Canada signs health funding deals with five provinces, says Justin Trudeau

Justin Trudeau Twitter handle of Justin Trudeau

Justin Trudeau. Credit: Twitter Handle of Trudeau

Ottawa/CMEDIA: Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today while speaking with students in Halifax the signing of health-care agreements in principle with all four Atlantic provinces and Ontario.

Trudeau’s announcement was made pre-empting a news conference scheduled for later in the day with Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc.

Trudeau had offered the premiers $46 billion earlier this month in new money for health care over the next decade.

As part of the deal, a promise was made by the federal government to negotiate bilateral agreements with each premier to target specific priority areas such as primary care, mental-health care and data sharing.

Details of the deals with Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prince Edward Island Premier Dennis King were released by the federal government.

The Ontario deal is worth $74 billion included $8.4 billion through a bilateral agreement, while P.E.I.’s deal is worth $996 million, including $288 million in a one-on-one agreement.

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