Canada’s premiers are pushing back a meeting to discuss a health-care funding proposal from the federal government. The 13 provincial and territorial leaders will meet on Monday instead of Friday.
Premiers will meet Monday to discuss Ottawa’s plan to send $46.2 billion in new money to the provinces
Richard Raycraft · CBC News
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Canada’s premiers are pushing back a meeting to discuss a health-care funding proposal from the federal government, and will now meet on Monday instead of Friday.
The provincial and territorial leaders originally were set to deliberate Friday on a health-care funding offer the federal government released earlier this week.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau presented premiers with Ottawa’s offer on Tuesday — a plan to flow roughly $46.2 billion in new money to the provinces and territories over 10 years to help prop up a faltering health-care system.
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‘We really want to make sure that not one single penny goes towards any private facilities,’ Dr. Claudette Holloway, president of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, told Power & Politics Thursday.
The premiers haven’t accepted the offer yet and Council of the Federation chair Heather Stefanson, the premier of Manitoba, said the offer is “significantly less” than what the premiers are looking for.
A spokesperson for Stefanson said the premiers have agreed to meet Monday afternoon.
A spokesperson for the Council of the Federation Secretariat said the delay is due to some premiers travelling after a first ministers’ meeting in Ottawa this week.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford met with federal Health Minister Jean Yves-Duclos and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc Thursday to talk about the proposal. Ford said the meeting was productive but there’s still “a little bit” of work to do.
With files from Janyce McGregor and David Cochrane
