Premiers ‘disappointed’ with Trudeau’s $196 billion, 10-year health-care offer

Ottawa’s proposal to increase federal health-care transfers to the provinces and territories by $196 billion over 10 years amounts to just $600 million a year in new money for B.C., which Premier David Eby dismissed as “fiscally limited.”

Of the $46 billion in new health-care cash offered by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday, B.C.’s share breaks down to $6 billion over 10 years: $2.7 billion for the Canada Health Transfer and $3.3 billion in bilateral funding for B.C.’s health-care priorities, which include community care and mental health and addiction.

That $600 million a year is far short of the $3.9 billion B.C. was pushing for if Ottawa increased its share of the Canada Health Transfer from 22 per cent to 35 per cent. It is also a drop in the bucket in the province’s $27-billion health budget, $6 billion of which comes from the federal government.

Eby appeared alongside the 12 other premiers at a news conference in Ottawa following their two-hour meeting with Trudeau on Tuesday.