Ottawa – Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance gave the following overview in Budget 2022 investments in health care. She gave the following statement:
I really want to thank Dr Saini and his team, and the students here. It’s rejuvenating and heart-lifting to see the amazing work you are doing every day.
We know these last two years have placed Canada’s health care system under enormous strain.
Even in the best of times, it isn’t easy to be a doctor, or a nurse, or any type of health care professional. And it’s not easy to be studying to be a doctor, or a nurse, or any type of health care professional.
So I would like to start by taking a moment to thank all the health care students here at Dalhousie Medical School.
Canadians need you—we all really need you. We know how hard it is to prepare yourselves to take care of us and we are really grateful. Speaking as the mother of teenagers and young adults, I know your parents are so proud of you, and Canada is proud of you, too.
Canadians are also rightly proud of our publicly funded universally-accessible health care system. It has saved tens of thousands of lives over the last two years even under incredible pressure and strain.
But the pandemic has also worsened long-standing issues, including the shortages of health care workers and the lack of access to primary care in communities across Canada.
Since the start of the pandemic, our government has invested more than $69 billion to fight COVID-19 and protect Canadians.
That includes a $2 billion top-up—proposed just last month—to tackle the pandemic backlogs of surgeries and procedures. But we need to do more.
Last week, I tabled the budget, our government’s plan to make life more affordable for Canadians. And that very much includes accessible, quality health care.
No Canadian should have to worry about whether they can afford to see a dentist. No one should lose a tooth or get sick and have to go to the emergency room because they couldn’t get a cavity filled, and that is why our government is really glad to be moving forward with a dental care plan for families earning less than $90,000 per year. Our plan will start by focusing on children under 12 beginning this year, with full implementation for all Canadians by 2025.
And of course—as Nova Scotians know all too well —to have great health care, we need more health care professionals.
The wait list to see a doctor here in Nova Scotia is too long. Far too many rural communities across this great province still lack the primary health care they need.
We need to encourage health care professionals—like the amazing students here at Dal—to stay and work in Nova Scotia. And we need to make it easier for new Canadians with international credentials to do the health care jobs they have already been trained to do.
Our Budget will help bring more health care workers to the communities that need them most.
I am so glad to be here to announce that the federal government will be increasing student loan forgiveness for nurses and doctors working in underserved rural communities—up to $30,000 for nurses and up to $60,000 for doctors.
We will also review the definition of “rural communities” to be sure communities that need this extra support are not left out.
The Canadian economy has recovered 115 per cent of the jobs we lost in the depths of the pandemic. Our unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in five decades. It’s at 5.3 per cent, which is the lowest it has been since 1976 when comparable data first began to be collected. That is a very, very good thing. It is really good news, particularly after a pandemic where three million Canadians lost their jobs and the economy shrunk by 17%.
But we all know that to maintain a strong economy, we need to continue to invest in people— to invest in Canadians. And good health care is at the heart of that.
Through the Budget we tabled last week, we are taking action to ensure Canadians receive the care they deserve—and to ensure that Canada remains the very best place in the world to live, to work, to go to school, and to raise a family.
Thank you.