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The Government of Canada recognizes the importance and the need for accessible and comprehensive care for Canadians who are living with life-limiting illnesses. Every Canadian who is approaching the end of their life deserves to receive care in the setting of their choice and to live out their days in comfort and dignity. It is for these reasons that the Government of Canada has worked collaboratively with partners, such as the provinces and territories, health care providers, and stakeholders, to develop a Framework and a targeted Action Plan on Palliative Care.

The Framework on Palliative Care was tabled in Parliament in 2018 in response to An Act providing for the development of a Framework on Palliative Care. It sets out an approach under which all governments, communities, and Canadians play a role in improving end-of-life care. It provides a common vision and guiding principles for palliative care in Canada, as well as a blueprint to help governments, caregivers, and communities shape planning, decision making, and organizational change. The Framework was developed through participation and direction-setting with provinces and territories, key stakeholder organizations, other federal government departments and individuals, including people living with a life-limiting illness, caregivers, health care providers, and researchers. The penultimate version of the Framework was shared with the provinces, the territories, stakeholders, and other participants in the development process, and their feedback incorporated. Provinces and territories, and key stakeholders shared their approaches to palliative care for inclusion in the Framework, and were named as contributors in the final document. More information about the Framework can be found here: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/health-care-system/reports-publications/palliative-care/framework-palliative-care-canada.html.

Building on the Framework, the Action Plan on Palliative Care focuses on the federal role in implementing the Framework. Developed in August 2019, the Action Plan lays out the Government of Canada’s multi-year plan to tackle issues identified in the Framework that fall under the federal role. It aims to help improve quality of life for people with life-limiting illness, address concerns of families and caregivers, and enhance access to quality palliative care through improved health care system performance. Action Plan initiatives include: raising awareness of the importance of palliative care; providing public education on grief; improving palliative care skills and supports for healthcare providers, families, caregivers, and communities; enhancing data collection and research; and, improving access to culturally sensitive palliative and end-of-life care.

Since the release of the Action Plan, the Government of Canada has invested $24 million between 2019-2021, and provided a further investment of $29.8 million over six years as part of Budget 2021. These investments will provide Canadians, including those living in long-term care and their families, with better palliative and end-of-life care, including culturally sensitive care.

While the Action Plan is still being implemented, some key projects funded to date include:

• The Canadian Virtual Hospice received $586,534, in addition to the $2.5 million already committed, to support the organization in developing resources for underserved populations (francophones, LGBTQ2S, children, MAID). Resources include online learning modules for caregivers and palliative care patients, as well as grief support resources for providers, patients, and families.
• Pallium Canada’s Project ECHO ($5 million over 5 years) builds local palliative care capacity among health care providers through the regular provision of information and resources, such as how to effectively deliver virtual palliative care services.
• The University of British Columbia’s project ($2.25 million over five years) provides trained volunteers to support informal caregivers and allow home-based palliative care patients to stay in their homes longer. The volunteer “navigators” provide support by making connections to professional health care providers, accessing resources and services in their community, and providing companionship and emotional support. Navigators also provide bereavement support to the caregivers and family members after the patient dies.
• McMaster University ($1.5M over 4 years) is expanding its Strengthening a Palliative Approach in Long-Term Care Program, which aims to improve the access and use of knowledge, tools, and resources to improve the quality of living and dying for residents and their family members within all long-term care homes in Canada, by curating, adapting, and disseminating resources for direct care, program development and staff training, and consolidating these resources in an accessible national repository. 

These investments are complemented by other federal commitments to improve palliative care, notably through bilateral agreements with provinces and territories to support improvements in home and community care, including palliative care, and investments in research.

In August 2017, federal, provincial, and territorial Ministers of Health agreed to a Common Statement of Principles (CSoP), which set out a shared agenda for improving access to home and community care, including palliative care, and mental health and addiction services supported by federal investments of $6 billion over ten years for home and community care. Bilateral agreements with action plans from each province and territory can be accessed publicly here: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/corporate/transparency/health-agreements/shared-health-priorities.html.

In addition to these bilateral agreements, the Government of Canada has also invested in several research institutions and programs. In terms of research funding, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), along with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), supported the Canadian Frailty Network through the Networks of Centers of Excellence Program, with an investment of $47.8 million between 2012 and 2022. This network aims to improve the care of seriously ill, frail elderly patients/families through the development, evaluation, and implementation of health care technologies.

In 2020-21 alone, CIHR, through its Institute of Aging, invested $2 million in palliative care research. More broadly, between 2016-17 and 2020-21, CIHR invested more than $464 million in research on aging. This includes research to promote healthy aging and to address causes, prevention, treatment and palliation for a wide range of conditions associated with aging.