441-02159 (Health)

Primary care is the backbone of high-performing health care, serving as Canadians’ first point of contact with the system and playing a critical role in the delivery of health services. We understand that Canadians still struggle to secure timely access to a regular primary care provider or team. Pre-existing challenges facing the health system were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic where health care workers bore the brunt of the extreme pressures on the health system, leading to significant levels of stress and burnout among primary care providers.

Improving primary care access and working toward a future in which all Canadians and residents have timely access to a primary care provider or team is a shared federal/provincial/territorial (FPT) priority identified in the Working Together to Improve Health Care for Canadians plan. Budget 2023 confirmed the federal government’s plan to provide close to $200 billion over ten years in health transfers to provinces and territories, including $46.2 billion in new funding for provinces and territories to support the health system through bilateral agreements. Improving access to family health services is at the core of these bilateral agreements. Provinces and territories have committed to using this federal funding to advance action plans which include initiatives to support team-based primary care as a key priority. Transforming the delivery of family health services, including through team-based care, will help Canadians get care when and where they need it, from a team, doctor, or nurse practitioner

To date (as of March 18, 2024), Working Together bilateral agreements have been announced with British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Ontario, Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, and Nova Scotia. Negotiations are ongoing to finalize agreements with the remaining provinces and territories. Signed agreements and provincial and territorial action plans may be viewed at this link: Working together to improve health care in Canada: Working Together bilateral agreements - Canada.ca

On October 12, 2023, FPT Ministers of Health issued a public statement reaffirming their commitment to supporting Canada’s health workforce so our health workers are able to provide high-quality, accessible, and effective health services for people living in Canada. In particular, FPT governments committed to concrete actions focusing on:

• Retention, reducing rates of stress and burnout and improving workplace culture, flexibility, and wellness sohealth workers can stay in their jobs;
• Domestic education supply and demand, enhancing Canada’s capacity to produce a domestic supply of key health professionals, including more training opportunities for Indigenous Peoples that meets national demand for care and keeps pace with a growing and aging population;
• Foreign credential recognition and ethical recruitment, making Canada a country of choice for health care providers by significantly reducing the time it takes for internationally educated health professionals (IEHPs) to join our workforce;
• Labour mobility, supporting an agile and flexible workforce to support access to care; and
• Health workforce data and planning, improving the availability, sharing and standardization of health workforce data to support health workforce planning.

In order to advance these priorities, the Government of Canada is taking action, including:

• Focusing efforts on retaining our health workforce through the dissemination and implementation of the new “Nursing retention toolkit: Improving the working lives of nurses in Canada - Canada.ca” and the Nursing Retention Forum.
• Welcoming the establishment of Home - Health Workforce Canada, the new independent organization that is working with the Canadian Institute for Health Information and other health system partners to lead a collaborative panCanadian approach to improve health workforce data collection, analysis, knowledge mobilization and policy advice.
• Undertaking a study of the education and training supply and demand for key healthcare professions to identify the best pan-Canadian approaches to meet future healthcare demands for Canadians over the next decade, including misalignment across regions and settings.

Through these various activities, our Government continues to work with provinces and territories to help Canadians obtain access to a regular primary care provider or team, as best suits their respective challenges and contexts. Going forward, we are committed to continuing that collaboration to build on progress already made in order to advance Canadians’ priority of better access to care.