal government proposes to increase health funding to provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over 10 years, including $46.2 billion in new funding. The funding will include:
- $2 billion Canada Health Transfer top-up to address immediate pressures in pediatric hospitals and emergency rooms, and long wait times for surgeries
- $1.7 billion over five years to support hourly wage increases for personal support workers and related professions
- $2 billion over 10 years to address the unique challenges Indigenous peoples face
The funding comes with conditions, including that the provinces must use it to hire physicians, nurse practitioners, more frontline workers, mental health support, and address the backlog of surgery wait times.
The country's premiers met on Friday to discuss the federal government's proposal.
Powlowski was optimistic the provincial leaders will accept the deal.
“Yeah, I think so. The provinces are going to bitch about it, but at the end of the day, I think they are going to agree to the money," he said.
"They don’t want any conditions. Well, I think, you give your kids a credit card and you say to spend it how you want. I mean, what kind of parent would do that?”
