Putting Families First: A Blueprint for a Healthier Canada in Budget 2025

Recommendations

1. Invest $1 million to develop a pan-Canadian children’s strategy that includes targets and timelines to enhance children’s health outcomes.
2. Invest $8 million annually to establish and operate an office for a Chief Children’s Health Officer.
3. Commit $10 billion over ten years for dedicated and protected ring-fenced funding to facilitate right-sizing children’s health systems across the continuum of care, including child health research.

Introduction

Children and youth in Canada are facing unprecedented threats to their health and wellbeing that demand collective action from all levels of government – starting with leadership from the federal government. The capacity of our health systems to meet the growing population of children is insufficient, creating financial and moral impetus for change.

A collective and robust focus on the health and wellbeing of children, youth and their families is both timely and urgent. Children’s Healthcare Canada’s Beyond Bandaids: Delivering Healthcare Fit for Kids report has highlighted how fragmented and undersized health systems are jeopardizing the health and future of our children.

Parliamentarians are attuned to the challenges children in this country face. This May, the parliamentary standing committee on Health released the results of its Child Health Study calling for meaningful and sustained intervention. The study's 27 recommendations underscore the necessity for new investments in children's health, emphasizing that without such action, the health and welfare of Canadian families will continue to deteriorate.

Children’s Healthcare Canada and Pediatric Chairs of Canada welcome the Government of Canada’s demonstrated attention and commitment to measurably improving the health and wellbeing of children and youth. Simply put, if we change the health of children, youth and families, we change the health of Canada.

Implementing a National Children’s Strategy

Significant strides have been made by the Government of Canada towards creating a better future for children and youth in Canada. Affordable childcare, the Canada Child Benefit, the National School Foods Program, Canada Dental Plan and the Youth Mental Health Fund are all consequential to ameliorating conditions for children to thrive. These key investments highlight the importance of targeted funding to advance child and youth health outcomes.

Yet without an overarching strategy, inclusive of a vision, targets and timelines, these siloed investments will fall short in measurably and sustainably improving the health and wellbeing of children and youth. A national child and youth strategy would assist in not only directing and guiding health investments, but would also drive broader objectives, including advancing the integration of Jordan’s Principle and addressing the distinct needs of Indigenous, rural, remote and newcomer communities.

Children’s Healthcare Canada and the Pediatric Chairs of Canada are uniquely positioned to lead an engagement with provinces and territories, children’s advocates, child health researchers, family partners, and healthcare system leaders to develop a comprehensive pan-Canadian children’s strategy. With an established community of subject matter experts within and across the continuum of care in children’s health, health research, and health policy, we are primed to convene diverse partners to develop an intergovernmental action plan to guide a cross sector approach to change.

As co-founders of Inspiring Healthy Futures ( a pan-Canadian initiative co-led by Children’s Healthcare Canada, Pediatric Chairs of Canada, UNICEF Canada and CIHR Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health), we will work with child and youth champions to create a cross-sector blueprint, underpinned by themes of interdependence, equity, collaboration, and youth and family participation, and responding to five interlinked priorities (mobilized communities, impactful research and knowledge, child-friendly policies and structures, schools and communities as health and well-being hubs, and accessible health and well-being systems) as co-developed with Canadian youth.

We recommend that Budget 2025 commit $1 million to Children’s Healthcare Canada to lead this effort. As a first step, these funds would enable Children’s Healthcare Canada to lead a national conversation with diverse stakeholders to prioritize issues a strategy must address, establish metrics for success, and provide an accountability framework to ensure measurable improvements are achieved.

Integrating Accountability with a Chief Child Health Officer

Effective leadership, coordination, and accountability at all levels of government are essential to achieving a healthcare system that is accessible, equitable, and tailored to the needs of children, youth, and families. The implementation of the Chief Child Health Officer (CCHO) office will facilitate integrated accountability and create tangible opportunities to address the challenges and gaps experienced by children, youth, and their families.

Children’s Healthcare Canada and the Pediatric Chairs of Canada propose that the federal government invest $8 million annually to establish an Office of the Chief Children’s Health Officer (CCHO). This investment, symbolic at $1 per child given Canada’s population of eight million children and youth (22% of the nation's population), is on par with the budgets of other comparable Offices of Parliament.

The Chief Children’s Health Officer will bring a cross-departmental approach to child health, fostering collaboration with provincial, territorial, and Indigenous governments, and filling the current void in child health governance. This office will work closely with civil society organizations, healthcare professionals and Indigenous communities, ensuring a seamless continuum of care for children and youth. The CCHO would play a critical role helping to advance priorities defined within a pan-Canadian Children’s Strategy.

The Standing Committee on Health (HESA) recently recommended the establishment of an office dedicated to ensuring alignment and accountability in child and youth health across Canada. The Chief Children’s Health Officer will enhance integrated accountability, applying a child health lens to key governmental decisions and advancing pan-Canadian solutions to systemic challenges.

By investing in a comprehensive children’s strategy and establishing the Office of the Chief Children’s Health Officer, Canada can chart a new course towards a healthier, stronger future for our children and families. This investment will not only address current gaps but also set the foundation for a resilient and thriving nation.

