The Saskatchewan government says it has reached an agreement in principle with the federal government regarding health-care funding.
A release was sent out noting that the province will receive a one-time $61-million investment and an additional $111 million annually to the $6.4-billion health-care budget.
The province says the money will be used to accelerate or enhance new measures aiming to improve primary health care, surgeries and mental health and addictions services.
Health Minister Paul Merriman spoke on the agreement in Saskatoon, noting that the provinces are left to pick up the slack.
“I think the impact of the shortfalls is the provinces have to pick up any slack, and it’s not there,” Merriman said.
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He said the federal government is not meeting their obligation, adding that the provincial government now has to backfill.
“It isn’t enough, Premier Moe and all the premiers were united in saying that, but it’s hard to turn down federal dollars.”
He said the federal government has some areas that they want the province to address, like mental health and addictions, primary care and seniors, but said Saskatchewan luckily already has some programs they are working on.
Merriman said they are looking at possible changes and improvements after discussions with organizations like the Saskatchewan Medical Association, noting the federal dollars don’t impact that.
“I think we’re going to very soon have a good package that’s going to work for the physicians, and also, at the end of the day work for the patients.”
He said the money will help alleviate some of the issues but said a large part of the problem is a lack of staffing.
Premier Scott Moe expressed his disappointment with the initial federal funding offer on Feb. 13, but noted that any additional funding was welcome.
He said the number one thing they’re trying to address is the number of qualified people working in the field, with the second priority aiming to address surgical wait times.
“Those surgical wait times that we now have are going to take some outside-of-the-box thinking on how we’re going to approach them.”
He said the province is looking at publicly funded surgeries in the private delivery realm, saying there’s a conversation to be had for certain surgeries.
Moe said virtual health care is another tool that is becoming more commonplace.
He added that health care is changing, and programs are different now than they were five years ago.
Saskatchewan is the eighth province to sign a deal with Ottawa on health-care funding, a first step to completing the $196-billion, 10-year health-care funding proposal that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made last month.
– with files from The Canadian Press
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