2021 Federal Election Campaign
2021 Election
The next federal election will be held on September 20, 2021.
The CFPC is championing access to primary care: Access done right.
Access to high-quality, comprehensive, continuous primary care is foundational to an effective health care system. Family physicians play a crucial role providing such care.
Although access to primary care is an ongoing concern for many people living in Canada, adoption of virtual care—catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic—has presented opportunities as well as challenges for accessing high-quality primary care.
The CFPC calls on all parties to prioritize access to high-quality, community-based primary care in the lead-up to this election through our Calls to Action.
The CFPC will assess election commitments supporting access to primary care made by major national parties whenever these are published during the campaign.
How can we do access right?
Family practices can improve access to care if they have the right tools and supports. For example, virtual care tools can help enhance access but should be used to support, rather than detract from, the continuity of care. Many family doctors are stretched thin, made worse by the demands of the pandemic. Any federal political party seeking to form government must demonstrate leadership in supporting improved access to care.The CFPC advocates for three actions:
- The Primary Health Care Transition Fund—called for in 2019 by the CFPC, Canadian Medical Association, Canadian Nurses Association, and the Canadian Association of Social Workers and now referred to as the Primary Care Access Fund—has yet to be launched. This proposed $2B investment would enable changes in practices across the country to enhance accessibility for patients in a Patient’s Medical Home model.
- The pandemic has underscored the need for national standards in many areas of health care. Drafting and adopting national standards for virtual care can enhance access to primary care. National standards will help patients living anywhere in Canada access care that abides by the Canada Health Act and meets the standard for high-quality, safe, and competent care.
- Support all jurisdictions to establish blended payment models as the dominant form of remuneration. The CFPC supports payment models that incentivize accessible, continuous, comprehensive care in a Patient’s Medical Home model.
What Can I Do Now? Take Action!
Push federal political parties to commit to supporting family physicians and their interprofessional practices in improving accessibility for patients and making it easier to deliver timely, excellent care.
Send a pre-written message to all candidates currently contesting the election in your riding. If you know your current Member of Parliament (MP) or other candidates, contact them directly and share your experiences with the challenges your patients may face accessing care.
Find candidates in your riding using Elections Canada’s election website.
Party Platforms
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Conservative Party Platform 2021 Election – Summary
The Conservative Party platform does not address virtual care and lacks vision on role of this paradigm shifting innovation in development of health care delivery.
The Conservative Party platform pledges to restore the Canada Health Transfers (CHTs) annual rate of growth to six per cent (the original reduction to three per cent introduced by the Conservative Party was maintained by the Liberal Party of Canada since their election in 2015). This would be a positive development that should increase the global capacity of the system. Though the plan indicates an additional $60 billion would flow to the health care system over the next 10 years, analyses show that this money will be backloaded into the second half of the coming decade, with just $3.6 billion of that spending expected in the next five years.
The plan gives attention to the role of mental health (through encouraging provinces to invest in this area and subsidizing employers to provide mental health support programs) but lacks the specific direction of resources to other priority areas (e.g., access to primary care).
The platform dedicates $1 billion over five years to enhance funding for Indigenous mental health and addictions treatment programs. It is a key step to improving the health and well-being of Indigenous people in Canada. Though the Conservative Party’s platform refers to the importance of guaranteeing clean drinking water to Indigenous communities, no targeted funding commitment is identified.
The Conservative platform also pledges an additional investment of $325 million into residential treatment beds for patients suffering from addiction. Palliative care is supported through doubling the direct federal investments in palliative care.
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Green Party Platform 2021 Election Summary
The Green Party platform promises to support family doctors and interprofessional teams to reduce wait times and improve access to care. This is included under a pledge to restore the Canada Health Accord. Specific strategies on how this would be achieved are not provided.
Virtual care is addressed through commitments to set and maintain national standards on safety and quality, support for equitable access through infrastructure investments, and support for policies that enhance continuity of care.
The platform pledges to expand the Canada Health Act to include pharmacare, basic dental care, some mental health services, and long-term care (LTC).
