Health ministers making progress on funding talks, finding common ground: Duclos

The impasse over a new federal-provincial health-care deal has broken as both sides hone in on how to get better results from new spending, federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Friday.

The impasse over a new federal-provincial health-care deal has broken as both sides hone in on how to get better results from new spending, federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Friday.

At a news conference in Ottawa, Duclos said the conversation about results is "stronger now than it used to be" just weeks ago.

"I'm quite optimistic it's continuing to move in the right direction," he said.

Provincial governments and the federal Liberals are far more optimistic -- flat-out confident, in fact -- that a new long-term health-care funding deal will be reached in time for the next federal budget in the spring.

It's a complete turnaround from the fall, when a health ministers' meeting in Vancouver in early November fell apart. The provinces demanded significant increases to federal health transfers, while the federal government insisted new funds would only flow with clear accountability measures attached.

That came as the health-care system was once again stressed beyond its limit in the face of an unexpectedly early and intense flu season and labour shortages exacerbated by COVID-19 pandemic burnout. The national shortage of children's pain and fever medication did not help.

Provinces are responsible for health-care delivery, but Ottawa provides a direct transfer to cover some of the costs. The premiers want Ottawa to increase its share of the costs from a bit more than one-fifth to above one-third.