Home support workers in the province are about to get a pay raise.

The federal and provincial governments signed a $25-million agreement this morning to bump the wage from $17 an hour to roughly $21 an hour.

The funding will be spread out over the course of the next few years according to Health Minister John Hogan. Roughly 6,000 agency-based home care workers in the province will benefit and Hogan says homecare workers are part of health care.

The $21 hourly wage will be in place by April 2027, says Hogan.

Expanded access to costly drugs for rare diseases also announced

Meanwhile, the governments are also putting up funding to improve access to costly drugs used to treat rare diseases.

Federal Minister Mark Holland says the last thing a person diagnosed with a serious and rare illness needs to do is worry about how they’re going to pay for their drugs.

A list of the drugs will be made available online.