'A lot of work to do' but Trudeau 'confident' premiers will agree to health funding deal
CTV
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says federal health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos was right in saying there is 'still lots of work to do' before reaching a deal with the provinces for increased health-care funding, but that he's 'confident' that the two levels of government will get there.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says federal health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos was right in saying there is "still lots of work to do" before reaching a deal with the provinces for increased health-care funding, but that he's "confident" that the two levels of government will get there.
"I'm glad that the health minister is pointing out that there's still a lot of work to do, because there is. But, I'm also very pleased to be able to say that I am confident that we're going to get to a good place, because premiers have been hearing the same things that I have," Trudeau said during an event in Windsor, Ont., on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Duclos said there was "still lots of work to do" before reaching a deal, despite increasing indications from other key players that the federal government is nearing a funding agreement in exchange for improvements to the system.
Seeming to pour some cold water on the prospect of being very close to an agreement on increasing the Canada Health Transfer, Duclos told reporters on Prince Edward Island on Tuesday that it is something both sides will have to keep working on "in the weeks to come."
"Lots of work still needs to be done before we come to an agreement on the importance of those results and how we're going to achieve them," Duclos said, speaking about five categories of health-care improvements the federal government wants to see tied to any funding boost.
The five metrics Duclos said the federal government wants the provinces to commit to results on are:
"So yes, we are all looking forward to a final agreement at some point, but we are all very mindful and there is still lots of work to do before we get there," Duclos said.
