Singh Calls on Trudeau to Oppose Health Care ‘Privatization’ by Provinces

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh delivers a speech at a three day caucus retreat, in Ottawa on Jan. 18, 2023. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to oppose any attempts by provincial governments towards what he characterized as the “privatization” of their health-care systems.

“What we’re disturbed by is that after three days of this retreat, neither the prime minister nor his ministers have come out as opposed to the privatization and for-profit plans of Doug Ford and Danielle Smith, and that is deeply disturbing,” Singh said at a news conference in Nanaimo, B.C., on Jan. 25.

Singh was referring to Ontario Premier Doug Ford announcing a plan last week to address the province’s backlog of routine surgeries and medical scans by increasing the amount that is done in both non-profit and for-profit independent clinics.

In addition, Alberta Health Minister Jason Copping said on Jan. 23 that Alberta Health Services will be contracting out 3,000 orthopedic surgeries every year to an independent health-care facility in order to boost operation numbers and free up hospital space.

Ontario and Alberta are not seeking outright privatization of their health-care systems as redirecting the services will be funded with public money, but are instead pursuing ways to alleviate the burden on the poorly performing socialized model.

“Private, for-profit delivery of care will only make the problems worse,” Singh said, referring to health-care worker shortages. “It'll cannibalize the public system, taking away frontline health-care workers from ERs and putting them into private, for-profit clinics. That is not the solution.”

The prime minister and his cabinet are currently on their three-day post-holiday retreat in Hamilton, Ont., during which Trudeau said they have been focusing on the affordability issues impacting Canadians.

Trudeau and some of his ministers have also commented on developments of a pending deal to increase health-care transfers to the provinces, about which the prime minister will be meeting with the premiers in February.

Trudeau has promised to reform the health-care system if the provinces commit to certain changes.

“It wouldn’t be the right thing to do to just throw more money at the problem and sit back and watch the problem not get fixed because we didn’t use this moment to say, ‘No, no, no, it’s time to improve the system,'” Trudeau said in December 2022.

Health-Care Deal

Singh said he would like to see any health-care deal between Ottawa and the provinces on the matter include extra funding for recruiting and hiring “thousands more nurses and doctors.”

Singh says the deal will be “a failure” if it is made without these staffing measures.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith previously said her province would move ahead with reforming its health-care system whether or not it receives increased funding from the federal government.

“It’s great if [the government] comes to the table with more funding support but we’re not going to stop with the reforms that we’re doing,” Smith said on Jan. 10, adding that Alberta has committed $600 million annually for health care for the next two years.

Trudeau’s meeting with the premiers about the potential funding deal will take place in Ottawa on Feb. 7.

Tara MacIsaac, Andrew Chen, and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.