Nova Scotia’s premier says the provinces have time on their side in their quest to bring the federal government back to the table on health transfers.

Darrell Dexter said his provincial counterparts aim to come up with a different vision for health-care funding than the one presented by the federal government in December.

“We’ve got a couple of years to lay out a path forward for health care in Canada,” Dexter told reporters in Halifax via a teleconference late Tuesday. “We were disappointed by a federal government that refuses to enter into any discussion and is essentially absenting itself from the responsibility for a national health-care system.”

He was speaking at the conclusion of a meeting of provincial and territorial leaders held in British Columbia over the past two days.

Over the two-day summit, the premiers committed to forming two working groups to address the innovative possibilities and fiscal realities of health care in Canada. The findings of those groups will be delivered in Halifax this July.

At the meeting the Council of the Federation mulled over the health-care transfer model presented by federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in December. That model would have health transfers to the provinces continue to grow by six per cent until 2017, when they would be tied to economic growth. Premiers of provinces with weaker economies have criticized the model.