The federal government announced on February 7 that it would spend $198.6 billion over 10 years, including $46.2 billion in new funds, to improve health services across Canada.

That includes an immediate $2 billion boost to the Canada Health Transfer (CHT), the largest government transfer to provinces and territories.

Provincial and territorial chief ministers have since accepted the proposal and started bilateral negotiations, but all have stressed that the offer falls far short of what they had called for. So far, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba and the four Atlantic provinces have signed the agreement with preliminary agreements.

” The federal funding on offer is well below what Quebecers can expect […] However, the need in the healthcare network is urgent, and as such, Quebec intends to use its share of federal funding. »

In their letter, the finance and health ministers, as well as the minister responsible for Canadian relations and Canadian Francophony, also insisted on reaffirming that health is a provincial responsibility.

Although largely insufficient, the Quebec government intends to use these funds […] to implement the necessary health changes. He wants to do this with no strings attached, with the guarantee […] that his specificity and his desire to exercise his full autonomy in relation to the planning, organization and management of his healthcare system are fully recognizedwrote the ministers.

For more than two years, the provinces and territories have collectively called for federal spending on health care to increase from 22% to 35% of spending, an increase of about $28 billion per year, up from $280 billion over 10 years .

They also requested that this large adjustment be followed by a 5% annual increase in TCS, which Justin Trudeau’s government agreed to for a period of five years.

But the gap between the federal government’s offer and what the 13 provincial and territorial leaders had hoped would be a fundamental adjustment to fund their healthcare systems is $234 billion over 10 years.

Of the $46.2 billion increase offered by the federal government, Ontario would receive about $16 billion more over 10 years, while Quebec would receive about $9 billion once the agreement was signed.