Chaoulli Ten Years On: Still About Nothing?

Abstract

Five years ago this author presented the paper Chaoulli Five Years On: All Bark and No Bite? The paper argued that five years after the Supreme Court of Canada’s Chaoulli v. Quebec ruling, there was still no noticeable impact on Canada’s system of provincial single-payer universal health insurance plans. The paper argued that this was because the large life and health insurance firms had little if any interest in competing with publicly funded health insurance in Canada and because politicians saw little to gain by going down that road. Ten years on, even as the opponents of the present health insurance regime try to use Chaoulli v. Quebec to force changes in the laws of other provinces, this is still, for the most part, the case. Unlike the legendary comedy program Sienfeld, Chaoulli v. Quebec is not totally about nothing. However, so far, it has proven to be about as close to being about nothing as any ruling of the Supreme Court is likely to get.