Sustainable financing to transform Canada’s public health systems

Public health is central to preserving population health and supporting emergency responses. Sustained, equitable and effective financing is a critical building block to a strong public health system. Yet, Canada’s public health systems face challenges with ensuring adequate and sustained financing for public health, and there are significant variations across the country, and internationally, in both the size of public health budgets and trends over time.

The aim of this research is to learn more about the best options for improving Canada’s public health financing models, considering sustainability, effectiveness and equity. We will compare and contrast how decisions are made across Canada and Australia, about setting public health budgets, including the role of key stakeholders such as public health leaders, government decision makers and communities who partner with public health and receive programs. This comparative analysis focuses on four Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Ontario, Québec, and Nova Scotia) and two Australian states (New South Wales and Queensland).

Principal Investigators

• Sara Allin, Associate Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto; Director, North American Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
• Barry Pakes, York Region Medical Officer of Health
• Mehdi Ammi, Associate Professor, School of Public Policy & Administration, Carleton University
• Andrew Pinto, Scientist, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute; Assistant Professor, DLSPH and the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto; Director, the Upstream Lab

Co-Investigators

Funding details

• Funding organization: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
• Program: Catalyst Grant – Policy Res. Health System Trans – IPPH – Public Health Systems Research
• Funding amount: $149,999
• Term: 1 year