Saskatchewan wants feds to renew millions in targeted health funding

Health ministers all across the country are eyeing possible holes in their budgets as the days count down to two significant federal funding agreements ending.

Lori Carr is Saskatchewan’s Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Seniors and Rural and Remote Health. She attended an emergency virtual meeting with her counterparts in other provinces this week about federal funding.

Two bilateral funding agreements are set to expire at the end of March, and the federal government has yet to make moves to renew them — the Working Together agreements and the Aging with Dignity agreements

Carr said the ministers wanted to have a conversation to see what other provinces were thinking and get on the same page. She said they’d invited the federal ministers, but the invitation was declined.

“We did want them to hear the discussion,” she said.

Carr explained that all the ministers felt strongly the agreements should continue.

“If this funding were to end and it wasn’t back-filled, what would happen is we would lose services for those individuals, services that are provided in the community which cost much less than these individuals ending up in acute care beds in our facilities,” said the minister.

Saskatchewan gets $36.6 million annually for seniors’ care and mental health and addictions care from those agreements. The money is used for supportive housing for people with complex mental health needs, individualized funding for home care, and for the PACT teams all over the province.

Carr said this money has been flagged in pre-budget preparation as a possible problem.

“Hopefully the federal government will decide that they’re going to continue with these bilateral agreements,” she said.

The health ministers plan to bring their concerns to the federal minister in Winnipeg later this month, when they hold an in-person meeting she’s expected to attend.