Canada’s healthcare crisis isn’t just a moral or medical issue—it’s the single biggest missed opportunity for national renewal.
While the federal government’s new Major Projects Office fast-tracks infrastructure, energy, and mining investments, it has ignored the most urgent “major project” of all: fixing our healthcare system. If Canada truly seeks nation-building initiatives that create lasting prosperity, healthcare must sit at the top of that list.
Healthcare as a National Productivity Lever
In June 2025, more than 275 economists, clinicians, and health policy experts signed an open letter urging Ottawa to treat healthcare as an economic priority. We agree with their premise: a strong public healthcare system is the backbone of Canada’s prosperity.
But the letter stopped short of diagnosing the real issue. Canada does not suffer from chronic underfunding—we already rank among the top OECD nations in healthcare spending. Our crisis is one of design, efficiency, and structure. Too much money is trapped in bureaucracy, too little reaches the front lines, and our system remains reactive rather than preventative.
The result?
- Canada ranks near the bottom for OECD countries in operational efficiencies in global comparisons, including the Commonwealth Fund’s Mirror, Mirror healthcare report.
- Wait times for medically necessary care cost Canadian workers over $5 billion in lost wages annually—nearly $3,000 per affected patient
- Research estimates the economic value of unpaid caregiving in Canada at over $97 billion annually. This figure is based on an estimated 5.7 billion hours of care work contributed by family caregivers each year.
- We have a vastly diminished workforce participation as chronic conditions go unmanaged and preventable illnesses escalate.
Healthcare is not only a moral imperative—it is an economic engine. A healthier population is a more productive one, and health also drives equity: Canadians value universal care not just as a service, but as an expression of who we are.
A modernized healthcare system would drive innovation, attract investment, and reduce fiscal drag caused by inefficiency and lost output.
A New Model for a New Era: Comprehensive Healthcare at Home
At CHAH Technology and Stay at Home Nursing, we believe Canada’s most powerful lever for change lies in redefining where and how care happens.
Our model—Comprehensive Healthcare at Home—proposes a national shift toward proactive, technology-enabled, home-based care built on four pillars:
- Home as the new health centre: Deliver hospital-level care in every community—from an urban, downtown Toronto to a rural Pickle Lake.
- Predictive, not reactive, care: Use AI and sensors to detect decline early, preventing falls, infections, and ER visits.
- A unified national health record: Connect patients and providers through data that follows every Canadian for life.
- Healthcare navigators for every citizen: Deploy Registered Nurses supported by AI to provide annual checkups and continuous system access.
A Call for Strategic Investment
Healthcare reform should be treated with the same urgency as green energy or critical minerals. It is the foundation of both our economic competitiveness and social contract.
Prime Minister Carney’s government has a historic opportunity to make healthcare reform the centerpiece of Canada’s next era of growth—one that redefines productivity not just as GDP per hour, but as health per citizen.
Let’s stop patching a broken system and start building a modern one. Healthcare reform isn’t just about saving lives—it’s about securing Canada’s future.
