Quebec expects to save C$220 million ($199 million) by eliminating hundreds of administrative jobs in health care to help balance the budget next year, Premier Philippe Couillard said.

We have a very complex health-care system, Couillard, 57, said yesterday in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. Theres a vast reform thats going to be announced this week of doing away with most of the bureaucracy in the system, freeing money to be dedicated to the patients.

Couillard, a neurosurgeon and former health minister, was elected in April as leader of Canadas second most-populous province after promising to shrink the bureaucracy. He has vowed to plug a C$2.35 billion budget gap in 2015-16 with the help of measures such as spending cuts and a hiring freeze.

Health care is Quebecs largest expenditure, accounting for about C$37.3 billion, or 43 percent, of the governments program spending of C$86.6 billion this fiscal year.

Quebecs health-care spending climbed by an average of 5.6 percent a year in the decade ended in March, budget figures show. With demographic projections showing that the provinces working-age population will start declining in 2017, investors such as Hosen Marjaee of Manulife Asset Management warn that costs could climb even faster.

Since his election, Couillard created two committees to overhaul government programs and the provinces taxation system. He gave the program review committee a mandate to find more than C$3 billion in savings.

Quebec has long-term demographic issues, Marjaee, who manages about C$19 billion and owns Quebec bonds, said in a telephone interview from Toronto. So far, it appears that the government of Mr. Couillard will take the necessary steps to curb the deficit.

The health-care reform will likely entail the elimination of regional bodies that oversee hospitals, the premier said.

Were removing a layer of administration, Couillard said. We have a ministerial layer, a regional layer and a local layer. Were essentially going to do away with the regional layer.

Cutting costs is difficult, Douglas Offerman, a senior director at Fitch Ratings in New York, said in a telephone interview. There are services that people depend on, and its always challenging. Its the turn of the expense side of the budget to provide some savings now.

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Quebecs Couillard Plans Health-Care Cuts to Trim Deficit