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At a recent premiers’ meeting in Charlottetown, the premiers of Manitoba, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island called on the federal government to split the costs of health care 50/50. For perspective, Ottawa currently covers approximately 21% of total provincial/territorial health-care costs through the Canada Health Transfer (CHT).

OPINION: Provinces should not rely too much on federal dollars Back to video

And in a joint statement, all premiers said “many of our provinces are looking at a fiscal cliff” due to an expiring agreement that would result in slower guaranteed growth in health-care funding from Ottawa.

This situation underscores a major problem in Canada, and (spoiler alert) it’s not that Ottawa is too stingy.

According to the Constitution, important policy areas including health care, education and social services are provincial responsibilities........

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