Despite an offer that is well below his expectations, Quebec Premier François Legault is expected to sign the federal government’s health transfer agreement.
Three ministers of the Legault government, namely the ministers of Finance, Health, and the minister responsible for Canadian Relations and the Canadian Francophonie, reportedly sent a signed letter to Ottawa on Friday, a document whose La Presse canadian managed to obtain extracts.
Although the offer is deemed insufficient by Quebec, given the urgency of the situation in the Quebec health network, the province would have signified its intention to “take advantage of its share of the federal funding proposed on February 7, ” reports The Canadian Press.
Quebec intends to use the envelope allocated by the federal government “unconditionally”, and would have attached to its letter a “draft asymmetric agreement”.
Remember that last month, Ottawa had proposed an increase in the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) of $46.2 billion spread over a period of 10 years. This amounts to $4.87 billion per year, nearly six times less than what Quebec was claiming, or $28 billion per year.
Almost all of the Canadian provinces have already accepted the federal government’s offer. On Wednesday, only Quebec and the three territories had not yet reached an agreement with Ottawa.
“We have now reached an agreement with nine provinces and we plan to announce agreements very soon with the last and the three territories,” said Justin Trudeau on Wednesday during a press conference in British Columbia.
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