‘Tug-of-war’: Health spending debate between feds, provinces still up in the air – National

Canada’s federal and provincial governments’ nearly two-year fight over the need for new spending on the country’s universal healthcare system will drag into next year and could further erode confidence in the already strained system.

The healthcare system, facing challenges before the pandemic, has been put under further strain since, with a severe labor shortage leading to temporary closures of emergency rooms.

Leaders of provinces and territories, which administer health services, want more money – known as health transfers – from Ottawa to bolster the overloaded system, but the government is pushing back.

With no agreement this year, healthcare system is likely to be at the center of political debate in 2023.

Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government wants an agreement sealed next year, according to Guillaume Bertrand, a spokesman for federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos.

Provinces want the share of healthcare costs covered by federal transfers to rise to 35% from 22% now, and to maintain that level over time. The federal government says that it is already covering 35% of spending by some measures.

Ottawa is offering more money, though it has not yet said how much, but on the condition the spending meets certain objectives, including on backlogs, health-worker support and data collection. The provinces say they retain authority over decisions on how the money is spent.

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Health ministers meeting ends with no commitment from feds to up healthcare funding

“If I were to send people all the money they need in the provinces, there is no guarantee that … folks would be waiting less time in the hospitals,” Trudeau said in an end-year interview with the CBC broadcast on Tuesday.