Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada : The Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada was established in 2001. According
to Order-in-Council 2001-569, which created the commission, the official mandate of the commission was "to inquire into and undertake dialogue with Canadians on the future of Canada's public health care system, and to recommend policies and measures respectful of the jurisdictions and powers in Canada required to ensure over the long term the sustainability of a universally accessible, publicly funded health care system, that offers quality services to Canadians and strikes an appropriate balance between investments in prevention and health maintenance and those directed to care and treatment". It was created to fulfill part of the Chrétien government's pledge to address the long-term sustainability of public health care in Canada. The Commissioner of this Inquiry was former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow. The final report, Building on Values: The Future of Health Care in Canada, was released in 2002.
The Commission issued a call for submissions, which was answered by a number of organizations and individual Canadians. It also received informal feedback through mail, email and telephone and through dialogue sessions and forums across the country. It conducted public hearings, workshops, and other sessions with experts and individual citizens, and commissioned discussion papers from scholars, policy analysts and experts.
The final report dealt with issues of sustainability in the Canadian health care system, while focusing on issues of specific concern to Canadians, such as health care provision to rural and Aboriginal Canadians. It concluded with 47 recommendations to strengthen and modernize health care, including a timetable for their im
plementation. Its key recommendations included the need for a coordinated approach to HHR (Health Human Resources) planning, the importance of inter-professional education for patient-centred care, and the need to develop new models of care to reflect the different ways of delivering health care services.
While the Commission had extensive administrative and creative powers, and was free to be critical of provincial, territorial, or federal governments, it did not have any legal authority and so could not force governments to act on its conclusions and recommendations. As such, the Commission was most effective as a medium for discussion and advice on health care policy.
The records created by the Commission were transferred to the Privy Council Office after it was dissolved. They were transferred to Library and Archives Canada in 2008.
