Surrey-Newton Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal Introduced a private members’ bill on September 22 that aims to amend the Canada Health Act to make provincial governments more accountable in how they deliver health care services.
Dhaliwal said his bill, if successful, would make full federal health transfers conditional on provincial governments “developing and publishing an accountability framework to ensure Canadians have timely access to care and that health dollars are being spent efficiently.”
The bill will be debated at second reading in the House of Commons. It calls for the establishing of benchmarks for “timely access” to primary care, elective procedures, emergency services, and annual reporting to confirm they’re being met.
“This bill is about giving Canadians confidence that our health care system is delivering results,” Dhaliwal said. “Provinces will continue to design and manage their own systems, but they must do so transparently, with clear benchmarks and reporting, so Canadians can see whether progress is being made.”
Dhaliwal said Canadians “deserve to know that every dollar invested in health care is being used effectively to reduce wait times and improve access to care” and that his bill, if passed, would “strengthen accountability while respecting provincial jurisdiction over health care delivery.”
Meantime, a study conducted by MEI, an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, and Calgary, indicates that in 2024 nearly 143,000 British Columbians left emergency rooms without receiving treatment.
Emmanuelle Faubert – an economist and author of the report, says “these patients are not leaving because they feel better, but because the system is failing them. Solving the crisis in primary care is essential if we want to keep patients from continuing to fall through the cracks. Policymakers must find the political courage to open up healthcare delivery to independent and alternative providers, or else this crisis is bound to get worse.”
MEI found that last year B.C. recorded nearly 2.6 million emergency room visits and of these 142,961 – that’s 5.5 per cent of all visits – ended with a patient leaving before getting treatment. Moreover, in 2024 the number of Canadian patients who left a hospital without treatment rose by 35.6 per cent.
