‘It’s time for action’ to fix Canada’s health-care system, says CMA president

President of the Canadian Medical Association Dr. Margot Burnell says ‘it’s time for solutions,’ with priorities like funding more primary care teams.

Federal, provincial and territorial health ministers met in Calgary on Oct. 16 and 17 to discuss ways to improve Canada’s health care system, but the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) says the talks failed to deliver solutions.

The meetings covered a range of topics, including access to pharmaceuticals, streamlining licensing for internationally trained health professionals, and expanding mental health and addiction services.

Ministers also discussed modernizing health data, integrating digital tools, and addressing global public health threats such as Canada’s current measles outbreaks.

However, CMA president Dr. Margot Burnell, told CTV News Channel on Saturday that the association is disappointed with the outcome of the meetings.

“We were disappointed that they did not come out with tangible, concrete action plans,” she said. “We’ve had lots of discussions about many of these topics. We know the solutions, so we need to start developing concrete action plans.”

Burnell said some of the association’s priorities include increasing funds to more primary care teams, allowing physicians to work across provinces, and creating a streamlined pathway for internationally trained doctors.

According to the latest edition of Caring for Canadians: Canada’s Future Health Workforce – The Canadian Health Workforce Education, Training and Distribution Study published in January 2025, there is a current need for almost 23,000 more family physicians in Canada - a 49 per cent increase from the current supply.

The study also found that Canada needs 14,000 more licensed practical nurses, 2,700 more nurse practitioners, 28,000 more registered nurses, 500 more registered psychiatric nurses and 2,000 more occupational therapists.

“We need all opportunities to decrease barriers so that physicians can practice,” Burnell said.

“We know from models in the U.S. and Australia (that) by having a multi-jurisdictional licensure pathway, you increase access by about 10 to 15 per cent, so the critical areas are at border communities, rural, (and) remote (regions).”

She said such a system would allow physicians to do rotations in other areas to see where they eventually want to establish their practice.

According to the CMA’s press release, the association also recommends utilizing digital health systems that can be used amongst physicians to communicate, and therefore, remove “onerous and time-consuming paperwork.”

While the press release from Health Canada acknowledged that “vaccines save lives and health care costs,” it noted that immunization will be discussed at a future meeting.

“That’s very disappointing,” Burnell said. “We know that vaccinations save lives, so that’s very important. We’ve seen the measles outbreak, we’ve seen lives lost from that, so that really is a very important public health concern and we would have hoped that would have been discussed.”