Communications with Government
CPhA is dedicated to ensuring that the voice of the profession is heard at the national level. We communicate with the federal government on a regular basis, submitting position statements, offering support and expertise and presenting to parliamentary committees on issues affecting pharmacists and the health and safety of Canadians.
2023
August 2023
Letter to new Minister of Health, the Honourable Mark Holland
CPhA sent a letter to the Honourable Mark Holland to congratulate him on his appointment as Canada’s new Minister of Health. The letter also outlines a number of pressing health care issues, including our health human resources crisis, ongoing drug shortages and pending pharmacare legislation.
Read the letter
August 2023
Federal Pre-Budget Consultation
CPhA’s FINA Pre-Budget consultation submission for the 2024 federal government budget focused on five areas for investment and improvement for the government, centering around the concept of strengthening health care for Canadians. The key areas were: enhancing HHR strategies both federally and provincially, expanding rural and remote student loan forgiveness to pharmacists, implementing a mixed payor pharmacare program, making the Sexual and Reproductive Health Fund permanent, and funding tools and monitoring programs through CPhA to prevent and mitigate drug shortages.
Read the submission
August 2023
Consultation on Improving Access to Drugs and Other Health Products in Canada
CPhA’s submission as part of the federal government’s consultation on improving access to drugs and other health products for people in Canada focused on a number of areas and suggestions, including: encouraging a robust pharmaceutical market in Canada, supporting manufacturers during shortages, creating and maintaining a list of medications at high-risk of shortages, enhancing data collection, equipping pharmacists with the tools and authority to manage shortages, reviewing Health Canada’s drug shortage mandate, and providing financial assistance to patients who face higher out-of-pocket costs during shortages.
Read the submission
May 2023
Natural Health Products – Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology
CPhA appeared before the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology to discuss its support for natural health products’ regulations through the expansion of Vanessa’s Law. Part of Bill C-47, the hearing was related to a proposal in the 2023 federal budget to amend the Food and Drugs Act to extend powers in the Protecting Canadians from Unsafe Drugs Act (also known as Vanessa’s Law) to natural health products.
Read the transcript
January 2023
Letter to federal government on Canada Health Transfer
Ahead of a first ministers’ meeting on health care, CPhA sent a letter urging the federal government to ensure that any increases to the Canada Health Transfer to provinces/territories include investment in community-based care, such as the expansion of health care services through pharmacy
Read the letter
2022
October 2022
Federal Pre-Budget Consultation
CPhA’s Pre-Budget Consultation Brief for the 2023 federal government budget focused on four key areas for investment. The key areas included strategies to enhance health human resources by strengthening recruitment and retention, expanding the rural and remote student loan forgiveness program to pharmacists, investing in community-based care, and implementing a mixed payer pharmacare program.
Read the submission
June 2022
Study on the emergency situation facing Canadians in light of the COVID-19 pandemic – Standing Committee on Health
CPhA appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health as a witness for its study on the emergency situation facing Canadians in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. CPhA’s remarks focused on the pandemic’s impact on drug shortages and patient access to care across Canada. Though COVID-19 has taken a devastating toll on Canadians, it also brought about scope of practice changes and expanded services that have enabled pharmacists to better care for patients in their communities. Pharmacists now need supports to maintain these positive changes in access to care.
Read the speaking notes
April 2022
Study on Canada’s Health Workforce – Standing Committee on Health
CPhA appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health as a witness for its study on Canada’s Health Workforce. CPhA’s remarks highlight the essential role pharmacists and their teams have played in public health and primary care throughout the pandemic but that this period has taken a heavy toll on the profession. Our recommendations to the federal government include targeted mental health resources for health care providers, funding to help address pharmacy’s acute workforce shortages, especially in rural and remote areas of the country, and targeted funding to the provinces to enable universal scope of practice and pharmacy service delivery across Canada.
Read the speaking notes
February 2022
Federal Pre-Budget Consultation
CPhA submitted a brief in response to the 2022 federal pre-budget consultation. Given the significant health workforce shortages and declining mental health and burnout facing pharmacists and their teams, our recommendations to the federal government focus on these two key priority issues. They include federal investments in mental health supports for health care workers along with a number of targeted initiatives to strengthen the health workforce.
Read the submission