Manitoba wants the federal government to renew an annual $150-million health-care agreement that, for the last three years, has helped the province go “further, faster” to staff up the front lines.

“The loss of these agreements would mean that we’re losing predictable targeted federal contributions that have helped us stabilize staffing and strengthen health care — not just health care in our hospitals, but community-based care as well,” Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said Friday.

The program, dubbed “Working Together to Improve Health Care for Canadians,” was announced in February 2023; the federal government has earmarked close to $150 million a year in 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26. Tuesday’s federal budget made no mention of renewing those funding agreements.

“I think there was an op

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