Here's what the Liberals promised for health care. But can they deliver?

Winnipeg Free Press

01-05-2025

TORONTO – Until U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and threats to Canadian sovereignty came along, many thought health care would be a key issue in the federal election.
Instead, it came across as an after-thought to more immediate economic concerns that often hijacked campaign headlines.
'I can't recall an election in recent decades where less attention was given to health care,' said Nelson Wiseman, a professor emeritus in political science at the University of Toronto.
Wiseman pegs the oversight to tense relations with the United States and the Trump administration, which he says 'eclipsed virtually all other issues except affordability.'
Health issues are certainly no less pressing and the Liberals included several health-care pledges in their platform.
Now that the party has been handed another mandate, here's what doctors, nurses and mental health experts say they're happy to see, and what is missing.
MORE DOCTORS
The Liberal platform promised to 'add thousands of new doctors to Canada's health care system' by working with the provinces and territories to increase medical school and residency spaces, with a special focus on primary care. This pledge comes as more than six million people across the country don't have a family doctor.
Dr. Carrie Bernard, president of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, said more details are needed.
'Training and expansion needs to be supported through infrastructure,' said Bernard, who practises in Brampton, Ont.
'It can't just be seats for the family medicine resident. There needs to be funding for teachers. There need to be places to teach these people. So there needs to be a lot that goes along with the training spots.'
The incoming government has also promised to streamline the process to recruit doctors from the United States and for internationally trained doctors and nurses to practise in Canada.
Valerie Grdisa, CEO of the Canadian Nurses Association, said the government should also enlist nurses and nurse practitioners to cover the care gap, both in multidisciplinary teams alongside family doctors and on their own.
After all, nurse practitioners, 'have prescriptive authority, diagnostic authority, they develop treatment plans,' Grdisa said.
There's evidence from around the world 'that they have equal or better outcomes at lower cost' to physicians, she said.
MAKING LIFE EASIER FOR HEALTH-CARE PROFESSIONALS
The Liberals say they want to standardize forms and increase the use of digital tools — for tasks such as e-prescribing and e-referrals — to reduce the hours of paperwork and other administrative duties that doctors do on top of seeing patients. Although the health platform didn't specifically mention artificial intelligence, regulatory bodies in Ontario and British Columbia have provided guidelines on using AI scribes during medical appointments.
Bernard said measures to reduce the administrative burden are important in making sure doctors want to stay in the profession.
'We want to keep family doctors practising comprehensive family medicine and that means making it a better environment,' she said.
The Liberals also promise a 'new practice fund' to help new doctors pay for clinic space and medical equipment when they set up shop in communities where they're needed, another pledge Bernard applauded.
The Liberals have also said they would create a national licensing system for physicians and doctors so they could work anywhere in the country — not just in the province or territory they wrote their exams in. The Conservatives made a similar promise in their campaign platform.
But even with cross-party agreement, Wiseman is skeptical that the federal government can do it, because like most of health care, licensing falls under provincial jurisdiction.
'It can happen, but you try to get all the provinces on board with that,' he said.
In fact, the main barrier to the Liberal government fulfilling most of their health-care promises won't be that they're a minority government, Wiseman said. It will be that the provinces and territories hold the majority of power in health-care decision making and would need to be in agreement.
MORE MENTAL HEALTH CARE
The Liberal platform promises a permanent 'Youth Mental Health Fund' to make community-based mental health services accessible to 100,000 young people a year.
That's 'a very worthwhile objective, obviously, knowing that mental health can manifest itself early on in one's life and the earlier that they are treated the more likely (they'll have a) better outcome,' said Glenn Brimacombe, chair of the public affairs committee for the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health.
The new government has also promised to add $500 million to the Emergency Treatment Fund, which goes to municipalities and Indigenous communities to deal with the toxic drug and overdose crisis.
The Liberals also pledged to continue funding the 988 suicide crisis helpline, which launched in November 2023 and received more than 300,000 calls and texts in its first year, according to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
The platform also recognized the link between housing and mental health, pledging to invest in not only affordable housing, but supportive housing for people who are vulnerable.
Brimacombe, who is also the director of policy and public affairs at the Canadian Psychological Association, expressed hope that NDP members of Parliament will help the minority Liberals pass such measures, given 'a lot of alignment in terms of their two platforms.'
Sarah Kennell, national director of public policy for the Canadian Mental Health Association, said she's feeling 'cautious optimism' for progress in mental health care delivery.
But both Kennell and Brimacombe said the top priority should be public funds for mental health and substance use care under the Canada Health Act.
Kennell noted that only services provided by hospitals or medical doctors — including family physicians and psychiatrists — are publicly funded under the act, leaving patients to pay for psychologists, social workers and other mental health professionals out-of-pocket or through private health plans.
Community based mental health agencies often have to rely on charitable donations or 'piecemeal funding,' she said.
'Many services like counselling and psychotherapy, addictions treatment, eating disorder treatments, all of those things fall outside of what's considered part of our public universal health-care system, and it's not part of provincial and territorial health plans,' she said.
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Kennell said they want the Liberal government to take steps within their first 100 days in office toward amending the Canada Health Act or creating 'new parallel legislation that would put mental health on par with physical health.'
It's a big-ticket item that wasn't in the Liberal party platform, but Kennell said the Liberal, Conservative, New Democrat and Green parties have expressed support for the idea.
'We held consultations with senior officials across party lines. And they … confirmed their strong desire to address the inequity between physical and mental health through legislative reform,' she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2025.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.