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health care

Sep 06, 2018

Prescribing Federalism: Key Takeaways

September 6, 2018

The federal government is deciding how to proceed on national pharmacare. Whatever path it chooses, federal action on pharmacare will need to carefully consider its interactions with an existing landscape of provincial programs. Read More

Mar 15, 2018

Federal budget 2018: Now the hard work begins

March 15, 2018

The 2018 federal budget contained many positives. Action on gender inequality and the gender wage gap, on research underfunding, and on many other items was long in coming. Read More

May 30, 2017

Bringing human rights back into balance

May 30, 2017

The case for social and economic rights in the Charter

With all the commotion around the Charter’s 35th birthday this year, you would be forgiven for thinking that human rights in Canada are a fait accompli. You would also be forgiven for, upon reading the words “human rights” just now, thinking first and foremost of the civil and political rights that our constitution explicitly sets out to define and protect. After all, most conversations around rights in Canada revolve around our civil and political liberties. Read More

May 02, 2017

Mature medicare

May 2, 2017

A Prescription for Canada’s 150th

In 1957, Canada was just ten years shy of celebrating its centennial—still an adolescent nation, wrangling with domestic soul-searching and trying to carve out a name for itself in the international community. That year would see government pass the Hospital Insurance and Diagnostic Services Act. Read More

Feb 22, 2017

Health care is about sharing risk. Federalism in Canada should be too.

February 22, 2017

Universal health care in Canada is strongly attached to Canadian values such as equity, fairness and solidarity. Read More

Dec 20, 2016

When it comes to health care, the federal and provincial governments are arguing over growth rates. Here’s why that’s the wrong conversation.

December 20, 2016

Canada’s federal and provincial governments failed to reach a long-term agreement on health care funding in Ottawa yesterday. Time will tell whether this failure represents an impasse, or just one of many rounds of negotiation to arrive at a mutually agreeable settlement. Read More

Dec 05, 2016

The federal government is retreating from health care. Here’s why that’s a terrible idea.

December 5, 2016

Provincial and Territorial Premiers have called on the Prime Minister for a meeting dedicated to the issue of health care funding. The call comes against the backdrop of federal plans to decrease the growth rate of federal health transfers to the provinces. Without federal action, the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) funding escalator will fall to the 3 per cent floor currently set out in federal legislation starting next year. Read More

Oct 19, 2016

Ottawa and the provinces must be equal partners on health care

October 19, 2016

Faced with an aging population, it will take increased funding from Ottawa but also better management by the provinces to address Canada’s health care challenges.
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