When it comes to health care funding, the Yukon will always be on the lookout for more, says Premier Ranj Pillai.

The Star sat down recently with the premier to get an update on federal health care funding.

Regarding the Canadian Health Transfer (CHT), the core piece of health funding that gets delivered across the country, Pillai said, “We see the number that’s been provided to us, we see an increase and we understand that – we’re always going to ask for more.”

The CHT for the Yukon for 2023-2024 is listed at $56 million.

Pillai wouldn’t say how much of an increase the Yukon is seeking from the federal government.

A recent agreement between Ottawa and the territories and provinces will see an increase in health funding to them by almost $200 billion over 10 years, including $46.2 billion in new funding.

Pillai said there are four areas in the other two previous bilateral agreements that align with Putting People First: mental health supports, primary care (family doctors), digitization of internal systems and recruitment and retention of health care workers.

“We’re comfortable with that.”

Pillai offered an update on where they are at now with the negotiating process.

“The three northern premiers have now taken the opportunity, before we sign off on the CHT, to say to Canada, ‘we have the highest per capita costs in the country.’ And we really need Canada to just consider that fact.”

Pillai said the feds’ response will give the territorial governments a sense of whether they’re reviewing the Territorial Health Initiatives Fund (THIF).

The THIF centres on two funding streams: innovation and medical travel. According to Pillai, the THIF is the program that has the most flexibility in it.

“When Dominic LeBlanc (the minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities) and (Minster of Health) Jean-Yves) Duclos were here, we had a meeting before we did our media scrum, and in that meeting it gave us a chance to really articulate, with our deputy minister of health, exactly all the different challenges we have, but all the opportunities we have to build a really strong health care system if we have the right resources,” said Pillai.

During the meeting with LeBlanc and Duclos, the feds agreed to increase the THIF for the Yukon to $10 million. According to Pillai, they’re currently receiving $6.4 million.

“We did really well. We have the biggest increase of all three territories.”