Trudeau turns his back on Canadians by not showing up at Premiers’ meeting on health-care crisis

In response to the news about Premiers’ meeting to discuss crisis in children’s hospitals, Canada’s NDP Leader, Jagmeet Singh, issued the following statement:

“Average wait times in emergency rooms have hit a record high of over 20 hours in Ontario. Sick children are filling up ERs across the country and parents are feeling anxious and helpless. Health-care workers have been overworked for months and now they’re completely overwhelmed. Hospitals are forced to cancel surgeries and appointments to redirect staff to help treat sick children at other facilities. This is a crisis.

The premiers are meeting today to discuss the worsening crisis in our ERs and Children’s hospitals. For weeks, New Democrats have been urging Prime Minister Trudeau to sit down with the premiers, find solutions and deliver help urgently. But he won’t even show up for a meeting. This health-care crisis has been getting worse, and now doctors are warning that children could die because of the high wait times.

Nothing can be more important than getting our kids the care they need. The prime minister has got to show the leadership that Canadians expect and start working on solutions with the premiers to fix this. Canadians expect their prime minister to show up and defend their right to public health care – not to point fingers and dodge responsibility.

His lack of federal leadership and refusal to increase the health-care transfers to the provinces and territories has opened the door for Conservative premiers who want to gut and privatize the public health care that Canadians rely on.

If I were prime minister, no parent would have to explain to me why this crisis requires an urgent response.

The very least the prime minister can do is meet with the premiers.

Canadians expect and deserve better than this for their children. Justin Trudeau needs to explain to parents why he won’t even show up and try to fix a system he has underfunded for years.”