B.C. and Ottawa reach $27-billion health funding agreement
LANGLEY, B.C. — Millions in immediate federal funding will make a difference in the "acute situation" in British Columbia's hospitals, especially in rural communities, Premier David Eby said Wednesday.
LANGLEY, B.C. — Millions in immediate federal funding will make a difference in the "acute situation" in British Columbia's hospitals, especially in rural communities, Premier David Eby said Wednesday.
Eby joined Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to announce the British Columbia government signed an agreement in principle for $27.47 billion of health-care funding from the federal government over the next 10 years.
The deal is part of a $196-billion health-care funding proposal that Trudeau made to Canada's premiers last month.
Before the announcement, Trudeau and Eby met with nursing students at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Langley, B.C., where they visited a classroom filled with hospital beds and mannequin patients.
The money for B.C. includes an immediate $273 million to address urgent needs, especially in pediatric hospitals and emergency rooms and to address long wait times for surgeries.
Eby said that cash will go toward supporting emergency care and overwhelmed hospitals.
"We know that the acute situation in many of our hospitals is particularly challenging in rural communities, where communities have lost doctors where the strain following the pandemic has hit particularly hard."