Government & Policy

QUEBEC CITY – Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé (pictured) on Monday said a huge overhaul of the province’s healthcare system is coming soon, including the creation of a new agency called Santé Québec, which will be tasked with co-ordinating the daily operations of the healthcare network while the Health Ministry itself will concentrate on establishing general policies. Read More

QUEBEC CITY – Quebec is beginning to test the waters in its project to build two private mini-hospitals. The Ministry of Health and Social Services has issued two calls for interest to hear proposals from potential partners. The first two private mini-hospitals should be built, according to the government’s plans, in the east of Montreal and in the Capitale-Nationale region. Read More

WINNIPEG – Manitoba is launching a new system-wide expansion of race-based data collection in hospitals, building on efforts to track how different racial groups were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Beginning this spring, the province will ask patients to self-declare their racial or ethnic background as part of the hospital admission process, making Manitoba the first Canadian jurisdiction to do so, according to the University of Manitoba. Read More

OTTAWA – The federal government has released a blueprint outlining the operations of a new agency that will promote innovation and productivity. The Canada Innovation Corp. will have an initial budget of $2.6 billion over four years, and is expected to begin its operations in 2023. Read More

TORONTO – Premier Doug Ford’s government is promising to phase out faxes in healthcare over a five-year timeline. To hammer home the point, the fax machine gets an entire page of the government’s new healthcare plan, and the page is designed to look like it was faxed. Read More

HALIFAX – Nova Scotia is piloting the provision of healthcare services through pharmacists located at 12 pharmacies across the province, with more locations expected in the spring. The program is designed to speed up the care received by patients and reduce the pressure on hospital ERs. Read More

OTTAWA – The federal government announced funding of $505 million over 5 years to CIHI, Canada Health Infoway and federal data partners to work with provinces and territories on developing new health data indicators, to support the creation of a Centre of Excellence on health worker data, to advance digital health tools and an interoperability roadmap, and to underpin efforts to use data to improve safety and quality of care. Read More

OTTAWA – Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos (pictured) says the federal government and the provinces and territories have made “significant progress” on a multibillion-dollar healthcare funding deal and he’s optimistic an agreement can be unveiled at a first ministers meeting within weeks. Read More

TORONTO – Filomena Tassi (pictured), Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), announced over $14 million towards the scale-up and growth of eight GTA-based companies: Able Innovations Inc., BeWhere Inc., BlueDot Inc., Cognota Inc., Earth Boring Co., Mero Technologies Inc., Pentavere Research Group Inc. and Schlesinger Group Ltd. Read More

OTTAWA – The government of Canada announced nearly $7 million in funding to enable YMCA Canada to scale up and expand the “Y Mind” and “Mind Medicine” mental health programs for youths across Canada. The programs are intended for young people aged 13-30 years of age who are experiencing mild to moderate anxiety and/or depression and aim to support the development of effective coping skills and improvements to participants’ overall well-being. Read More