The premiers met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa Tuesday to discuss the federal government’s new 10-year healthcare funding plan..The federal government is laying it on thick, claiming it's providing $46 billion in new funding. But that’s spread out over 10 years, meaning it's only $4.6 billion per year — significantly less than the $28 billion per year some premiers had been calling for..Either way, both figures are eye-popping amounts of money, which means there is a lot to digest here..The deal includes an increase to the Canada Health Transfer — which is an equal, per-capita, transfer to each province that comes with only limited strings attached..That’s the carrot..But, the carrot represents less than $20 billion of the $46 billion total..Most of the rest of the money is being set aside for separate, one-on-one deals with each province and territory, where the money will only be provided with strict limitations and requirements and with Ottawa expecting to be able to dictate exactly when and where the money will be spent..That’s the stick..But, there’s a bigger problem..While the deal might look like a mix of carrot and stick, for Alberta at least, the carrot is rotten..Even if there were no restrictions or limitations on the funding being provided by Ottawa — increased federal spending on health-care is still a bad deal for the West. Let’s not forget that whenever the federal government funds a program or project, Western Canada ends up footing a disproportional share of the bill. That’s because every single federal program is subsidized by the tax dollars of the West..You may be familiar with this idea in relation to equalization, but the concept applies to every federal program..It’s like the old story about 10 people going to dinner together..If everyone is paying for their own meals, everyone orders carefully for themselves, while if everyone is splitting the bill evenly, that can create perverse incentives — people may order more than they actually need. But, now take it up a notch, and imagine a couple of the friends will be covering more than their share of the bill, a couple of friends will cover their own share, while the others will barely pay anything at all, and you have a rough approximation of federal transfers in Canada..So, when it comes to voting on dining plans, the six friends always vote for more meals, fancier restaurants, bigger servings, extra wine and don’t forget dessert!.Heck, why wouldn’t you when someone else (the West) is paying?.The problem is, the more we shift programs from provincial jurisdiction to federal jurisdiction, the greater that financial disparity gets because the West is subsidizing more and more things..The fairest deal for the West isn’t for the federal government to spend more money on health-care, it’s actually for the federal government to stop funding health-care entirely. That way, the federal government could simply cut taxes and return health-care to being a provincial jurisdiction, as it says in the constitution anyway..Then, provincial governments can collect their own taxes for health-care and spend it in the ways they see fit, instead of constantly having to beg Ottawa for money, which comes with more strings attached..In short, we don’t want more of Ottawa’s money, we want them to stop taking more of ours!.But, that’s not what’s on offer..Instead, once again, the federal government is offering the provinces more money in exchange for more federal control over provincial jurisdiction..We can’t take this deal..It’s a trap..It would effectively allow the federal government to bribe the provinces with extra funding, in exchange for taking over yet another area of provincial jurisdiction, all while making the West pay for it!.As Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said in July at a United Conservative Party leadership debate: “I know that we’ve been passive for so long that we tend to forget that the Constitution actually gives us sovereignty in the matters that are enumerated to us,” she said..“If you look up Section 92, 92A, 93, 94, and 95, and I read them frequently, you will see that we have allowed the federal government to walk all over us in every single area of our jurisdiction.”.Here’s another gem, from the same debate:.“We always lose when we go up against Ottawa… They take all of our money and they dribble it back with conditions, they steal the rest and they use it to buy votes in Quebec and Atlantic Canada.”.That is the real issue here. The federal government has continuously used power-sharing or conditional financial transfer agreements to intervene in provincial affairs and expand its reach into the personal and private lives of Canadians..At some point, we will need to redefine the power structure of a country that has seen massive federal overreach in almost every jurisdiction that money can buy..At some point, the power trip the federal government is on will have to stop..The time for tinkering is over..A constitutional convention is needed to discuss fundamental changes to the way this country is governed..For the sake of national unity, we must continue to push towards that convention, and fight for a deal that keeps the federal government in its lane — permanently.
