LA RONGE, Sask. — Secretary of State for Rural Development Buckley Belanger said federal health-care transfers to the province need to be distributed fairly so northern communities receive the resources required to address persistent health-care challenges.
Belanger said the federal government provides provinces with significant funding through federal transfers to support health and education, but the province ultimately has jurisdiction over how it allocates those resources.
“The first thing I’d say is that the federal government, through federal transfers, gives a province a lot of money to deliver health and educational services,” said Belanger, who added that Ottawa encourages Saskatchewan to ensure those resources are distributed equally.
“On health-care allocation, we are simply going to let the people of Saskatchewan know this is what we transfer every year to the province of Saskatchewan, and we would encourage them to be fair as they distribute the resources attached to those federal transfers.”
For Belanger, when it comes to health care, that means ensuring northern Saskatchewan receives an adequate share of health dollars to address the challenges faced by people living in remote and rural communities.
“We want to make sure that northern Saskatchewan has its fair share of the allocation of health dollars so that they’re able to address some of the health-care challenges that we have here in the north. We’re still going to have the provincial partner, and we can’t operate without them,” he said.
The issue is particularly important for Indigenous and Métis communities in northern Saskatchewan, where access to health services can be affected by distance, a shortage of specialists and the concentration of advanced medical services in larger centres.
Belanger said the federal government continues to monitor the distribution of health-care funding, while recognizing that Saskatchewan remains an essential provincial partner in delivering services, especially for communities that are far from cities where health-care needs are centred.
“There are times when we have to ask, are we distributing that money fairly on an annual basis and doing this year after year? That’s the question we’re trying to answer now,” said Belanger, adding that continued discussion is needed on whether the money provided through federal transfers is reaching the communities and populations that need it most.
Governments — at every level — continue to grapple with the challenge of providing accessible health care across Saskatchewan, particularly in rural and northern areas where residents can face significant travel distances to receive specialized treatment.
Federal transfer agreements provide Saskatchewan with funding for health-care priorities, while the province delivers most publicly funded health services. Saskatchewan’s 2026-27 health budget is approximately $8.5 billion, including investments in emergency medical services and health-care access in rural, urban and northern communities.
