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OTTAWA — The federal government made the first of a series of health-care funding announcements on Monday as it works to secure seven-year deals with each of the provinces and territories.
The first of those agreements, worth $51.2 million, is with the Northwest Territories.
“These investments support a clear goal: helping northerners access appropriate, culturally safe health and social services as close to home as possible,” said Lucy Kuptana, the territory’s interim minister of health and social services, at a press conference in Ottawa.
The two governments also have set aside more than $100 million in infrastructure funding — up to $70.2 million from Ottawa’s Build Communities Strong Fund, and $23.4 million from the territory — to build or rehabilitate health facilities in 12 communities.
Kuptana said the money will be directed to 16 projects that will improve group homes and health and social services centres, and upgrade infection control.
In 2023, following widespread health system issues during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government announced it had earmarked $200 billion over 10 years to improve access to primary care, reduce wait times and improve mental health and substance use services.
The initial three-year funding agreements with provinces and territories have now expired and Ottawa is negotiating extensions.
Federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel said Monday the agreements have led to better access to hip and knee surgeries. She acknowledged that funding to cover patients’ travel costs for care that’s not available in the North is a long-standing issue.
“What we have to understand is we need to bring more services to the North, and then this question will disappear,” she said.
The territory said it has been able to reduce health-care staffing vacancies by one-third since the original 10-year deal was signed.
The extended agreement includes a four-year action plan to improve primary care, expand the health workforce, and support mental wellness and suicide prevention services in the territory.
Provincial and territorial health ministers have been warning about the looming end of another pocket of funding, targeted at mental health, addictions services and home and community care.
That $4.8-billion funding package was announced in 2023 and is set to expire in March 2027.
Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara told reporters last week that Canadians face a “looming fiscal cliff” with “devastating consequences” for health systems, and warned not replacing the funding would amount to the largest cut to health care in a generation.
Kuptana said while Monday’s agreement does include money for mental health and wellness programs, “it’s never enough, and especially in the Northwest Territories, because we’re dealing with 33 communities, most of them rural and remote.”
She said the North is facing an addictions crisis and it’s crucial to provide services in communities to people who received clinical treatment away from home. There are no in-patient addictions treatment services in the North, she said.
After holding an emergency meeting about the funding last week, health ministers from across the country said they would be seeking conversations with Michel and Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne ahead of the release of the federal budget this fall.
Provincial and territorial health ministers are set to meet with Michel in Winnipeg later in October.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 5, 2026.
Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press
