Quebec's Finance minister said the health care funding deal the province reached with Ottawa isn't quite what the province wanted, but something had to happen.
Carlos Leitao reacted after Quebec agreed to two and a half billion dollars over the next 10 years for home care and mental health initiatives.
The deal came after sometimes contentious talks.
In fact, Health minister Gaetan Barrette even threatened to walk out during talks in 2016.
"At some point, we do need to move forward, we do need to finalize our budgets, both minister Morneau, (Federal minister Bill Morneau), and the provincial Finance ministers, and we really need to have some certainty on what we can count on for our budgets. I'm still not very happy with the process, I think we could have done better, but, at some point, we need to move forward", said Leitao on CTV News Channel.
Leitao also said he would have liked from the start for "the additional funding will be included in the CHT, the Canadian Health Transfer", adding it's the part the province was unable to secure, that they'll be back at it in a few years.
Leitao also said he doesn;t think there's been any long-term damage caused federal provincial relations, only a new awareness that they have to continue to work at it.
Health Minister Jane Philpott denied the government used a divide-and-conquer strategy against premiers who had presented a unified front last year against Ottawa's planned reductions in annual health transfer payment increases.
Manitoba is now the only province with such an agreement.