By Paul Vieira
OTTAWA-Canada said Tuesday it would spend an additional $34 billion to help the country's provincial governments deliver publicly-funded health-care services to Canadians.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau revealed the new spending while meeting with the country's provincial premiers, who have pleaded for more cash from Ottawa to help deal with long wait times in emergency rooms, backlogs for surgeries and shortages of doctors and nurses. Canada's healthcare system is run separately by each province.
Healthcare systems around the world, hit hard by Covid, are under pressure as people live longer and have a wider range of treatment options. Aging populations mean costs will keep growing.
Mr. Trudeau said the federal government was contributing about 46 billion Canadian dollars, or the equivalent of $34 billion, in new money over a 10-year period. With this new spending pledge, Mr. Trudeau said the federal government would provide C$196 billion over the next decade to the 10 provinces and three territories to be deployed for health care.
Provincial premiers said they were unimpressed with Mr. Trudeau's offer. "This proposal is fiscally limited," said British Columbia Premier David Eby. Health-care spending accounts for roughly 40% of provincial budgets. Provinces in Canada are also responsible for delivering education.
Last week, Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland warned the government had limited fiscal leeway to heed the demands of provinces.
The crunch on health care has forced some of Canada's biggest provinces to turn to private clinics to help reduce the surgery backlog. Ontario, Canada's most-populous province, last month outlined a plan to allow more patients to go to private treatment centers for cataract and joint-replacement surgeries as well as for services such as MRIs or CT scans.
Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
02-07-23 1726ET