Earmarked Funding to Right-Size Children’s Health Systems

Central to advancing the health and wellbeing of children and youth is ensuring timely access to healthcare services across the continuum of care. Canada’s children and youth are facing costly delays accessing essential healthcare services including surgical interventions, diagnostics and imaging, mental health services and rehabilitation services. Purposefully designed to operate in parallel to health systems serving adult populations, children’s healthcare systems take into account the unique needs of children, youth and their families, to deliver integrated care across the continuum of primary care, community services, acute care and post-acute care (rehabilitation services, home care services, palliative and respite services). These systems are currently undersized to meet the needs of a growing population of children living in Canada.

As children's healthcare systems have historically suffered from chronic underfunding and insufficient resourcing, to truly prioritize child and youth health services amidst competing adult health needs, dedicated investments are essential. The implementation of targeted funding agreements and collaborative models of care with provinces and territories is required to expand access to timely community-based services to meet the unique needs of children and youth in each region. When funds are allocated exclusively for child and youth health, providers can maximize these investments for greater impact and significantly better outcomes.

Ontario’s historic $330 million investment in 2023 has significantly advanced meaningful progress in improving health outcomes for Canadian children and youth, serving as a recent and relevant example of the impact of targeted investments. This transformative funding has led to enhanced care for kids with disabilities and developmental needs, expansion of community-based child and youth mental health care, increased navigation and coordination between service providers and increased the number of surgeries, procedures, and beds at Ontario’s pediatric hospitals. These improvements directly benefit Canadian families, reducing the stress and burden of navigating an under-resourced healthcare system and ensuring their children receive the necessary care. Strategically directed investments in children's healthcare would also significantly benefit children and families across Canada by fostering the rapid integration and widespread adoption of cutting-edge innovations, including Artificial Intelligence and precision medicine, ensuring that families have access to the most advanced and effective treatments available.

Children’s Healthcare Canada and the Pediatric Chairs of Canada recommend an initial investment of $10 billion over ten years, dedicated and protected to advance capacity of children’s health systems across the continuum of care, including child health research. Ensuring that children have access to optimal healthcare services is a shared responsibility and requires collaborative efforts between all levels of government, community organizations and health system leaders to enable meaningful progress in the health outcomes of all children and youth.

A further note about health research funding in Canada 

Health research plays a fundamental role in our collective ability to be healthy and minimize the impact or burden of disease. Clear health data is essential to improving health services and outcomes for children and youth in Canada. Canada currently lacks a comprehensive plan to guide the development, collection and use of child and youth health data and information. We need bold leadership and commitment from governments at all levels to make this possible. Canadian researchers are sounding the alarm about research and data currently unavailable in the Canadian context.

The Canada First Research Excellence Fund 2023 commitment of $125,226,201 to the child health research initiative One Child, Every Child is a historic investment for our community. However, further sustained investment is required to achieve general research objectives such as research to support the implementation of policies, programs, and services to address the health and wellness priorities identified by the Premier’s Youth Council and the development and delivery of research results focusing on child and youth mental health, an essential component of social and emotional development in the context of family, community and culture.

We recognize the recent announcement by the federal government on the establishment of a new capstone research funding organization to modernize and enhance Canada’s research funding framework. The implementation of this research initiative presents a pivotal opportunity to prioritize child and youth health research and commit to sustained investments to address the distinctive needs of child and youth health research within Canada’s research ecosystem.

Children’s Healthcare Canada and the Pediatric Chairs of Canada urge the federal government to commit to implementing a dedicated stream of funding within the Capstone organization specifically for child, and adolescent health research. Continuous and adequate funding is essential to prevent the marginalization of children's health research amid broader funding shifts. By instituting a specific funding allocation for child and youth health research, the Capstone organization can ensure that this vital field receives the attention and resources necessary to address its unique challenges and priorities. We also further recommend that the new Capstone organization explicitly incorporate measures to prioritize research focused on children and youth. Historical trends show that this area often faces neglect during funding reorganizations. The Capstone organization should establish thematic funding areas targeting critical issues such as developmental disabilities, the effects of social media on mental health, policy-related impacts on child health, and non-communicable diseases affecting children.

Investments in children’s healthcare and health systems are crucial, but without parallel investments in health research, sustained health improvements cannot be achieved. Infrastructure to support the successful implementation of a research framework and investments aimed at achieving measurable improvements through a child and adolescent health research program is critical to achieve essential child health research objectives to measurably improve the health and well-being of Canadian children and youth.

About Us:

Children’s Healthcare Canada is a national association serving healthcare delivery organizations that care for children and youth. Together with our members, we work to accelerate excellence and innovation in health systems serving children, youth, and their families across the continuum of care. Our members deliver health services to millions of children and youth across Canada, and include all sixteen children’s hospitals, community hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, home and respite care agencies, children’s treatment centres, and regional health authorities.

The Pediatric Chairs of Canada is comprised of the department heads of Pediatrics within Canada’s seventeen medical schools. PCC provides national leadership to strengthen the future of pediatrics, advancing education, workforce planning and research in support of excellent care for children and youth.