Office of the Premier
After a meeting today in Montréal, the Minister of Finance of Québec, Carlos Leitão, and the Minister of Finance of British Columbia, Michael de Jong, said they had fruitful discussions on a number of economic issues, and reiterated their desire to work closely to address the concerns shared by both provinces. Among other things, the ministers pointed out that Québec and British Columbia are the only two provinces to have tabled a balanced budget this year.
‟Our talks showed that, although our two provinces are far apart geographically, we have a number of points in common and face similar challenges pertaining to public finance management and economic development. We share the same point of view on federal health transfers and infrastructure investment management, which we fully intend to defend in Ottawa, together with our colleagues from the other provinces,” Leitão said.
“British Columbia and Quebec share the distinction among provinces of balanced budgets that support strong and effective investments in public services,” B.C. finance minister Michael de Jong said. ‟B.C. will continue to encourage the federal government to reflect the fact in health care transfers that the cost of providing care rises with age and that the age mix differs across provinces.”
Québec and British Columbia have similar demographics and will face the same financial pressures related to population aging. Ministers Leitão and de Jong therefore ask the federal government to gradually increase the Canada Health Transfer so that it represents 25% of provincial health spending and the formula takes into account demographic differences between provinces.
With regard to infrastructure investment, the ministers pointed out that the provinces were unanimous in their desire to have rapid access to the federal funds and a flexible formula enabling them to use the funds in the best interests of citizens. In addition, they agreed to continue working with their counterparts in the other provinces and the territories to devise Canada Pension Plan improvement options by the federal, provincial and territorial finance ministers meeting scheduled for June.
