New federal health minister will have work cut out for them

Prime Minister Mark Carney will name his new cabinet on Tuesday after winning last month’s federal election, and with that, will come the appointment of a new health minister.

The previous minister, Kamal Khera, is a registered nurse, but only held the title for a short time before losing her seat on April 28.

Steven Staples is the national director of policy and advocacy for the Canadian Health Coalition (CHC), and he tells 1130 NewsRadio that with the health-care system in a crisis, the new minister will be forced to tackle a number of issues. Those include recruiting and retaining staff, access to primary care, and dealing with the unregulated toxic drug crisis.

“I work in the field, and I don’t have a family doctor myself. Canadians want to see the federal government play a role in making sure that we have a good health-care system for everyone across the country. We don’t want a patchwork,” he explained.

“There’s a lot of expectations on the health minister and we’re looking for someone who is absolutely committed to public health care, who sees the crisis as it is, but is not immobilized by it, who is looking for solutions. I think the new minister needs to be someone who is collaborative but not afraid to get tough sometimes.”

Staples points out that another issue that needs action is bringing down the price of prescription drugs.

“Whether that’s for hospitals and the overall system, plus whether it’s for individuals who are paying out of pocket, either for expensive insurance or just straight out of their wallet for prescription medication,” he explained.

“In terms of national solutions, and we looked at the doctor and nurse shortage, they are reaching out to a pan-Canadian approach in terms of making sure licenses can be moved from province to province, and caregivers can move around. Also, we can bring people with accreditation from other countries, maybe even the United States.”

Staples adds that the other huge challenge in Canada is increasing access to mental health supports.

“I think that’s an area that’s been overlooked. I think the federal health minister will need to deal with that. We also understand it’s a very big issue for young people. Mental health is very high on their list of priorities for health care, and a lot of it is delivered privately, so they can’t access mental health supports like therapy and things like counselling,” he said.

“We could maybe see a similar program to what we’ve got with Pharmacare, with dental care, maybe mental health is the next piece to put in the puzzle.”

Ideally, throwing money at all of this would help, however, the prime minister — an economist by trade — has been clear he will be frugal where possible to help deliver campaign promises and to help control the growing deficit.

“There will be a speech from the throne, then there will be a budget — all happening before the summer. This is going to be a critical issue going forward. We really want someone who’s committed to enforcing public health care, making sure that is the solution we’re going to. In terms of funding, there are a lot of priorities out there going for federal dollars.

“We’ve already got promises of quite expensive tax cuts, which limits the government’s ability to spend. We’ve got big commitments on national defence and other aspects that are going to spend billions of dollars. So, what happens to health care? The prime minister has said he will not reduce transfers to provinces and territories on healthcare, but we will have to wait and see.”

In 2023, B.C. became the first province to sign a tailored funding agreement with the federal government, which was part of a $196 billion health accord that then-prime minister Justin Trudeau offered all the provinces.

The agreement meant B.C. would receive $1.2 billion over the next three years from Ottawa, marking a 10-year plan.

Parliament returns on May 26, the Throne Speech is set to be delivered the following day, ahead of the budget being tabled in June.