The Canadian Association of Community Health Centres welcomes and is encouraged by today’s release of the 2023 Alternate Federal Budget (AFB) by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). Among its important list of recommendations to improve health and health equity across Canada, CCPA is urging the federal government to commit $500 million a year, for five years, to cover the operating cost of 250 new Community Health Centres across Canada (p. 70 of AFB). This 5-year, $2.5 billion investment  “will support a local, comprehensive approach to neighbourhood well-being across the country”.

The CCPA highlights in the Alternate Federal Budget that health is more than physical well being, it is also “a holistic concept that includes the physical, social, mental, spiritual, cultural, economic, and ecological well-being of individuals and communities. It is a resource for living.”

This vision for health and wellbeing aligns closely with the Community Health Centre model and its approach to integrating team-based primary care with health promotion and services focused on housing, food security, reducing language barriers and other social determinants of health.

“At a time when Canadians and our health system are facing a number of significant challenges, including the impact of economic turbulence and rising costs, it makes more sense than ever for our federal and provincial governments to invest in Community Health Centres,” said Joy Bowen-Eyre, Vice-Chair of the Canadian Association of Community Health Centres and CEO of The Alex Community Health Centre, in Calgary. “Community Health Centres provide appropriate, people-centred care and make the most of our limited resources, getting at the root causes of illness and social marginalization which cost our health and social systems vastly more in the long run.”

Currently, the federal government invests in Community Health Centres to a small degree across Canada: 53% of CHCs across Canada receive some form of federal government funding, and from diverse federal agencies. However, these are mostly small, non-recurring grants, and the federal government does not have a strategy for coordinating and optimizing these investments in CHCs. The investments recommended by the CCPA would significantly increase access to Community Health Centres across Canada, and would bring increased cost-effectiveness to our overall public programs at federal, provincial and municipal levels.