The Santis team shares its insights on the key sectors and factors driving decisions and change in the health care and life sciences sector across Canada.
Rapid Recap: B.C. Budget 2026: Prioritizing Primary Care and Administrative Reform
Tuesday, February 17, 2026 - On February 17, 2026, Minister of Finance Brenda Bailey tabled British Columbia’s 2026/27 provincial budget, forecasting a total spend of $98.83 billion over the next fiscal year. Of this, $5.1 billion is new spending, the majority of which ($2.77 billion) has been allocated to the Ministry of Health. Despite weeks of Minister Bailey foreshadowing an austerity budget focused on addressing the government’s deficit, this budget ultimately looked to “balance” addressing the deficit and continuing key public sector investments, resulting in a projected record deficit of $13.3 billion for 2026/27.
Read MoreRapid Recap: Ontario Primary Care Expansion Update & Liberal Leadership Reset
Friday, January 16, 2026 - This week, the Ontario government commemorated its commitment to primary care access, reflecting on progress made one year after the release of the Primary Care Action Plan and announced planning grants for 16 new and expanded primary care teaching clinics. Former Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie also abruptly announced her formal and immediate resignation, accelerating the search for new leadership following a challenging 2025 election cycle. An interim leader is yet to be appointed.
Read MoreCatherine Brown Returns to Santis to Offer Organizational Crisis Resiliency Expertise
Toronto, ON - December 11, 2025 - Santis Health is proud to announce that Catherine Brown has rejoined our esteemed team of Expert Advisors, bringing more than 30 years of experience in health care leadership, crisis management, and business continuity. She previously held senior roles within the Ontario government, Health Shared Services Ontario and Ontario Health, and demonstrated essential leadership during the pandemic response.
Read MoreRapid Recap: Primary Care, Physician Billing, and PPE Stockpiles Under Scrutiny
Friday, December 5 - The Auditor General (AG) released her annual report earlier this week, which included scrutiny of multiple health files, with physician billing generating the strongest media traction and political attention. Other reports examined primary care expansion, medical school expansion for family medicine, and Supply Ontario’s personal protective equipment (PPE) management post-pandemic.
Read MoreRapid Recap: pCPA’s ENP/TNP Pathways
Tuesday, November 11, 2025 - On October 3rd, the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance (pCPA) formally announced two new expedited negotiation pathways - the Early Negotiation Process (ENP) and the Targeted Negotiation Process (TNP). TNP was initially rolled out during COVID, but has never been fully and formally communicated to the pCPAs core stakeholders. ENP, however, is an entirely new pathway designed to speed up negotiation timelines for promising new cancer therapies that have already received regulatory approval through Project Orbis.
Read MoreRapid Recap: 2025 Ontario Fall Economic Statement
Thursday, November 6, 2025 - This afternoon, Ontario’s Finance Minister, Peter Bethlenfalvy, presented the 2025 Fall Economic Statement, A Plan to Protect Ontario, with a focus on four key themes: Protecting Workers and Businesses; Protecting Ontario by Unleashing Its Economy; Protecting Ontario by Building; Protecting Ontario by Keeping Costs Down. As expected, the Fall Economic Statement (FES) doubled down on the theme from the 2025 Ontario budget: protecting the provincial economy from external threats, namely U.S. tariffs.
Read MoreRapid Recap: 2025 Federal Budget
Tuesday, November 4, 2025 - This afternoon, Minister of Finance François Philippe-Champagne released the federal government’s 2025 Budget, Canada Strong, focused on major, strategic investments to protect Canada’s economic sovereignty while trying to balance the country’s operational deficit. This marks the first budget of the new Liberal government, providing new insight into their short- and medium-term priorities on a much deeper level. This budget calls for around $141 billion in new spending over the next five years, which will partially be offset by about $51.2 billion in cuts and other savings. The projected deficit is double that of the previous government’s at $78.3 billion. The budget projects the economy will grow by about 1% a year for the next two years.
Read MoreRapid Recap: Big Investments in Home Care, Changes to Campaign Financing
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 - The Ontario legislature is back for its second week and kicking off the week with a few major pre-FES (fall economic statement) announcements on home care and campaign financing. Here’s what you missed.
Read MoreRapid Recap: Federal, Provincial, and Territorial Health Ministers Meet in Calgary
October 20, 2025 - On October 17, Canada’s Federal, Provincial, and Territorial (FPT) Ministers of Health met in Calgary to discuss mutual challenges and opportunities for collaboration in Canada’s health care system. This marked Minister of Health Marjorie Michel’s first time hosting an FPT meeting since the most recent election. Representatives from Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut, and Yukon were not present at the meeting due to each jurisdiction being in caretaker mode for elections.
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