Freeland says ‘fiscal responsibility’ needed amid calls for health-care funding

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Friday she stressed to her provincial and territorial counterparts that the federal government needed to “behave with real fiscal responsibility” even as they try to make big investments in health care and clean energy. She said she also pointed out that the federal balance sheet “bears overwhelmingly the greatest share of the cost of fighting the COVID pandemic and COVID recession.” Freeland also said she had not presented anything specific to her counterparts on health-care funding, saying it would be left to the prime minister and first ministers next week.