Claim: “Under Prime Minister Harper, health transfers to the provinces and territories have increased by 33 per cent — an all-time high.”

— Conservative Party news release

Background: Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff and Jack Layton have all positioned their parties as the one Canadians can “trust” on health care.

It is, after all, a priority issue for most voters, outranking the economy and taxes, according to a recent Nanos poll.

Prime minister Paul Martin identified it in his First Ministers’ Meeting address on Sept. 13, 2004:

“Canadians want solutions to health-care problems ... They want to be able to see a doctor when they need one, where they need one. They want to know that the health-care system will be able to provide the services they need in a timely fashion ... We recognize the need to strengthen our health system. We understand the challenge. It is a challenge that falls to us, and we must act.”

Three days later, he announced details of a new health accord in which the federal government would invest more than $41 billion in a 10-year action plan on health.

An integral part of that plan involved making regular payments to provinces and territories in the form of the Canada Health Transfer. In 2006-2007, the plan included an escalator of six per cent to the transfers to guarantee predictable growth in federal support.

Last week, Harper, Ignatieff and Layton all pledged federal transfers to provinces for health care should keep increasing by 6 per cent a year after current agreements expire in 2014.

Smell test: In the first year of the Conservative government, the Canada Health Transfer was $20.14 billion. Because of the six per cent escalator implemented by the Martin government, by 2011-2012 the transfer was $26.952 billion, an increase of 33.8 per cent.

Health transfers did increase to an all-time high as the Conservatives claim, but not by their hand as the statement implies.

Verdict: Sour

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