After nearly a year of negotiations, Manitoba became the last province to sign an agreement with the federal government to fund health care.
Under the agreement, Manitoba will receive $399.6 million over 10 years to support mental health, addictions and home care services.
Manitoba will also receive $5 million to fight the opioid crisis and fight kidney disease.
“We now have a pan-Canadian agreement,” said Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott. “All of the provinces and territories have agreed to move forward with the plan we’re putting in place. ”
Manitoba Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen, however, maintains that the province did not endorse the bilateral health agreement proposed by Ottawa last December .
“What we have is a series of bilateral agreements,” says Minister Goertzen, saying the conditions vary from province to province. That is not what I would call a pan-Canadian agreement. ”
The Manitoba Minister of Health promises to continue his fight to eliminate the 3% ceiling on the rate of growth in health transfers imposed by the federal government.
We did not sign anything saying that a 3% increase is good for health care in Canada, not in Manitoba or in the other provinces.
Under the old health transfer agreement, which expired last year, the amount of transfers increased by 6% per year. When the time came to negotiate a new deal, the federal Liberals indicated that they would not accept annual increases in transfers exceeding 3%.
Initially, the provincial and territorial premiers refused to ratify the agreement. But the Trudeau government finally managed to reach individual agreements on health and social services transfers with all provinces and territories. Manitoba is the last province to sign an agreement with the federal government.
Manitoba says it will lose $2.25 billion in 10 years under this new formula.
