New Nanos Poll: Canadians want more federal investment in health care

NUPGE News
November 23, 2011

As Canada’s Ministers of Health prepare to meet in Halifax a new Nanos poll finds nearly 90% of Canadians want to see the Harper government invest more in health care with a focus on the recruitment of health care professionals.

A poll conducted by Nanos Research on behalf of the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) and the Canadian Health Professionals Secretariat (CHPS) finds Canadians want the Harper government to invest more in health care and address shortages of health professionals.

“The poll shows Canadians still see health care as their first priority and want the Harper government to invest more in the system,” said NUPGE’s National President James Clancy. “Corporate tax cuts are not a priority for Canadians, funding their health care system is.”

“More than 88% polled Agree or Somewhat Agree that the federal government should invest more in health care with strong support for either a five year or 10 year federal funding agreement for the next health accord.”
Canadians also felt a greater investment was needed to recruit more health professionals.

“People understand that timely and quality health care delivery requires an adequate supply of skilled health professionals,” said CHPS co-chair Mike Luff.

“They ranked the recruitment of health professionals as their top priority and it's a clear sign that they don't believe governments are doing enough in this area.”

Clancy hopes the Harper government listens to the wishes of Canadians when it comes to supporting health care.

“Canadians value their public health care system. They want to see the federal government invest more and improve the public system we have.”

The random telephone survey of 1,202 Canadians 18 years of age or older was conducted between November 16th and 21st. The margin of error for a survey of 1,202 respondents is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.