(Reuters) – Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will present a funding offer of over C$100 billion ($74.5 billion) for the country’s healthcare system in talks with provincial and territorial leaders on Tuesday, The Globe and Mail reported on Monday.
Citing an unidentified senior federal source, the report said the 10-year funding proposal, designed to help fix the country’s struggling health care system from Ottawa, will include tens of billions of dollars of new money, as well as earlier planned increases.
A large sum of the new money will be set aside for separate bilateral deals that will target key areas such as primary care, the report added.
Quebec’s government is hoping to be able to negotiate more new federal money, the newspaper reported.
Last month, Trudeau had invited the premiers of all provinces to meet in Ottawa on Feb. 7 to discuss a plan to provide health care funding for provinces, as hospitals remain strained by long wait times made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.
($1 = 1.3428 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Chandni Shah and Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
