From salt in food to transfer payments: Here’s what Ottawa has power over when it comes to your health – CBC

Provinces and territories deliver health care, but feds hold the purse strings and set priorities

Apr 19, 2025

Most Canadians know it’s a provincial or territorial health card they carry in their wallets, not a federal one.

Still, the election April 28 does present an opportunity to have a say on certain aspects of health care the federal government controls, and to hold lawmakers — and would-be lawmakers — to account, health policy experts say.

Medical sociologist Amélie Quesnel-Vallée, Canada Research Chair in Policies and Health Inequalities, says the federal government can “play an important role in aligning our various health systems, especially as we are facing an aging population with increasing needs and burdens.”

Although tariffs and annexation threats stemming from the U.S. have eclipsed health care as a major campaign topic, it remains a pressing issue for Canadians, especially the roughly 6.5 million of us who are without a family doctor or nurse practitioner.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/the-dose/federal-government-health-care-1.7513495