Insights, Health Care System in Canada, Santis Health care consultants

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: 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.

Rapid 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.

Rapid 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.

Rapid 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.

Rapid 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.

Rapid Recap: LTC Staff-Up & Labour Mobility Moves

Friday, October 17, 2025 - The Ontario Government has rolled out several health announcements in advance of the return of the Legislative Assembly next week. The Ontario Government will introduce legislation that moves forward on as-of-right rules for Canadian health care workers, covering 16 additional health professionals. The government also made a massive re-up on its long-term care funding commitment, with an additional $1.92 billion to sustain the increase in hours of direct care for long-term care residents and help homes attract and retain more staff to care for them.

Rapid Recap: Newfoundland & Labrador Progressive Conservatives to Form Majority Government

October 15, 2025 - In a significant upset, Progressive Conservative (PC) leader Tony Wakeham has secured a majority government in yesterday's 2025 Newfoundland & Labrador general election, bringing an end to the Liberal party's 10-year run in power. The PCs captured 21 seats with the Liberals reduced to 15. The New Democratic Party (NDP) won two seats and two independents were elected in the new legislature.

Rapid Recap: Cancer Drugs in the FAST Lane in Ontario

October 8, 2025 - The Ontario Government has announced more details on the long-awaited cancer therapies pilot dubbed the Funding Accelerated for Specific Treatments (FAST) program. It promises to allow the fast-tracking of access to 7-10 breakthrough cancer therapies at least one year earlier than traditional pathways. The FAST program would make Ontario the first jurisdiction in Canada to expedite access to new and innovative medicines within Canada. The FAST program is enabled through a three-year pilot program for streamlining Health Canada-approved cancer drugs through Project Orbis.

Rapid Recap: Ontario Announces Second Round of Primary Care Expansion

Tuesday, September 23 - Yesterday, the Ontario government launched the eagerly-awaited second call for Interprofessional Primary Care Team proposals. Ontario’s Minister of Health, Sylvia Jones, alongside Primary Care Action Team (PCAT) chair, Dr. Jane Philpott, made the announcement in Brampton. The government aims to create and expand approximately 75 primary care teams and a $250 million investment is expected to connect an additional 500,000 people to primary care clinicians. The announcement was preceded by a first call back in June for 130 teams. The deadline for submissions is November 14, 2025.

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