A national mental health strategy and a suicide prevention strategy are proposed. Commitments to invest in Indigenous-led services, youth mental health, and community supportive housing are described, though specific funding is not provided.
Commitments related to LTC include creating enforceable national standards for LTC and providing a dedicated Seniors’ Care Transfer to provinces and territories.
Other commitments include upholding Jordan’s Principle to ensure Indigenous peoples receive the health care they need regardless of jurisdiction; ensuring drug users have access to the medical support they need; and developing a national water strategy to ensure everyone in Canada has safe drinking water. -
Liberal Party Platform 2021 Election – Summary
A $3.2 billion investment over four years to hire 7,500 family doctors, nurses, and nurse practitioners sees the Liberal Party platform emphasize enhanced access to primary care through incentives to attract health care workers to remote and rural locations, and investments to expand virtual health care services.
The recruitment strategy involves increased student loan forgiveness to health professionals (including family doctors) working in rural communities. A further $6 billion is dedicated to support the elimination of health system wait-lists, though specifics on how the investment will achieve this are not provided.
These items align well with the CFPC’s call to action to enhance accessibility for patients in a Patient’s Medical Home vision, and previous calls made in 2019 for the Primary Health Care Transition Fund. Lacking in the platform are national standards for virtual care and specific mention of support for jurisdictions to establish blended payment models.
The Liberal Party also pledges to improve long-term care (LTC) through an investment of $9 billion over five years. Aspects of this pledge include training more personal health care workers, raising their minimum wage, and implementing national LTC standards.
The creation of a new permanent and dedicated funding stream in the form of a Canada Mental Health transfer has also been announced, with an initial pledge of $4.5 billion over five years.
The Liberal Party platform proposes to restrict extra billing for publicly insured services and establish regulations governing sexual and reproductive health services. Compliance will be enforced by strengthening federal powers to deduct health transfers and apply automatic penalties to provinces that fail to comply. The platform also continues the promise of a national universal pharmacare program, though no funding for implementation is proposed.
A series of initiatives for Indigenous health and well-being are provided, including developing a new framework for Indigenous LTC, implementing Joyce’s Principle, continuing to fund both Jordan’s Principle and the Inuit Child First Initiative, and supporting mental health care with an additional pledge of $1.4 billion. The platform also includes a continued commitment to address clean water issues. -
NDP Party Platform 2021 Election – Summary
The NDP health platform emphasizes access to primary care and has pledged to reduce wait times, improve virtual care infrastructure, and address concerns of privatization so everyone living in Canada can receive high-quality, continuous care. The plan offers no specific proposed investments to enable these goals.
The NDP also strongly champions universal national pharmacare, which would provide public coverage for prescription medications, with an annual federal investment of $10 billion. The CFPC is aligned with this policy principle as it would help to reduce inequities and improve health outcomes for the population in Canada.
Long-term care (LTC) receives a pledge to introduce national standards and a commitment to eliminate private for-profit LTC.
The NDP are also committing to a series of initiatives to improve Indigenous health, including Joyce’s Principle, which states that all Indigenous people have an equal right to the highest standard of physical and mental health, with a right to access traditional medicines. Investments into improvement of infrastructure, mental health care availability, and Indigenous-led LTC have also been pledged. At this time no specific funding has been announced for these programs.
Past Successes
In 2019, the CFPC graded all national party platforms in three priority areas:
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Timely access to care through the Patient’s Medical Home
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Universal national pharmacare
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Integrating mental health into primary care
The Liberal Party, re-elected to a minority government in 2019, adopted these three priorities as part of their platform. The current government has made limited progress in these areas, though the overwhelming nature of COVID-19 has sidelined most other health policy initiatives since March 2020. The government has pledged additional resources to support mental health services and shown openness to adopting many principles of the Patient’s Medical Home in support of primary care.
We’ll make sure every Canadian has access to:
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) September 23, 2019
🏥A family doctor
❤️Mental health services
💊National pharmacare https://t.co/RJBSN74gSx
