Letter from the Prime Minister to the Provincial Premiers and Territorial Leaders

PMO Press Office: (613) 957-5555

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January 25th 1999

Dear Premier:

Thank you for your letter of January 22, 1999, written on behalf of all the Premiers and Territorial Leaders. Your letter was clearly written in a spirit of collaboration and partnership and demonstrates a constructive willingness to work together with the Government of Canada to ensure that the health and other social needs of Canadians are met.

All of our governments have worked hard over recent years to get our fiscal houses in order. As a result, Canada's public finances are in better shape today than they have been for decades. This achievement would not have been possible without the support and sacrifice of Canadians.

Of course, the uncertainty of the international economic environment and the high level of total government debt outstanding oblige us all to continue to be fiscally prudent. We all recognize that we cannot afford to undo the progress we have made. That being said, all agree that a significant increase in health care funding is necessary to reassure Canadians that the best quality publicly funded health services possible continue to be available for them in the future. For its part, I can assure you that the Government of Canada wants to be able to increase health funding significantly in our next budget.

I welcome the important commitments you make in your letter to the five principles of medicare, to using all of any increase in federal transfers for additional health care spending in your provinces and territories, to making health care as effective as possible, to making information about the health care system available to Canadians, and to working in partnership with the Government of Canada to help achieve these objectives. We share these commitments and hope that we can also make real progress in enhancing accountability to Canadians regarding their health and social programs and in protecting the mobility of Canadians.

Our collaborative work on a renewed health partnership and on a new social union partnership more generally, along with increased health funding, will reassure Canadians that governments are working together to address their health and other social needs.

I am informed that significant progress has been made on a health accord and towards the successful conclusion of a social union framework agreement. I believe that agreements on both are within reach. I am hopeful that federal and provincial negotiators can achieve a successful conclusion in parallel on both files in the very near future and hopefully over the next days.

Yours sincerely,

ORIGINAL SIGNED BY JEAN CHRÉTIEN