Vancouver hosts first in-person meeting of health ministers in 4 years – CBC
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix calls on Ottawa to ‘take its responsibilities seriously’
Nov 07, 2022
Provincial and territorial health ministers will meet with their federal counterpart in Vancouver Monday for the first in-person meeting about the state of health-care funding in the country in four years.
The two-day meeting, co-chaired by federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos and B.C. Minister of Health Adrian Dix, is expected to centre around the Canada Health Transfer. It’s the largest major federal transfer to the provinces and territories and funds health care across the country.
In the 2020-2021 fiscal year the Canada Health Transfer was more than $42 billion. Over the summer the federal government added $2 billion in a one-time top-up to the $45.2 billion it says provinces and territories will be getting this year.
Provinces like B.C. have been pushing Ottawa to increase health transfers as they struggle to meet health-care demands from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, opioid and mental health crises.
