“Out with the old and in with the new” is a philosophy many adapt when New Year arrives. But when it comes to Canadian health care, there is no shortage of both old and new.
A major development in 2025 was Canada losing its measles-elimination status, signalling the return of an unwelcomed, ancient virus. Measles had been eradicated in the country in 1998, but is making an explosive comeback thanks in large part to decreased vaccination rates.
Provinces across the country ushered in a return to old ways of thinking about the toxic drug supply crisis. B.C. significantly restricted its safe supply program, Ontario shuttered several overdose prevention sites in favour of H.A.R.T Hubs that would explicitly ban many evidence-backed harm reduction interventions, and Saskatchewan opted to significantly restrict needle and other harm reduction supply distribution programs despite warnings from experts about climbing HIV rates in the province.
Whether or not this is the type of “new” that Canadians had hoped for, Canada’s largest medical diagnostics laboratories are now also under new and, notably foreign, ownership.
The actual purchase of LifeLabs by Quest Diagnostics, a multi-billion-dollar American diagnostic information services company, took place in 2024. But weeks of LifeLabs strikes late last summer highlighted questions regarding data privacy and challenges faced by domestic workers who now largely answer to a massive, foreign employer.
Arguably the most recent crack in the armour of Canada’s public health system can be traced back to Alberta. The UCP recently confirmed its intentions to allow doctors to work in both the private and public health-care systems, a move it says will help address surgical wait times and attract more doctors from out of province.
But some experts say the move is more likely to exacerbate existing waits in the public system and increase health disparities based on who is able to pay. As Paul Parks, past president of the Alberta Medical Association told CBC, “Tommy Douglas would be rolling over in his grave right now.”
But not everything in the country is moving back in time. The federal government rolled out a more comprehensive version of universal dental care and continued to expand the Pharmacare Act this year, provide support to 5.5 million Canadians who are now covered under the Canadian Dental Care Program and expand drug access through bilateral agreements with the provinces.
Finally, whether one considers the rise in Artificial Intelligence to be the heralding of a new era of technological progress or the ominous beginning of a dystopian nightmare, significant advancements have been made in the world of health-care technology.
AI has shown incredible potential to assist with administrative burdens, boost diagnostics and track patient vitals. But this advanced potential has been accompanied by a chorus of demands for better regulatory policies to ensure the safe implementation of AI in the health space.
With changes reverberating throughout our health-care system, we wanted to know what health-care experts planned to focus on for themselves in the year ahead. Here’s what our panel had to say about their New Year’s resolutions:
