Health demands ‘out of the realm’ of what feds would consider: Morneau
OTTAWA — Canada’s finance minister is calling provincial demands for bigger federal health transfers “out of the realm” of anything Ottawa would consider as the federation appears headed for a showdown next week over the future of health funding.
In an interview ahead of Monday’s federal-provincial meeting on health financing, Bill Morneau insisted Friday that the feds won’t agree to keep the annual increases in transfers — the so-called health “escalator” — above a three per cent floor.
The Trudeau government also won’t entertain calls to raise the federal share of spending to 25 per cent of provincial health budgets, Morneau told The Canadian Press in an interview.
Instead, he said the government wants to explore ways to work with the provinces on specific investments in areas that Ottawa believes will have an measurable impact, such as home care and mental health.