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Health

Canadians face longest waits for health care on record

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4 minute read

From the Fraser Institute

By Bacchus Barua and Mackenzie Moir

Just when you thought Canadian health care had hit rock bottom, wait times in 2024 have hit an all-time high.

According to the latest version of our annual report published by the Fraser Institute, the median wait from referral by a family doctor to treatment (averaged across 10 provinces and 12 medical specialties including surgeries) is now 30 weeks—the longest wait in the report’s history and more than three times longer than the 9.3-week median wait in 1993.

Of course, wait times vary by province, and some provinces are worse than others. In New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, the median wait is more than one year. And even in Ontario, which reported the shortest wait times in Canada this year, patients faced a 23.6-week wait, the longest in the province’s history.

In fact, compared to last year, wait times grew in every province (except Nova Scotia where patients still faced a median wait just shy of 40 weeks this year).

There’s also considerable variation in wait times depending on the type of care. For example, patients faced the longest waits for orthopedic surgeries (57.5 weeks) and neurosurgery (46.2 weeks) and shorter waits for chemotherapy (4.7 weeks), and radiological cancer treatments (4.5 weeks). In total, the study estimated that Canadian patients were waiting for more than 1.5 million procedures in 2024.

These waits for care are not benign inconveniences. Patients may experience physical pain, psychological distress and worsening physical condition while awaiting care. This year, the 15-week median wait for treatment after seeing a specialist was more than a month and a half longer than what physicians consider a reasonable wait (8.6 weeks). And this doesn’t even include the median 15-week wait to see a specialist in the first place.

Moreover, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a U.S.-based health-care research organization, among nine universal health-care systems worldwide, last year patients in Canada were the second-most likely to report waiting longer than one month for a specialist consultation, and the most likely to report waiting more than two months for surgery. In other words, although long wait times remain a staple of Canadian health care, they are not a necessary trade-off for having universal coverage.

And to be clear, wait times are only one manifestation of the strain on Canada’s health-care system. It’s now also normal to see emergency room closures, health-care worker burnout, and data suggesting millions of Canadians are without access to a regular health-care provider.

What’s the solution to Canada’s crippling health-care wait times?

There are many options for reform. But put simply, if policymakers in Canada want to reduce wait times for patients across the country, they should learn from better-performing universal health-care countries where patients receive more timely care. With wait times this year reaching an all-time high, relief can’t come soon enough.

Bacchus Barua

Director, Health Policy Studies, Fraser Institute

Mackenzie Moir

Senior Policy Analyst, Fraser Institute

 

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Saskatchewan woman approved for euthanasia urged to seek medical help in Canada rather than US

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe encouraged Jolene Van Alstine, who has a rare disease, to work with his government on a solution.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is urging a woman with a rare disease, who has been approved to die by euthanasia because she can’t get proper care, to instead work with his government on a solution.

As reported by LifeSiteNews last week, Saskatchewan resident Jolene Van Alstine was approved to die by state-sanctioned euthanasia because she has had to endure long wait times for what she considers to be proper care for a rare parathyroid disease.

Van Alstine’s condition, normocalcemic primary hyperparathyroidism (nPHPT), causes her to experience vomiting, nausea, and bone pain.

As a result of Van Alstine’s frustrations with the healthcare system, she applied for Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) and was approved for a January 7, 2026, death date.

Her case drew the attention of American media personality Glenn Beck, who has been in contact with Van Alstine to determine whether she can get the surgery done in the United States. Even the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has been briefed on the matter.

According to Moe, Van Alstine has taken her case to Saskatchewan Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill, asking for help.

“There has been an opportunity to see specialists in Saskatchewan and outside of Saskatchewan, and those conversations about maybe potentially seeing additional specialists continue with the minister’s office and the Ministry of Health,” Moe said yesterday at a press conference.

