Premiers agree to accept Ottawa’s health funding offer: “A step in the right direction”

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson says the premiers have agreed to accept the health-care funding deal offered to them by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, although they say it is far less than they had been asking for.

Stefanson, who currently chairs the premiers association known as the Council of the Federation, oversaw a virtual meeting on Monday where the premiers discussed last week’s offer of over $46 billion in new federal health-care spending over the next 10 years.

“We believe it’s a step in the right direction,” Stefanson said in an interview with Global News on 680 CJOB in Winnipeg. “But at the same time, we also recognize that this is not the answer to what we need in the way of long-term sustainable funding in health care in this country.”

The new money means Ottawa will be sending a total of $196.1 billion in health-care funding, the bulk of which was already laid out in existing agreements, to the provinces over the next decade. The offer was still shy of the premiers’ demand for Ottawa to increase its share of health spending from 22 per cent to 35 per cent.

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