Government & Policy

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – This week’s budget in Newfoundland and Labrador announced that as a cost-cutting measure, the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information and the province’s 911 service will be integrated into the Department of Health. Read More

TORONTO – The Ontario government is investing more than $5 million to train and mentor up to 150 health sciences professionals on how to secure investments for their innovative medical solutions and bring them to market. The project, led by the Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization, will support the creation of new pharmaceuticals, vaccines and other medical tools. Read More

OTTAWA – The Ontario government is investing $2.5 million in Siemens Healthineers through the Ontario Together Fund. The investment will help increase production capacity of the epoc Blood Analysis System, a handheld device that can analyze blood gas levels, helping clinicians make faster decisions with lab-quality results at the patient’s side. Read More

OTTAWA – The government of Canada announced a one-year extension of the CAN Health Network project in Ontario, with an investment of $3.25 million in Trillium Health Partners through FedDev Ontario. This builds on the government’s previous $3.5 million investment in 2019, which launched the network in Ontario and supports 15 companies to bring solutions to market. Read More

TORONTO — The Ontario government is investing over $1.5 million, through the Ontario Together Fund, in Myant Inc. to help commercialize “connected wearables” that can sense, monitor and help detect various symptoms that may signal the onset of diseases, including those associated with COVID-19. Read More

OTTAWA – The federal budget – delivered earlier this month by Finance Minister Chrystia Freedland (pictured) – includes significant funding for its tech superclusters, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and genomics. The current pandemic, moreover, has driven home the need for more domestic strength in the key technologies needed to detect and treat biological threats using advanced technologies. Read More

OTTAWA – The Honourable Patty Hajdu (pictured), minister of health, announced the signature of a bilateral agreement with Ontario to enhance the province’s virtual health services. Ontario will receive $46 million to expand its efforts on virtual healthcare. Read More

EDMONTON – Alberta is spending an additional $33 million this year on non-emergency CT scans and MRIs as a way of clearing a backlog of diagnostic imaging exams for non-emergency cases. The money, included in the 2021 budget, will help pay for staffing required to do as many as additional 50,000 CT scans and 45,000 MRIs in the upcoming fiscal year. It is a one-time expenditure on top of the regular spending on diagnostic imaging. Read More

HAMILTON, Ont. – The federal government’s FedDev Ontario announced an investment of $6 million for Hamilton’s Innovation Factory, which will work alongside the Synapse Life Science Consortium to launch the Southern Ontario Pharmaceutical and Health Innovation Ecosystem (SOPHIE). Read More