OTTAWA—The last time Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with his provincial and territorial counterparts, they discussed the “potential” for the Omicron strain of COVID-19 to lead to a rapid resurgence of cases which “could” put a strain on Canada’s health-care system. The dire forecast saw Trudeau stress the need for all premiers to get on board to promote vaccine uptake and also federal benefits to help the economy, two federal sources with knowledge of the call told the Star. For their part, the premiers pressed Trudeau to speed up access and delivery of rapid tests, act more swiftly to procure COVID-19 therapeutics and also more broadly, increase health-care spending to help provinces expand their capacity to deal with the ongoing crisis. The provinces also reiterated their request for the Liberals to increase the current Canada Health Transfer payment to 35 per cent from 22 per cent of total health care spending. Now there are calls for help providing health care, running vaccine clinics and assisting remote communities like Ontario’s Bearskin Lake, where more than half the population has COVID-19.

Source: thestar January 11, 2022 17:57 UTC