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P.E.I.’s health minister says the federal government is cutting more than $29 million in health-care funding to the province over the next three years.
Cory Deagle flagged the loss of funding during question period Tuesday in the P.E.I. Legislature, saying his department “was told” by Ottawa that several funding agreements with Health Canada will not be renewed.
Those include:
$8.75 million for $5 prescription drug co-pays and drug program improvements, which ended March 31.$2.6 million for mobile mental health units and student well-being teams, ending March 31, 2027.$3.43 million for drugs for rare diseases, ending March 31, 2027.$3 million for palliative home care co-ordinator staffing and mobile integrated health, ending March 31, 2027.$3.8 million for long-term care funding and mobile X-ray units, ending March 31, 2028.$7.7 million for contraception and diabetes coverage, ending March 31, 2029.
“Where’s the great Mark Carney now?” Deagle said in the legislature.
Deagle says the provincial government plans to do whatever it can to continue the programs. (Rick Gibbs/CBC)
Deagle told CBC News outside the legislative assembly that without help from the federal government, the province will have to absorb the entire cost to provide those programs.
It can be frustrating, he said, because some programs like the $5 co-pay for prescription drugs are initiatives both governments supported, but now the provincial government is left to deliver it on its own.
“Obviously we want to keep offering that, but they come in with, say, a five-year agreement and they provide funding. Then the five years is up and the federal government pulls out,” Deagle said.
“Then the province is left holding the bag to say, ‘OK, how do we continue funding this important program?”
Deagle said government plans to do whatever it can to continue the programs, but it makes it even more difficult to do on its own as budgets tighten up across the country.
“We need the federal government’s support to keep these programs going,” he said, adding he’ll be meeting with federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel soon.
“This will be an issue that I will raise with her when I do meet with her.”