Provincial health spending hasn’t grown as fast as federal contribution
OTTAWA — Provincial ministers insist they can’t possibly live with anything less than a six per cent annual increase in federal health transfer payments, without having to slash billions from their health care services.
Yet independent analysis shows that for years the provinces haven’t increased their spending anywhere near six per cent annually.
According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the annual average growth in health spending by provincial governments was just 2.7 per cent between 2011 and 2015 .
That would be consistent with the Trudeau government’s plan to increase the health transfer by no more than three per cent annually.