All you need to know about marijuana legalization in Canada
Picture this: you’re driving back from a weekend at the cottage with your friends. It’s Sunday at noon, and the countryside is beautiful. Suddenly you see blue and red flashing lights ahead; it’s a roadside spot check. You kill the music. You tell yourself you’ve got nothing to worry about. You’re sober as a gopher. […]
Plain packaging lobbying persists as Liberals promise new tobacco rules
The Trudeau government continues to field lobbying pushes on a proposal requiring plain packaging for retail tobacco products in the wake of consultations that federal officials say identified strong support for the measure. The Liberals pledged during the 2015 campaign to require plain packaging for tobacco products in hopes that it would further depress smoking rates, […]
Health Canada eyeing changes to safe-injection site law
Health Canada is considering changes to Conservative-era legislation that critics argued made it prohibitively difficult to open new supervised injection sites, according to a senior department bureaucrat. Hilary Geller, an assistant deputy minister with Health Canada, told the House Health Committee on Tuesday that the department is looking at the legislation itself to see “if amendments may be advisable,” though she […]
Health talks feel like Groundhog Day
MONTREAL—A bit more than a decade ago, Canada’s first ministers struck what they grandly billed as a health accord designed to “fix medicare for a generation.” Twelve years and billions of public dollars later, new players are headed back to the negotiation table this fall. They might as well be starring in a remake of […]
Provincial differences seen as innovation hurdle
Canada’s success in innovation could improve if it had uniform policies across the country, rather than provincial variations that can make it difficult for startups to succeed across the country, say industry experts. For startups and companies that push innovation, the provincial differences in financial regulations can be a hindrance. “One issue in Canada has to […]
How Mario Dion is leading the way on mental health
The chairperson of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada wants other government bodies to learn from the one he has been heading since January 2015. Mario Dion is lauded as being “ahead of the curve” when it comes to creating a workplace that is aware and accepting of employees struggling with mental health. Since being appointed chairperson […]
Hosting Montreal conference shows Canada is back on the global stage
Last weekend, the Canadian government successfully hosted the fifth Global Fund replenishment conference in Montreal. If the objective was to demonstrate that Canada can be called upon to rally the international community around urgent global issues, it was achieved. The fund almost reached the $13-billion pledge target ($12.9-billion on last count, with some pledges still […]
Good for Liberal MP Caesar-Chavannes, brave move
Headlined, “I’m an MP And I’m Among Those Who Struggle With Depression,” rookie Liberal MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes, who is also parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, last week wrote a gutsy and honest column for Huffington Post Canada about her personal struggle with depression. Her piece was powerful because she didn’t hold back, […]
Forging a new deal for doctors requires a new approach
Ontario’s Health Minister Erik Hoskins is a brave man. He has attempted to wrestle a new agreement with Ontario doctors and to drive down outrageous billing—with some 500 doctors billing more than $1-million a year. Hoskins wanted to redistribute these health dollars for improved physician care. The plan was to engage with doctors themselves on […]
Why private health insurance coverage in Canada needs a review
The news media recently carried a story about a nine-year-old boy in New Brunswick who was denied private health coverage because of his weight (at 5 foot 2 inches and 135 pounds). His family was shocked—as were many reading the story—that a child could be denied private health coverage in Canada. In fact, it’s not […]
