Canada's health care sector: have a say on how to support innovation and choice

July 30, 2020 - GATINEAU, QC - Competition Bureau

The Competition Bureau is inviting Canadians to share their views on factors that may be impeding access to digital health care, or limiting innovation and choice in Canada's health care sector. This feedback will help inform the Bureau's market study, which will examine how to support digital health care across Canada through pro-competitive policies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how instrumental digital solutions can be in meeting Canadians’ health care needs. For example, the Government of Canada has committed $240.5 million to support the expansion of virtual care and mental health tools, and steps have been taken across the country to deploy digital health care solutions to Canadians throughout the pandemic.

Through its market study, the Bureau aims to encourage the adoption of policies across Canada that achieve legitimate policy goals without inadvertently limiting the entry, expansion or consumer adoption of new products and services. This will help ensure that Canadians have access to innovative—and increasingly necessary—virtual health care solutions.

Interested parties are invited to submit their views on the Bureau’s discussion paper no later than October 11, 2020, by completing the online feedback form, or by emailing comments to ic.cbmarketstudies-etudesdemarchebc.ic@canada.ca.

Responses will be posted on the Bureau’s website in the language provided unless it is specifically requested that they be kept confidential.

The Bureau will also publish a preliminary report summarizing the feedback received through this consultation.