As health care systems across Canada face staffing shortages and struggle to provide services, the Yukon’s premier met with the prime minister and other provincial and territorial leaders Tuesday to discuss the country’s labouring health care system.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered the provinces and territories nearly $200 billion over 10 years – including $46.2 billion in new spending – to fund health care.

Included in the offer is a $2-billion Canada Health Transfer top-up to each jurisdiction to “address immediate pressures on the health care system” like surgery backlogs and strains on emergency rooms.

The offer also sets aside $25 billion over 10 years for shared priorities: family health services, mental health services, health worker recruitment and retention, modernizing systems and addressing mental health and substance use needs. 

The provincial and territorial leaders didn’t reach a deal yesterday, but are continuing to negotiate with the federal government on the proposal.

Still, Ranj Pillai said he’s optimistic with what he saw Tuesday – exactly a month after he was sworn in as premier.

“I think Yukoners can be happy with the fact that there’s some really good resources that have been tabled today to implement our Putting People First Plan over the next number of years,” he told the Star Tuesday afternoon.

He was referencing the territory’s 2020 report which recommended a number of ways the Yukon could improve health and social programs.

The federal offer includes $150 million over five years for the Territorial Health Investment fund.

Pillai said he hasn’t been told yet how that money would be divided among the three territories. He also said he wants a long-term agreement in place for that funding. 

“For us, our goal is to see how sustainable this funding can be over the next number of years,” he said.

The federal government would also spend $2 billion over 10 years to “address the unique challenges Indigenous peoples face when it comes to fair and equitable access to quality and culturally safe health care services.” 

Though Pillai is new to the premiership, other premiers have long been asking Ottawa to increase the health care costs it covers from 22 per cent to 35 per cent, which would translate approximately to an additional $28 billion per year.

Tuesday’s offer averages to an increase of less than $5 billion annually.

Pillai said although premiers had been asking for more, the current offer could be very beneficial for the Yukon, providing much-needed resources for a health care system with aging infrastructure and a growing family doctor wait-list.

Dr. Alex Kmet, the president of the Yukon Medical Association, told the Star extra funding could go a long way in a number of areas.

He said a recruitment and retention program for health care professionals is “top of the list” as the territory’s population grows and the system struggles to meet capacity.

Staff shortages, he said, are already weighing heavily on medical professionals.

“As someone who works in the system who doesn’t have any more hours in the day to work, because we’re already working to our limit, it’s very frustrating,” he said.

Attracting health care workers is a challenge though, Kmet added, as shortages are a problem all over the country, and it’s difficult to incentivize doctors and nurses to stay in remote communities long-term.

Pillai said that issue is a priority of this week’s talks.

Leaders are considering speeding up the process for recognizing foreign medical credentials so that Canada can bring in health care professionals from abroad more quickly to address shortages, he said.

But staffing levels are just one area he wants to see addressed. 

He said investments in health care infrastructure are also crucial.

The territory is currently without a walk-in clinic and Whitehorse General Hospital, he said, needs upgrades to its operating room in order to meet surgery needs.

The Yukon Hospital Corp. announced last month that 150 elective surgeries scheduled from Feb. 13 to March 31 would have to be postponed due to a shortage of nurses.

In the territory’s rural communities, staffing is an even bigger issue.

In October 2022, Health and Social Services Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee told the legislative assembly the Yukon’s vacancy rate for community nurses exceeded 40 per cent.

Dr. Kmet said once a deal with the federal government is reached, he wants the Yukon government to collaborate with medical professionals to determine where funds are allocated.

He also hopes national licensing will be part of the negotiations, to make it easier for doctors and nurses to move to different health jurisdictions where need is greater. 

This week’s first ministers’ meeting is the first since 2020, when premiers met with the prime minister to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Canada’s health ministers met with Jean-Yves Duclos, the federal Health minister, in November 2022 to discuss possible fixes for the country’s individual provincial and territorial health care systems. It was the first time the ministers had met since 2018.

Those meetings led the federal government to offer $18.1 billion in funding over five years for Canada’s territories and provinces through the Canada Health Transfer. The offer was rejected and no deal was reached.

Pillai said Tuesday’s talks were a “good start”, and he’s looking to get the “best possible deal” for the territory.

He said negotiations will now focus on how money identified in Ottawa’s offer would be allocated, with more details on a timeline of that funding.

“I feel pretty optimistic that over the next couple of days, we’ll get clarity on the total package of resources,” he said. “It’s something that is really going to help us in delivering the health care to Yukoners that they deserve.”