Abstract
Recent trends in Canadian public health care expenditure are reviewed and evidence on the sustainability of public health spending examined. Provincial-territorial government health spending over the entire period 1975–2012 has generally grown faster than GDP, provincial own-source revenues and federal transfers. However, expenditure growth has been the least sustainable in the areas of public drug expenditures, capital, public health programs, and all other health spending and the most sustainable in the areas of administration and the traditional core public health care areas of hospitals and physicians. Federal transfer payments are a crucial variable when it comes to the growth rate of provincial/territorial government health expenditures and their future restraint will be a factor in moderating public health expenditure growth.