Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe

Health systems in transition Canada 33
This research activity is supported by an extensive infrastructure for health
data provided by Statistics Canada through five-year censuses as well as a
number of health surveys. Long recognized as one of the world’s premier
statistical agencies, Statistics Canada was a pioneer in the gathering of health
statistics as well as in the development of indicators of health status and
the determinants of health. Data collection has been extended considerably
through Statistics Canada’s partnership with the Canadian Institute for Health
Information (CIHI) (see section 2.3.3).
The federal government also provides the majority of funding for major
research initiatives that are governed independently, including Genome Canada
and the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF) 1 . Genome
Canada’s objective is to make Canada a world leader in research capable of
isolating disease predisposition and developing better diagnostic tools and
prevention strategies. CHSRF focuses on research in health services aimed
at improving health care organization, administration and delivery as well
as acting as knowledge brokers between the research and decision-making
communities.
2.3.3 The intergovernmental level
As a decentralized state operating in an environment of increasing health
policy interdependence, the F/P/T governments rely heavily on both direct
and arm’s length intergovernmental instruments to facilitate and coordinate
policy and programme areas (Marchildon, 2010). The direct instruments are
F/P/T advisory councils and committees which report to the Conference of
F/P/T Deputy Ministers of Health, which, in turn, report to the Conference
of F/P/T Ministers of Health (O’Reilly, 2001). The more arm’s length
intergovernmental instruments, most of which have been established very
recently, are intergovernmental non-profit-making corporations funded and
partially governed by the sponsoring governments.
The Conference of F/P/T Ministers of Health is co-chaired by the federal
minister and a provincial minister of health selected on a rotating basis. This
committee is mirrored by the Conference of F/P/T Deputy Ministers of Health
with an identical chair arrangement. In order to conduct their work in priority
areas of concern, the ministers and deputy ministers of health have established,
reorganized and disbanded various advisory committees and task forces over
time, including those on health delivery and human resources, information
and emerging technologies, population health and health security as well as
1 At the time of press CHSRF was renamed the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement.