Nunavut, Ottawa reach deal on health funding but more needed, Main says
GN to receive $381 million over 10 years from federal government, $150 million from territorial health investment fund but negotiations will continue
Nunavut Health Minister John Main said his government has an agreement in principle for health-care funding from the federal government, but added more spending is needed. (File photo by Meral Jamal)
The federal government and Nunavut have an agreement in principle for federal funding to improve health services in the territory but it’s not enough, says Nunavut Health Minister John Main.
“We appreciate the support from our federal partners,” Main said in an interview with Nunatsiaq News. “But it’s not going to solve all of our problems.”
He added: “I’m going to push hard for more. Because that’s what I think is needed.”
On Thursday, the federal government announced it had signed an agreement in principle with the government of Nunavut to spend $381 million over 10 years to improve Nunavut’s health services.
Included in that 10-year funding package is $70 million for a bilateral agreement between Nunavut and federal government on shared health priorities such as mental health, family health services and modernizing the health system.
As well, Nunavut gets an immediate $2 million to address urgent needs, such as assistance in emergency rooms and to address surgery wait times.
Nunavut also receives a five-per-cent increase in its Canada Health Transfer, the main pot of federal funding for health-care toward provinces and territories.
For context on the size of the federal commitment, Main pointed out the annual operating budget for the Health Department is $470 million.
“It is significant. But in my opinion, the need for further investment is there,” he said.
Priorities the GN needs to address include long-term care, mental health, staffing, and public health matters like tuberculosis and infrastructure.
Main said Nunavut is a unique territory for health-care funding, because of its large size and small population.
He stressed the agreement is only in principle.
“There are still some negotiations to happen,” Main said.
Specifically, the GN is seeking more federal funding through the Territorial Health Investment Fund, known as THIF, which is shared by all three territories to help cover costs of medical travel and health-care.
The federal government announced it will commit $350 million over 10 years to THIF. Nunavut’s initial share is $150 million, but that could possibly change as negotiations continue.
However, the territorial premiers had hoped for more than double that amount — they had proposed receiving $75 million per year over 10 years.
Previously, Nunavut’s share of the THIF fund was 50 per cent. Under the new agreement in principle, the $150 million would mean its share drops below 50 per cent.
“We’re a little bit disappointed with that number,” Main said. He hopes that figure can be increased in further negotiations.
“We haven’t signed off on anything yet,” he said.
While he believes more funding is needed, the GN agreed in principle to the proposal because it was time to “move forward” on health spending, he said.
“We just felt there wasn’t much to be gained by refusing [an agreement] at this point,” Main said.
He said he has a strong working relationship with his federal partners, specifically federal Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Carolyn Bennett and Minister of Indigenous Services Patty Hajdu.
“We have a strong, mutual respect,” Main said.
In a news release, Duclos said the agreement will “modernize our health care system” and expand access to services for family health and mental health, reduce surgical backlogs and support health-care workers.
The next step will be for the federal government and Nunavut to work together on a plan that develops targets, timelines and additional health priorities.
Main said he wants those plans to be ready by the end of the year.
“We can’t waste time on this,” he said. “We needed improvement yesterday.”
Part of the agreement in principle calls for Nunavut to share health data indicators.
Main said he told his federal partners “that data will tell you there is incredible need for investment in healthcare [in Nunavut].”
Black hole money pit.?
We need statistics around training and dollars spent. How many students enroll in the NAC nursing program, how many complete the program, how many dollars spent by government. What is the ROI? From there we can talk about inefficiencies and ways to make improvements.
Lacking that information we get what we see, the promotion of narratives, where a best ‘story’ forms the template for action, regardless if it works or not.
Does Health plan to use the $38 million per year to train and hire more Inuit doctors, nurses, lab technicians, paramedics and other health care professionals?
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If we don’t do that, we are just hiring from the same pool as everyone else in the western world. The extra money needs to be used to bring more Inuit into the health profession and provide them with reasons to stay.
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Because of our population growth, Nunavut needs 2 additional doctors and 8 additional nurses every year, just to maintain the current level of service. We also need additional health care professionals to replace those who retire.
Our institutions of higher learning are the ones that should be shouldering the burden of training, not health itself.
Its way too premature to talk about increasing the number of Inuit doctors nurses and allied health professionals working in Nunavut when territorial graduation levels still sit around 25-30%. Lets get more kids graduated from high school and better equipped to qualify for and complete these extremely competitive and difficult university programs (the attrition rate for the NAC nursing program is about 70-80% presently) before we start demanding that health care funding be dedicated to this.
I vote for john main for igalaaq