The healthcare sector has welcomed the federal government’s decision to not use transfer payments to eliminate its deficit. The government announced that the Canada Health Transfer and the Canada Social Transfer will continue to grow by six and three percent respectively up to 2014-15, which represents a one year extension. Meanwhile, the costs of the equalization program will continue to grow. The budget maintains the commitment to let one-time transfers expire, including nearly $2 billion in additional support to provinces for additional training for those left jobless during the recession. Provinces could face new pressures to help the newly unemployed transition back to work. Other healthcare funding includes: $285M for Aboriginal Health Programs; $250M to upgrade research labs; $500M for Health Infoway; $16M to the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) including an extra $10M for research on isotopes & medical imaging; $35M to Natural Resources Canada into new technology for medical isotope production; $75M for Genome Canada; and $6M for Health promotion (ParticipAction).