Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe

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Health systems in transition Canada
and antibiotics prepared from alga, bacterium or fungus). Natural health
products are sold in dosage form and are designed for: use in the diagnosis,
treatment, mitigation or prevention of a disease, disorder or abnormal physical
state or its symptoms in humans; to maintain or promote health; to restore
or correct human health function; to restore or correct organic functions in
humans; or to modify organic functions in humans in a manner that maintains
or promotes health. Based on a Statistics Canada survey completed in 2007,
there were 290 specialist health product firms in Canada selling tens of
thousands of natural health products and generating C$1.7 billion in revenues
(Cinnamon, 2009).
5.14 Health services for Aboriginal Canadians
The term “Aboriginal Canadians” includes First Nations, Inuit and Métis
residents, a reference to the descendants of peoples who lived in the
geographical expanses now called Canada before European settlement.
Provincial and territorial governments are responsible for providing all their
residents, including Aboriginal Canadians, with insured services under the
Canada Health Act. The federal government funds and administers nursing
stations, health promotion/disease prevention programmes and public health
services on First Nation reserves and in Inuit communities and also provides
on-reserve primary care and emergency care services in remote and isolated
areas where P/T insured services are not available. In addition, the federal
government provides roughly 846 000 eligible First Nations and Inuit with
non-insured health benefits (see section 2.3.2).
Historically, government efforts to target the health needs of Aboriginal
Canadians have achieved limited success. For example, in the case of dental
health, federally funded coverage of dental services for eligible First Nations
and Inuit under the “non-insured health benefits” programme seems to have had
a limited impact on reducing disparities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
Canadians (Lawrence et al., 2009; Grignon et al., 2010).
As a consequence of these persistent disparities, Aboriginal organizations
and leaders have argued for greater control over the funding and delivery
of health services. Since the 1990s, a series of health-funding transfer
agreements between the federal government and eligible First Nations and Inuit
organizations has permitted a greater degree of Aboriginal control, particularly
in areas of primary health care (Lavoie, 2004). Such initiatives have spurred an
Aboriginal health movement advocating a more uniquely Aboriginal philosophy