Federal, provincial and territorial health ministers missed a critical opportunity to improve access to health care at their Calgary meeting in October.
Every day in Canada, a family doctor tries to manage an overwhelming patient roster, a nurse covers another double shift or a community clinic closes because it lacks health professionals.
The roots of this crisis are deep. For decades, health workforce planning in Canada has been fragmented across provinces and territories, and by profession. The result is a patchwork system that is under-resourced.
However, there are solutions. Canada has the expertise to create a truly integrated health workforce – one that delivers equitable and timely care for every person in this country.
Workforce planning is a long-term strategy that considers all relevant disciplines within a sector and aligns key government levers – such as education, regulation and payment – to ensure sustainable and effective health-care delivery.
Earlier this month, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) released a roadmap for change, Building Capacity through Integrated Health Workforce Planning. These recommendations are the result of extensive consultations with health-care leaders, professionals, researchers, policy-makers, government representatives and people with lived experience. It will take bold, coordinated action to make this a reality.
A new vision for health workforce planning
An integrated approach begins with collaboration. Government officials and health-care professional groups must come together around a shared understanding of what our health workforce looks like today – and what it must look like tomorrow. The CMA is advocating for the creation of a national, integrated workforce plan, with system-wide implementation and a commitment to a 10-year path forward.
Training for the future, not the past
We must rethink how we educate and train the next generation of health professionals. This means funding the expansion of interprofessional training programs to prepare students to work in health teams, and developing curricula relevant to team-based care needs. We also need to update accreditation standards for training programs and revise practice standards for licensure related to interprofessional practice.
Supporting the people who deliver care
The CMA’s 2025 National Physician Health Survey showed that 46 per cent of physicians are experiencing high levels of burnout. A robust mental health and wellness strategy as well as improved health workforce mobility are key components of the roadmap.
Committing to comprehensive data
Canada lacks national, coordinated health data, which impacts our physicians’ and system’s ability to deliver effective and efficient care. We need a shared framework to collect meaningful workforce information and to share it freely among health systems. This means providing long-term funding for a national health workforce organization such as Health Workforce Canada, establishing a Canada-wide registry of standardized health-care professions data and creating a centralized hub for sharing research results that can drive improvements in workforce planning.
Scaling up what works
There are successful models of team-based approaches across the country. We need to work with Healthcare Excellence Canada, professional associations, health institutions and health human resource planners to expand them. We also need to harness the power of new technologies, including AI-driven tools, to strengthen integrated workforce planning and better support the health workforce.
Strengthening the Indigenous health workforce
A strong, culturally grounded Indigenous health workforce is vital to advancing health equity, reconciliation and Indigenous self-determination. With guidance from the CMA’s Indigenous health team, our recommendations address the underrepresentation of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples and healing traditions in medical education and health professions.
The path forward
For too long, we have treated health workforce planning as a provincial and territorial issue, or the responsibility of specific professions. The cost of inaction is clear: staff shortages, long wait-times, health worker burnout and deepening inequities.
A well-planned, integrated workforce can deliver access, improved outcomes and support our health professionals. It’s time to put the future in motion.
