Over the next year, Quebec will receive a total of $270 million in funding from the Trudeau government to improve home health care, mental health care and the fight against addiction.
Emphasizing that the pandemic has revealed health gaps “that have consequences” and that the aging population requires an adaptation of health care, Jean-Yves Duclos, Federal Minister of Health, announced this funding on Monday at a press conference at the center Community of Hochelaga.
“The Quebec government can use [le financement] to respond to these priorities,” Duclos said. When asked about this matter, the minister also said that for the distribution of money, Ottawa would be flexible and Quebec would be clear.
The federal government has therefore opted for funding for the provinces rather than a subsidy for private individuals. A choice that Soraya Martinez Ferrada, deputy for Hochelaga, explained by the need to finance community organizations – whose funding is mainly provincial – which do “front line work”, to prevent the health system from being much more used.
This funding is the result of an agreement between Quebec and Ottawa that extends an intervention between the federal government and the provinces and territories dating back to 2017 and which has granted the latter $11 billion to improve access to care. Quebec is the first province to renew this agreement.
This 2017 deal was for five years, while this new funding will only last for one year. Jean-Yves Duclos justified this decision for two reasons: it would be what the provinces and territories wanted, and Quebec needs time to identify needs following the COVID-19 pandemic.
