Federal Government investing $198.6 billion in universal healthcare for provinces and territories

February 13, 2023 – British Columbia

Last week Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a major funding announcement to address the ongoing healthcare crisis.

The Government of Canada is investing $196.1 billion over ten years to provinces and territories to improve healthcare services for Canadians. This funding will be distributed partly through the Canada Health Transfer and partly through tailor-made agreements with provinces and territories that will allow for flexibility for jurisdictional healthcare system needs. The Government is also investing $2.5 billion over 10 years to support Indigenous priorities and complementary federal support.

These investments are built on the pillars of access to quality family health services, a resilient and supported health workforce, access to timely and quality mental health and addiction services, and access to electronic health information.

Collaborative work is underway to support access to home and long-term care. Provinces and territories are also being asked to streamline foreign credential recognition for internationally-educated health professionals and to advance labour mobility.

British Columbians can expect over $28 billion over the next ten years to address immediate pressures on our universal healthcare system, as well as long-term concerns. By working together, the federal and provincial governments can fix this healthcare crisis.

“Healthcare in Cloverdale – Langley City and the rest of British Columbia is not meeting expectations. The demand for family doctors has risen and the wait times to access healthcare services have increased to unacceptable levels. This funding from the federal government will help the province deliver healthcare services in Cloverdale – Langley City and throughout our province, through our universal, publicly funded system. I welcome this new funding from the federal government, and I am excited to continue the discussion as more information becomes available.”

Contacts:

Megan Waddington
Constituency Assistant
Office of John Aldag, Member of Parliament
604-575-6595
john.aldag@parl.gc.ca