N.B., P.E.I. near agreements with Ottawa for 10-year bilateral health-care deal

The governments of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island are close to reaching one-on-one bilateral health-care deals with Ottawa for the next 10 years.

Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos and federal Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities Minister Dominic LeBlanc met with the premiers and health ministers of both provinces on Wednesday, nearing the end of their cross-country tour to advance deals, which began earlier this month.

“We’ve got a path forward,” said New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs, following the morning meeting in Saint John, N.B.

Money from the deal could begin arriving in provinces and territories by late spring or early summer.

Higgs said spending details from the agreement, worth $900 million over 10 years, would be included in next month’s provincial budget.

Each province will also receive a base amount of $50 million alongside the per capita funding allotment. LeBlanc said the base amount is meant to help areas with a smaller population base, including Atlantic Canada.

“If Ontario has the same base amount as New Brunswick, and the rest goes per capita, you can see it’s an effort on our part to try and recognize what Premier Higgs and other premiers in smaller jurisdictions – Atlantic Canada and Manitoba being obvious ones – have said to us around some of these cost pressures,” said LeBlanc in Saint John.

The bilateral agreement will target funding to four different priorities:

• reducing wait times
• increasing access to mental health and addiction services
• increasing access to primary and family health care
• enhancing the collection and distribution of electronic health-care data

“We are in the process now of developing action plans on each of the focus areas, and I’ve instructed our health officials to immediately begin to engage on the bilateral discussions with the federal government as soon as possible,” said Prince Edward Island Premier Dennis King, following the afternoon meeting in Charlottetown.

The federal government met with Nova Scotia’s premier and health minister last week to reach an agreement-in-principle. LeBlanc and Duclos will meet with the Quebec government on Thursday.