Canada's largest province and some of its smallest are contending with the same issues: emergency room closures, hospital staffing shortages, surgery delays, and more.
That was the upshot of Monday's meetings between the Atlantic premiers, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and federal Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc.
The group met in New Brunswick to discuss shared priorities, including health care, energy security, immigration, and labour shortages.
"Health care is the number 1 priority," Ford said.
The provinces can't fix their health care systems alone, Ford added.
"We're going to come up with a strong solution that works for everyone in Canada but again, we can't do it alone. We need the support of the federal government," he said.
Ford did not explicitly call for an increase in the Canada Health Transfer, but it has been a long-standing ask of all premiers.
Ford slightly changed his tune from previous health-care-related press conferences when the main request was more money.
"Doing the same over and over again, throwing billions and billions of dollars at a solution and keeping the status quo is just not working," he said. "We need to be creative. We need to come up with ideas from the (health-care) sector."
One of those creative ideas could be opening the door to more private delivery.
Ford's government recently unveiled a plan to help get ER closures under control. It includes moving some surgeries out of hospitals and into private clinics.
"We will also consider options for further increasing surgical capacity by increasing the number of OHIP-covered surgical procedures performed at independent health facilities," reads a passage from Ontario's "Plan to Stay Open."
READ MORE: Ford government unveils sweeping health-care changes in response to hospital crisis
New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs was asked about using the private sector more in his province, as Ford has done.
"All options are on the table," Higgs said.
"Things are going to change. And yes, that could be in a different form. And I don't know what that's going to look like," he added, saying he wants more input from medical professionals.
Higgs was clear, however, that "what we're talking about here is publicly funded health care."
Not wanting to let a viral moment go to waste, Ford and LeBlanc posed in bee-keeper gear, which "ensured adequate protection from our pollinator friends" after Ford swallowed a bee last week.
Great to catch up with Premier @fordnation this morning in Grande-Digue - we ensured adequate protection from our pollinator friends! 🐝
Excellente rencontre ce matin à Grande-Digue avec le PM @fordnation - on s’est assuré d’être bien protégé contre nos amis les pollinisateurs! pic.twitter.com/GcxrxrEW0v
— Dominic LeBlanc (@DLeBlancNB) August 22, 2022
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