A by-the-numbers look at health-care funding and spending in Canada
OTTAWA — Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott is digging in for a fight with her provincial and territorial counterparts over how much Ottawa should shell out for health-care funding over the coming years.
A primary sticking point is the federal government’s stated intention to proceed with cutting annual increases in health transfers to the provinces in half to three per cent. Here are some numbers that provide a look at public-sector health spending and funding in Canada:
$36 billion: Total federal health transfers to the provinces and territories in 2016-17, according to Finance Department numbers. The transfers are treated as government revenues, like income taxes, and are added to each jurisdiction’s general pool of cash.
1.5 per cent: Projected public-sector expenditure growth between 2014 and 2015 by the provinces, according to the most-recent annual spending report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).