Ministers warn of 'fiscal cliff' despite extension of health-care agreement

Health ministers across the country have warned of a fiscal cliff saying if various federal agreements aren't extended our health care systems will suffer. We learned this week that potential crisis has been averted but ministers say it's only by a year. We're joined by the CBC's Ian Fraser at the Hill where all provincial and territorial ministers were meeting. So Ian tell us about this fiscal cliff and why are the provinces worried? Brittany the provinces have a number of federal, a number of health care agreements for funding with the federal government and a big one, 1.2 billion annually for mental health addictions and home care was slated to expire next spring. That is until Wednesday when federal health minister Marker Michelle announced that deal would be extended by a year. Now you might think the provinces would be relieved by this news but that's not what we heard from Manitoba's health minister Uzoma Asagwara. And I would argue actually we're still dealing with a fiscal cliff. We really are. So this has been moved down the road a bit but it does create additional pressure. There are other agreements that expire in 2027 and you know we've been asking for fulsome and meaningful engagement on this for quite some time now. Some of those deals that are set to expire one on Pharmacare another on rare diseases. The provinces will be working to get those deals extended and Brittany In the case of Pharmacare, a lot of provinces are just trying to get in on that deal. Yeah, of course. So, Ian, we have no news yet on another ask of the provinces around the Canada Health Transfer. So every year that transfer is, of course, guaranteed to grow by at least 5%, but not for that much longer. So what's supposed to happen by 2028? You just mentioned it, Brittany, that 5% increase slated to go down to a minimum of 3% by 2028. Now, the province is saying that's unacceptable. and Asagwara says it's another sign of provinces needing long-term predictable funding. We do not have clarity and in every single jurisdiction, every single minister here can tell you stories about how these potential cuts would affect real Canadians, would affect real families, real services, real jobs and would have very real consequences in terms of not only health care but the justice sector but the economy now the ministers will be meeting again on Friday but this time with their federal counterpart the provinces will be looking for the clarity they're they're seeking.