- Technical Backgrounders - Related Links -

Canada's First Ministers agree to a new health plan to improve access to quality care for all Canadians.
A 10-year plan to strengthen health care (2004).
The Health Care Renewal Accord 2003.

A significant amount of its own funding is transferred by the federal government to the provinces and territories to support important social investments, such as health care and education. These are called transfers. Finance Canada administers these transfers. The key transfer programs are: 

• the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) and Canada Social Transfer CST), which go to all provinces and territories and are used to fund health care, post-secondary education and social assistance and social services;

• Equalization, which ensures that less prosperous provinces can provide reasonably comparable public services without their taxes being out of line with those of more affluent provinces; and

• Territorial Formula Financing (TFF) which provides territorial governments with funding to support public services, in recognition of the higher cost of living in the north.

Federal Transfers to Provinces and Territories (March/October 2004).

Technical Backgrounders

	Media Background Briefing - October 22, 2004.
	Total Federal Support for Health, Post-Secondary Education, and Social Assistance and Social Services (2004–05) (October 2004).
	The Fiscal Balance in Canada:  The Facts (October 2004).
	A New Framework for Equalization and Territorial Formula Financing (October 2004).
	Federal Support for Health Care: The Facts (September 2004).

Related Links

	Canadian Economy Online.
	Provincial and Territorial Departments of Finance (HotLinks).