OTTAWA — It’s not officially on the menu, but health funding is certain to be the topic du jour when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty dines tonight with his provincial counterparts.
Trial balloons were floated over Parliament Hill during the last week about the federal government’s future plans for health transfer payments, which left provinces feeling hungry.
Starting with Sunday supper and moving on to formal sessions Monday, the provinces will battle to ensure a stable and predictable cash-flow from Ottawa.
By the time the ministers take their seats, though, they’ll have mostly gotten over rumours the federal government is poised to vastly limit future growth in health transfer funding.
Doing the math shows Ottawa is currently committed to increasing health transfers at six per cent a year until 2016, while real gross domestic product is estimated to rise at about two per cent.
Provincial sources have now been apprised that the objective is to link transfers to nominal, inflation adjusted growth, which is estimated to be in the neighbourhood of 4.5 per cent.
Officials from four provinces told The Canadian Press that they are united in insisting the new accord, which takes effect after 2014, should continue with the current six-per-cent escalator.
The prime minister has been non-commital on the issue, only noting when asked Friday that health transfers have climbed from $19 billion to $27 billion a year under his watch.
“We will honour the health accord and we will ensure that there are increases into the future that are sustainable and that work to sustain the health care system that we’re all going to depend on,” he said.
It’s also likely the provinces, particularly Ontario, will re-propose expansion of the Canadian Pension Plan.
Most provinces expect the main discussion will focus on a voluntary savings vehicle known as registered pooled pension plans.
The vehicle comes in the place of a direct expansion of the CPP, which Flaherty has rejected. It’s designed for small firms that can’t afford to offer their workers pension plans.
Quebec says it wants the plans made mandatory on firms with over 10 workers, and some provinces are considering making participation by employees mandatory as well.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business has also asks the ministers to give the voluntary pooled plans a chance.