Saskatchewan strikes health-care deal with Ottawa

Ian Culbert, the executive director of the Canadian Public Health Association, a national non-profit advocacy group, said a pan-Canadian accord on health care would instill a greater sense of equity across the country than a succession of bilateral deals.

But “the important thing is that the government, in additional to providing annual increases for the base funding for provinces and territories, is able to target some of these funds” for specific health priorities such as home care and mental-health care, he said. “That’s crucial if we are going to make any transformative change within the health-care system.”