Canada column for Sunday, Oct. 16/16
THE CANADIAN REPORT
(c) By Jim Fox
Canadians are
taking issue with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for referring
to their health-care system as being “catastrophic.”
Canada’s “mostly free”
publicly funded doctor and hospital services can’t cope with demand, resulting
in people going to the U.S. for treatment, Trump said.
The Fraser
Institute said 45,619 people sought non-emergency medical procedures outside of
Canada last year largely because of long wait times at home.
The number is about
1 percent of the patients of physicians who responded to a survey, the report
said.
Data from doctors
gives a “general estimation” of the number of “medical tourists,” said Bacchus
Barua of the Vancouver-based institute.
The numbers are
then applied to the total number of medical procedures carried out in Canada,
as recorded by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, he added.
Some critics are
skeptical of the institute’s methodology.
Even so, Ron
Labonte, a health-sciences professor, said the number of people leaving for
hospital care is very small.
---
Canada’s spending
deficit will be $5 billion more than predicted this fiscal year, TD Bank says.
The sluggish
economy is to blame, it said, predicting the federal government’s deficit will
reach $34 billion for the year.
This will require
the government to dip into the $6-billion annual cushion set aside for
“unforeseen events,” the bank said.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau said it is
“prudent risk planning,” based on the status of the global economy, to have that
money available.
---
News in brief:
- An agreement has
finally been reached to divide the remaining assets of Nortel Networks. There’s
$7.3 billion U.S. for claimants including former employees and pensioners in
one of the largest bankruptcy cases in Canadian history. Nortel went out of
business in 2009 and the high-technology company was once worth $300 billion
and employed 90,000 people around the world.
- Member of
Parliament Tony Clement, considered to be one of the leading contenders to
become Conservative leader, has dropped out of the race, citing a lack of
financial support and other issues. The successor to former Prime Minister
Stephen Harper will be named next May 27. The candidates are Maxime Bernier, Michael
Chong, Kellie Leitch, Deepak Obhrai, Erin O’Toole, Andrew Scheer and Brad
Trost.
---
Facts and figures:
Canada’s dollar is higher at 76.22 cents U.S.
while the U.S. dollar returns $1.311 Canadian, before exchange fees.
The Bank of Canada’s
key interest rate is unchanged at 0.5 percent while the prime-lending rate is
2.7 percent.
Stock markets are higher,
with the Toronto exchange index at 14,619 points while the TSX Venture index is
775 points.
The average price for
gas in Canada has dropped to $1.053 a liter or $4 (Canadian) for a U.S. gallon.
Lotto 6/49: (Oct.
12) 8, 28, 31, 40, 42 and 47; bonus 37. (Oct. 8) 3, 27, 33, 38, 42 and 48;
bonus 32. Lotto Max: (Oct. 7) 8, 9, 12, 24, 29, 36 and 37; bonus 17.
---
Regional briefs:
- Former Alberta
Premier Jim Prentice was among the four people killed when a small plane
crashed shortly after takeoff in Kelowna, British Columbia. Prentice, 60, a
married father of three, was returning to Calgary. He was a federal Member of
Parliament for six years and Conservative premier from September 2014 until
his resignation when the party lost the May 2015 election.
- The last hurrah
from Hurricane Matthew caused massive flooding and power outages across Nova
Scotia and Newfoundland. About 80,000 customers lost power as winds reached 50
to 80 mph and brought down trees. Heaviest rainfall was 14 inches in Sydney and
Gander.
- Environmentalists
want the Ontario government to refuse a water-taking permit for Nestle in
Center Wellington, west of Toronto. The community lost its bid to Nestle to buy
the well to ensure future drinking water supplies in the fast-growing area. Nestle
wants the well as a backup to its plant in nearby Aberfoyle.
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Jim Fox can be reached at canadareport@hotmail.com
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