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Ottawa Signs $51.2-Million Health Deal With Northwest Territories, First in National Series
Ottawa and the Northwest Territories signed a $51.2-million, seven-year health funding deal on Oct. 5 — the first of a series of renewed bilateral agreements — plus over $100 million in health infrastructure projects across 12 communities.
Why it matters
This is the first of a series of renewed health-funding deals Ottawa is negotiating with every province and territory after the original three-year agreements expired. It sets the template for the talks to come — and the territory's health minister made clear the money, while welcome, will not be enough for 33 mostly remote communities.
Full report
The federal government and the Northwest Territories announced on Monday, Oct. 5, a renewed Working Together bilateral agreement worth $51.2 million over seven years to improve access to primary care and mental health care in the territory. Federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty (MP for the Northwest Territories) and the territory's interim health minister Lucy Kuptana made the announcement at a press conference in Ottawa.
The money will fund a new four-year action plan covering integrated primary-care teams, physician training and workforce recruitment and retention, stronger mental-health and substance-use services including detox and specialized treatment, and culturally appropriate mental wellness and suicide prevention programs delivered with Indigenous governments and community organizations.
Separately, Ottawa is committing up to $70.2 million from its Build Communities Strong Fund and the territory $23.4 million — more than $100 million combined — for 16 health infrastructure projects across 12 communities, including group homes, health and social services centres and infection-control upgrades.
The renewed deal builds on the initial 2023–24 to 2025–26 agreement, under which the territory says it cut health-care staffing vacancies by one-third. Kuptana said travel costs for northern patients who must leave the territory for care remain a long-standing problem, and that there are still no in-patient addictions treatment services in the North. Provincial and territorial health ministers are scheduled to meet Michel in Winnipeg later this month, ahead of the federal budget this fall.
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