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PEI premier Pat Binns is well briefed on health care for Mondays first ministers conference thanks to a CUPE delegation who met with him and health minister Jamie Ballem September 6 to present CUPEs Program for Health Care Reform.

Led by CUPE rep Bill McKinnon and CUPE researcher Stan Marshall, the group said CUPE supports the premiers efforts to restore health care funding.

“Of course, we fully support any efforts to obtain more health care funding,” McKinnon told the media afterwards. But “wed like to see some teeth on the accountability side, not just providing a block of funding and say, Here provinces, do with it what you will.”

The delegation also said that the report card proposal will not result in health care reforms or greater account-ability. And they suggested that PEI must adopt a long-term vision for strengthening medicare. CUPEs vision offers insights into how to do that.

In reply, Binns said he was optimistic the federal government would restore about $20 million that it cut from the PEI health system.