The federal government says in a news release that it has signed an agreement in principle with Manitoba to invest more than $6.7 billion in the province’s health-care system over 10 years.
That includes more than $1.2 billion for a new bilateral agreement focusing on shared health-care priorities.
It also includes $72 million in an immediate, one-time top up to the Canada Health Transfer paid to Manitoba to address urgent needs, especially in pediatric hospitals and emergency rooms and for long surgical wait times.
Manitoba is the sixth province to sign onto a new health-care deal proposed by Ottawa earlier this month, following Ontario and the four Atlantic provinces.
The “agreements in principle” are a first step to completing the $196-billion, 10-year health-care funding proposal that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made on Feb. 7.
To get the money, the provinces must come up with specific plans showing how they would spend it and how they would prove to Canadians that their health-care systems are getting better.
