This opinion article by Friends of Medicare's Executive Director, Chris Gallaway, originally appeared in the Edmonton Journal on October 15, 2025.
What makes Canada, Canada? A question that is being asked more regularly as talk of “the 51st state” and other threats to our sovereignty come up again and again.
Nine times out of 10 the answer I hear is: health care. Canadians are deeply proud of our universal medicare system. The idea that in Canada we care for each other contrasts us with our neighbours to the south. Public health care defines us as a nation.
Which means it should absolutely be treated as a “nation-building project” in need of attention. The kind of project that our new prime minister talks about regularly these days.
My hope is that as our federal, provincial and territorial health care ministers meet in Calgary on Friday, they will begin to think of public health care in this way as well. Because, if we want to build a stronger Canada, it starts with our health ministers getting serious about working together to protect and strengthen public health care for all.
And the truth is that without bold action, our treasured public health-care system is seriously at risk. Our system is in crisis. Canadians are struggling to access the care they need, when they need it.
Since coming out of the pandemic we’ve been in a short-staffing crisis that is only getting worse. A lack of family doctors, long waits and closed emergency rooms are becoming the norm, because we simply no longer have the skilled health-care professionals we need to keep the system going.
The need for urgent action on health-care human resources is real.
Yet, Canada continues to lack a health-care workforce strategy. As do many provincial governments, including right here in Alberta. This fragmented approach is a race to the bottom. No province will be able to retain, recruit and train enough health-care workers to sustain their health-care system while doing it from the same, shrinking pool of trained professionals. A commitment to working together on developing a joint workforce strategy is urgently needed.
But our health ministers cannot forget that this is about more than simply caring for one another. They need to remember the economic benefits of Canada’s public health-care system. The positive employment, labour market and economic impacts of universal medicare are well documented. It’s more important than ever that our governments recognize this as our competitive economic advantage and work to bolster it.
That means a commitment from health ministers to continue moving forward agreements to bring the new national pharmacare program to all provinces and territories, not just the four jurisdictions who’ve already signed agreements with the federal government. And in this time of increasing affordability concerns, it means boldly setting out a trajectory to expand this new universal pharmacare plan to cover more medications, until it is a truly comprehensive drug plan for all.
It wasn’t that many years ago when federal, provincial and territorial governments would meet and commit to a national health-care accord with shared goals. Today, we have provincial governments, like ours here in Alberta, actively trying to sabotage expansions to dental care and drug coverage, while also undermining the Canada Health Act at every opportunity as they sign contract after contract with for-profit corporations.
We need all of our health ministers to commit to honouring the Canada Health Act, and if they won’t, we need our federal minister of Health to make it clear that her government intends to vigorously enforce the act.
The federal minister must say no to writing more blank cheques to provincial governments who refuse to sign on to universal programs like pharmacare, while allowing a two-tier, for-profit health-care system to grow in their provinces.