Manitoba looking for more money from Ottawa for shared-health priorities

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This article was published 28/12/2023 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The NDP government wants Ottawa to put up more cash for health care as the province hammers out a new bilateral funding agreement with the federal government.

In a prepared statement, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara expressed optimism the province will ink an agreement with Ottawa in the new year to pay for shared health priorities.

Asagwara was not available for an interview Thursday.

“Our government has put a priority on increasing investments in health care and ensuring that Manitobans receive the care that they deserve close to home,” Asagwara said in a statement to the Free Press.

“We are working with our federal partners to increase the share of federal health funding through the Canada Health Transfer.”

In February, the former Progressive Conservative government signed an agreement in principle with Ottawa worth $6.74 billion over 10 years, including $1.2 billion for the bilateral agreement.

The agreement in principle followed a $198-billion health-care deal offered to the provinces and territories that month by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The deal will see the federal government’s Canada Health Transfer grow by at least five per cent annually for the next five years.

It also included $25 billion over 10 years for one-on-one agreements on shared priorities, including mental health, family medicine, surgical backlogs, human resources and data collection.

Negotiations on Manitoba’s bilateral agreement — which included a requirement to develop a specific, three-year action plan to demonstrate how the money would be spent — were ongoing heading into the Oct. 3 provincial election in which the NDP win a majority government.

British Columbia, Prince Edward Island and Alberta have all signed their respective bilateral agreements in recent weeks.

Manitoba has until March 31 to finalize an agreement if it wants to receive funding for the current fiscal year.

The health minister’s office did not respond to followup questions about its reason for requesting a bigger slice of the Canada Health Transfer.

Asagwara’s statement did not specify how much more the NDP government was seeking from Ottawa. It did, however, indicate early discussions on a new funding agreement have been encouraging.

Last month, following a meeting with federal Health Minister Mark Holland, Asagwara told the Free Press the NDP government wanted a bilateral agreement and action plan that reflected the governing party’s priorities and values.

The Manitoba government will receive $1.88 billion from the Canada Health Transfer in 2024-25.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca