Ottawa: The federal government has pledged to increase health funding for Canada’s provinces and territories by $196.1 billion. These funds will be received by the provinces and territories in the next ten years.
The Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made this announcement after meeting with premiers on Wednesday and said that a new fund of $ 46.2 billion to infuse a new life into Canada’s crumbling health care system.
With this new offer, the amount will be given to provinces and territories through Canada Health Transfer (CHT) and the federal government will also sign bilateral deals with every province and territory.
These new funds will be given in the hope that provincial and territorial governments will maintain their existing expenditure on health and bring complete transparency in the way health-related information is collected, shared and used and accountability will be fixed.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, along with some of his select ministers, presented the proposal to provincial and territorial authorities on Tuesday afternoon.
This was Trudeau’s first private meeting with ministers since the COVID-19 pandemic. Initial indications have been that the federal government’s offer has not met the provinces’ demands and most ministers are not satisfied with it.
Meanwhile, $25 billion will be allocated over the next ten years depending on the health care needs of each province and territory, but these will include priority sectors such as access to health care for families, investment in mental health and substance abuse services and modernization of the health information system.
Meanwhile, Territorial Health Investment Fund will spend $150 million over five years to cover medical travel and cover the cost of health care delivery in the North.