OTTAWA -- Nova Scotia Health Minister Leo Glavine is joining a chorus of opposition to a federal Liberal plan to reduce the rate of increase in health transfers to the provinces.

It is absolutely not the time to reduce the increase in the rate of the Canada health transfer to three per cent from six per cent, especially with ballooning health demands and an aging population, Glavine said in an interview Wednesday.

"The province of Nova Scotia wants to see the six per cent escalator retained at this point in time," Glavine said.

The governing Liberals have said they are sticking with the previous Conservative government plan to cut the rate of increase in federal health transfers in half in April 2017.

In interviews this week with The Canadian Press, health ministers across the country -- including B.C., Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario --voiced concern with the Liberal government's proposal.

Ontario's Liberal government, which maintains a close relationship with Justin Trudeau's federal Liberal party, said it cannot possibly support the pitch.

"Ontario is not alone in expressing its concerns about the changes that the previous government introduced for the funding formula, which could represent a $1 billion decline in federal funding in 2017-18 alone," Eric Hoskins said in a statement Tuesday.

"We hope that the federal government will show some flexibility and a willingness to listen to the provinces and territories and work together with us in a collaborative way."

Glavine said he expects a pointed discussion when Health Minister Jane Philpott sits down with her provincial counterparts in Toronto on Oct. 18.

"I absolutely believe we can make some headway," he said.

"None of us as provincial ministers ... we are not going to lessen the ask. Being on the frontline of what the demands are in the system, we have to speak up for the citizens of our province."

For her part, Philpott continues to push for the dialogue on measures to reform health care rather than on finances.

"I think if you talk to health policy experts across the country, they will say to you that addressing the challenges in health care in this country is not just about money," she said in an interview.

"It is about what our structures look like."

Philpott said she hopes shared priorities, including mental health, home care and lowering the cost of prescription medications, will be on the agenda during the October meeting.

She also pointed to problems on the other side of the table.

"The reality is, this is a huge piece of provincial and territorial budgets for sure so it definitely presents challenges to them but in fact, health care spending across the country has actually been less than the rate of the growth of the economy over the last number of years," she said.

"There have been very significant increases in terms of the health transfer in recent years. The transfers have gone up, the spending on health hasn't actually gone up in parallel to that."

Glavine has a different diagnosis.

"I as minister and our Department of Health are prepared to take on and clearly demonstrate that these outcomes, these improvements, have been made as a result of these health transfers into the province," he said.

Dr. Granger Avery, the new president of the Canadian Medical Association, said Wednesday he is concerned the health accord discussions have turned into a spat over money.

"It is not about either or, it is about both," Avery said in an interview. There are many pressing health care needs, such as senior care, that need to be addressed urgently, he added.

He pointed to international standards that place Canada towards the bottom of the barrel in terms of its standing on health care.

"We have money and we are still at the bottom of the pile in terms on those international ratings," he said.

"Let me emphasize: there's lots of excellent work that goes on in Canada, world-leading work, but it happens in isolated silos and that's the real problem."