Holt says if Premier Blaine Higgs strikes a last-minute agreement with a provincial election looming, Ottawa must ensure the funding goes where it's supposed to.

"The federal government should rightfully expect that the provincial government will spend those dollars on the things they say they will," she said.

Holt says she's been told Higgs will head to the nation's capital Monday to try to clinch the deal.

Higgs, left, with federal cabinet ministers Dominic LeBlanc and Jean-Yves Duclos at the time of the announced bilateral health deal. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)

A new session of the New Brunswick Legislature is scheduled to begin Tuesday with a speech from the throne — a ritual that would not go forward if Higgs opted to call an election, which he has hinted at in recent weeks.

But after days of speculation, including potential candidates from all three parties in the legislature announcing their plans, there's been no call. 

A spokesperson for Higgs said he was not available for an interview Friday on federal-provincial health-care negotiations and did not respond to questions about an Ottawa trip.

Health Minister Bruce Fitch was not available either, his department said.

In a statement, Fitch said the province was "working with the federal government to finalize" an agreement but did not say when it was expected to happen.

Higgs, normally accessible to journalists, has turned down repeated media requests in recent weeks amid speculation he would go to the polls.

Any health deal would be a final version of a broad agreement-in-principle struck between the federal and New Brunswick governments in February.

Health Minister Bruce Fitch was not available for an interview Friday, his department said. In a statement, Fitch said the province was 'working with the federal government to finalize' an agreement. (Pierre Richard/Radio-Canada)

It would see a total of $900 million in additional health funding for New Brunswick over 10 years.

Around $91 million of that has already been incorporated into this year's health budget even though precise details of how it will be spent still have to be sorted out.

The province is on track for a $199-million surplus this year, but Holt says Ottawa should not necessarily demand all of that be spent on health care.

"I'm not sure that the federal government should tell the provincial government whether to generate a surplus or how to spend it." 

But attaching conditions to the new health funding would be fair, she added.

Holt says she'd like to see the additional funding spur the development of more community health-care centres. 

"The government has been really slow to advance the model that everyone agrees is the right way to go," she said.

"I certainly hope that this deal finally compels this government to act on the transformation of primary care." 

Under February's agreement-in-principle, new funding must be devoted to four broad areas: family health, worker shortages and backlogs, mental health and addiction, and modernization.

Federal Health Minister Mark Holland said Thursday following a meeting with his provincial counterparts that the detailed agreements were taking time 'because it’s got to be done right.' (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

Final agreements with each province were contingent on provincial "action plans" detailing how they'd spend the money and measure if it was leading to improvements.

Federal Health Minister Mark Holland said Thursday following a meeting with his provincial counterparts that the detailed agreements were taking time "because it's got to be done right."

Holland and the provincial ministers agreed to five new "strategies" in their meeting, including a "nursing retention tool kit" for provinces.

Another strategy was reducing the time it takes for health professionals educated overseas to start working in Canada — something New Brunswick has already started on.

In the last year, the province has made it easier for nurses from overseas to work here, expanded the role of pharmacists, approved new clinics doing cataract surgeries outside hospitals and tweaked two virtual primary-care services, eVisit and NB Health Link.

But in key areas, such as wait lists for hip and knee replace surgery, the province continues to fall short of national benchmarks. 

In August the Angus Reid Institute found that New Brunswick's health-care system had the lowest satisfaction level among voters of any province in Canada.

Only 18 per cent of New Brunswickers were "very or moderately satisfied" with their provincial government on health care.

And only nine per cent of respondents said they believed the government was making it enough of a priority, compared to 55 per cent who said it wasn't enough of a priority and 37 per cent who said it wasn't a priority at all.

New Brunswick also had the lowest approval rate of any province for measuring how health care was being delivered. 

A spokesperson for Holland said the minister was happy to hear how "eager" New Brunswick is to reach a deal but did not comment on whether that could happen Monday or on the timing so close to a possible election.