OTTAWA — The Trudeau government may not be winning friends among Canada's premiers as they try to wring more health-care funding out of Ottawa, but its hard line seems to be garnering support from an unlikely ally. Interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose, herself a former health minister, supports the idea of a results-driven approach to federal health funding. She also agrees that more money isn't the only solution.

Rona Ambrose speaks in the House of Commons on Dec. 13, 2016. (Photo: Adrian Wyld/CP) And a huge increase in federal health spending over the last decade, indicators like hospital wait times remain a disappointment, Ambrose noted in a recent interview with The Canadian Press. Those positions don't leave a lot of daylight between herself and federal Health Minister Jane Philpott, Ambrose acknowledged: "I noticed." There's less than a week to go before the Liberal government is scheduled to meet with the provinces and territories to try and find common ground on a new health accord and a federal health-funding plan. The two sides appear to be far apart, particularly when it comes to health transfers. 'Money is not the answer anymore' Provinces and territories are worried they will be left with big holes in their budgets if Ottawa allows the annual six-per-cent increase in transfers to fall to three per cent in April, as it's already scheduled to do. The federal government has accused the provinces of channelling health payments into their general revenue pools, and wants to take a new approach that allows it to measure results from any extra investment. In many respects, Ambrose appears to agree with that idea. "For the last 10 years, health care's been increased by about six per cent every year — that vastly outpaces the growth in the economy," she said. "I think there's an acknowledgment by everyone in the system, including leading health-policy experts, that money is not the answer anymore. There's got to be other solutions and it has to result in better outcomes."