On Feb. 23, a bilateral agreement between the federal government and Ontario was announced, which includes $73.97 billion in federal funding over 10 years. This amount  includes $8.4 billion in new funding for shared priorities and a one-time top-up of $776 million to address urgent health needs. In early February, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had met with the provincial and territorial premiers to discuss an increase in health funding and had also announced that the federal government would sign bilateral agreements with each province and territory to focus on their individual health needs. The federal government announced its funding offer of $46.2 billion in new money, including a five per cent increase to the Canada Health Transfer for the next five years, which the provinces and territories accepted on Feb. 13. RNAO President Dr. Claudette Holloway said that the Ontario health-care system has a lot of needs and that this money should be used to address priorities such as primary care, mental health, RN retention and recruitment and long-term care. “It’s a good start but we want to know that money is consistently going to be there. As needs go up, funding needs to go up along with that.” (CBC News, Feb. 9)