Federal health budget not up to snuff: Manitoba

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This article was published 07/04/2022 (896 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Finance Minister Cameron Friesen panned the Trudeau government’s budget for failing to deliver a substantial increase to health transfers to provinces.

“Now more than ever, the federal government needs to restore a sustainable health-care funding partnership through the Canada Health Transfer,” Friesen said in a statement Friday, a day after the budget was introduced in the House of Commons.

“At just 22 per cent, the federal share is simply inadequate, as the pandemic sadly proved. Immediate and sustained investments are required to increase the federal share to 35 per cent,” he said.

Friesen’s press secretary said the minister was unavailable for an interview Friday because he’s preparing Manitoba’s budget, which will be delivered Tuesday.

The federal budget includes a slight boost to health-care transfers to the provinces based on the existing formula, due to economic growth caused by soaring commodity and oil prices. On average, the federal government said it funds 33 per cent of provincial and territorial health expenditures.

On Thursday, federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the provinces and territories will have to work hard, and with Ottawa, to find common ground on the health transfer, arguing it’s not about how much money the federal government spends, but how it is spent.

Friesen said Premier Heather Stefanson will continue to work with her counterparts across the country to press Ottawa on the issue.

Without offering specifics, the finance minister also took the Trudeau government to task for using its budget to “impose even higher taxes” on Canadians who are facing financial challenges related to the rising cost of food, fuel and interest rates on mortgages and loans.

Later, his office said he had been referring to the federal carbon tax.

“This is troubling; more direct action to immediately address these affordability challenges is required and we will continue to voice our concerns to the federal government to provide financial relief,” Friesen said.

— Staff