Certainly you could have fewer strings attached. The issue, again, would be the accountability issue. Perhaps it would be somewhat lessened if the federal government said they were going to give this money without conditions, and therefore it would be up to the provincial government to accept responsibility, but it's a similar issue in that you're sending money from one level to another level to then deliver services, whereas voters are not able to hold them accountable.
So perhaps that would allow for a bit less of an issue, but again, provincial politicians will still take the opportunity to blame the federal government for a lack of funding.