Letter to Editor regarding article "Ottawa grades poorly in CMA's annual report card on health care" (Toronto Star - August 13, 2012)

2012-134
August 16, 2012
For immediate release

OTTAWA - In response to your article "Ottawa grades poorly in CMA's annual report card on health care" I would like to point out several factual errors in your reporting.

Your article incorrectly claims that Economic Action Plan 2012 contains a "bevy of federal health-care spending cuts." This could not be further from the truth. As Minister of Health my priority was to protect frontline healthcare services and health transfers. In fact, federal funding for healthcare will continue to grow from a record level of $27 billion in 2011-12 to a minimum of $38 billion by 2018-19.

This is an increase: plain and simple.

In December 2011, we set the future growth path of transfers to the provinces and territories to provide sustainable and predictable funding to support the provision of health care for all Canadians. The Canada Health Transfer will continue to grow by 6% per year for the next five years, and in 2017-18, growth will be linked to nominal gross domestic product growth, but with a guarantee that it will increase by at least 3 per cent per year.

While respecting provincial and territorial jurisdiction, our Government plays a leadership role in health and health care, including these major transfers and by investing more than $1 billion per year in health research and innovation. There are currently more than 10,000 health research projects underway that will help improve healthcare across Canada.

Furthermore, we continue to make targeted investments in priority areas that will help the provinces and territories meet their responsibilities of delivering health care. For example, I recently announced renewed funding of $238 million over three years for the Canadian Institute of Health Information to continue to provide accurate and comparable health data across Canada.

Our Government will continue to invest in the health of all Canadians - but we will do it in a way that is affordable, sustainable, and reflects taxpayers' ability to pay.

Sincerely,

Leona Aglukkaq
Minister of Health

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