Hospitals should be part of `buy Canadian' plans
“We'll buy Canadian. We'll build Canadian. And together we will build Canada strong.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney made his strategy clear, as Canada grapples with a more uncertain trade relationship with its largest partner and renewed pressure to strengthen growth at home.
With this new economic reality, there is growing recognition that Canada needs to do more than just talk about supporting domestic industry.
We need to build Canadian businesses, help them scale and keep more of the value generated by public spending here at home.
One of the biggest untapped opportunities to do this is health care. With nearly $400 billion spent annually across the system, publicsector procurement in health care should be part of any serious effort to bolster Canadian business and build domestic resilience.
Everything in a hospital was bought somewhere: beds, medical devices, software, diagnostic tools, food — the list goes on. The problem is how many of those things are procured internationally.
With the kind of purchasing power health care has, how can those public dollars be invested in Canadian companies, Canadian jobs and Canadian intellectual property?
Most of those dollars will continue to leave the country if we don't prioritize our domestic options.
So why don't we buy Canadian in health care?
Canada doesn't have a strong track record here. We have long been more comfortable importing solutions than building them at home.
The consequence is that promising Canadian companies often have to look elsewhere for growth, even when they are solving problems that mattered here first.
Many U.S. solutions procured by our hospitals are built for a different healthcare context. But domestic companies understand the pressures of publicly funded care, the workflows of Canadian institutions and the problems that need solving here. And when they succeed, the payoff is larger than any single contract: betterfit solutions, jobs and expertise that stays in Canada.
Hospitals are not the only institutions in our health system that can benefit. Through the CAN Health LongTerm Care Innovation and Scaling Network, we have supported more than 260 longtermcare homes across the country to adopt Canadian solutions.
Ultimately, profits from Canadian companies also flow back into Canada and can help provide the tax base to further support our healthcare system.
Healthcare leaders have an opportunity to see procurement differently: not only as a way to control costs, but also as a way to improve care and help build the Canadian capacity our system will need.
Healthcare leaders do not need to become venture capitalists. But they do need to make time to meet Canadian entrepreneurs, understand what is being built here and create procurement pathways that give strong domestic firms a real chance.
Instead of being solely framed as an economic cost centre, hospitals can be part of the health, economic and sovereignty solution by supporting Canadian controlled private corporations through their procurement policies.
If we are serious about buying Canadian, hospitals should be part of the plan.
Blake Daly is Director of Innovation at Bruyère Health and Director of the CAN Health LTC Innovation and Scaling Network. Dr. Kumanan Wilson is the CEO and Chief Scientific Officer at Bruyère Health Research Institute.
The views expressed are those of the author(s). Canada Healthwatch publishes a range of perspectives and does not necessarily endorse the opinions presented.
