Health transfers | Legault continues his meetings with federal leaders

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Catherine levesque
The Canadian Press

Mr. Legault will speak by phone with Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Green Party Leader Annamie Paul on Monday. He had already spoken with the leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, last week.

Mr. Legault is holding these meetings as the first federal budget approaches. He hopes to see an increase in health transfers, a unanimous request from the provinces and territories.

The Council of the Federation calls on the federal government to increase its share of health care funding from its current level of 22% to 35%, an increase of 28 billion.

The premiers of the provinces and territories held a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on this subject last December. They came away disappointed that the federal government was unwilling to make a long-term commitment to health funding.

However, they said they were satisfied to hear Mr. Trudeau recognize that the federal government had to do more than it does now, according to the press release issued after their meeting.

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