“I would hope that she’d continue to work with the Ministry of Health, because I think there’s work going on to see even additional specialists at this point,”

A recent Euthanasia Prevention Coalition report revealed that Canada has euthanized 90,000 people since 2016, the year it was legalized.

As reported by LifeSiteNews, over 23,000 Canadians have died while on wait lists for medical care as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government focuses on euthanasia expansions.

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Health

Canadian gov’t considers sharing census data on gender-confused children

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Statistics Canada recently consulted LGBTQ+ groups on releasing 2021 census data about gender-confused children ages 0-14, citing research that toddlers could be ‘transgender.’

Statistics Canada is seeking to collect and share data on gender-confused children in its latest move to promote the LGBT agenda to minors.

From November to mid-December, Statistics Canada held consultations with various LGBT groups to discuss how to release 2021 census data on gender-confused children ages 0-14, according to a report shared with the National Post.

“For the upcoming 2026 Census, Statistics Canada has been consulting with the Canadian population, experts and stakeholders on gender,” the government agency wrote in a recent report.

“The Agency has finished conducting extensive qualitative and quantitative testing, notably to assess the impact of modifying the gender response categories to include ‘man’ and ‘woman,’ and ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ for those younger than 15 years,” it continued.

In 2021, StatsCan conducted the first-ever census to collect data on sex assigned at birth as well as how Canadians later ‘identified’ as their gender. The census collected data from Canadians of all ages but only published that of Canadians 15 years and older.

According to the information, released April 2022, 0.33% of the Canadian population age 15 or older were gender-confused, with 0.19% believing they are transgender and 0.14% believing they are non-binary.

The report noted that “younger generations may be more comfortable reporting their gender identity than older generations.”

Now, StatsCan is seeking to further push the LGBT agenda on young children by releasing data to support their argument that young children can be “transgender.”

According to a copy of its most recent report, “children and youth are often assumed to be cisgender (people whose reported gender corresponds to their birth sex) from birth until they ‘come out’ as a different gender on their own accord.”

“Research also suggests that, like cisgender children, transgender and non-binary children may recognize their own gender identity as early as 2 to 3 years old or during later childhood or early adolescents,” the document read.

The StatsCan report conveniently ignores scientific data on the harms of gender-transitioning interventions, both on the physical and mental health of individuals, particularly children.

significant body of evidence shows that “affirming” gender confusion carries serious harms, especially when done with impressionable children who lack the mental development, emotional maturity, and life experience to consider the long-term ramifications of the decisions being pushed on them, or full knowledge about the long-term effects of life-altering, physically transformative, and often irreversible surgical and chemical procedures.

Studies find that more than 80 percent of children suffering gender dysphoria outgrow it on their own by late adolescence and that “transition” procedures, including “reassignment” surgery, fail to resolve gender-confused individuals’ heightened tendency to engage in self-harm and suicide – and even exacerbate it, including by reinforcing their confusion and neglecting the actual root causes of their mental strife.

As LifeSiteNews has previously noted, research does not support the assertions from transgender activists that surgical or pharmaceutical intervention to “affirm” confusion is “necessary medical care” or that it is helpful in preventing the suicides of gender-confused individuals.

In fact, in addition to asserting a false reality that one’s sex can be changed, transgender surgeries and drugs have been linked to permanent physical and psychological damage, including cardiovascular diseases, loss of bone density, cancer, strokes and blood clots, infertility, and suicidality.

There is also overwhelming evidence that those who undergo “gender transitioning” are more likely to commit suicide than those who are not given irreversible surgery. A Swedish study found that those who underwent “gender reassignment” surgery ended up with a 19.2 times greater risk of suicide.

Indeed, there is proof that the most loving and helpful approach to people who think they are a different sex is not to validate them in their confusion but to show them the truth.

A new study on the side effects of transgender “sex change” surgeries discovered that 81 percent of those who had undergone “sex change” surgeries in the past five years reported experiencing pain simply from normal movement in the weeks and months that followed — and that many other side effects manifest as well.

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