Research roundtable to examine Canada’s health care profitization problem

The Canadian Health Coalition and the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Health Law Policy and Ethics invite researchers to submit proposals for 10-minute presentations on topics related to the profitization of health care.

The presentations will be given at a research roundtable at the University of Ottawa on October 23, 2025.

Profitization of care refers to the proliferation of for-profit delivery of care. As noted by Armine Yalnizyan and Pat Armstrong, keynote speakers at the October roundtable, Canada’s health care system is increasingly being infiltrated by venture capital, private equity and foreign direct investment.

The roundtable will discuss emerging profit-making trends in health care and the threats it poses to Medicare, the advancement of/opposition to the privatization of health care, including patient charges and public-private partnerships, and the role of financial equity in health care. Topics could include:

• The impact of the growing incursion of investment capital in health care delivery on health care workers, and patients and their family members
• The role of virtual delivery and AI in health care and who should be in control
• How are trade rules, contracts and other corporate protections making it difficult to bring care back into the public system
• How could Trump’s trade policies affect Canadian Medicare
• The social/structural determinants of health in relation to the profitization of health care

The research roundtable will be an opportunity to share promising practices and build partnerships across diverse disciplines and backgrounds.

Established and emerging scholars, members of the public service, graduate students, independent scholars, and union/community-based researchers are invited to submit a proposal.

Deadline for submissions: June 15, 2025.

Participants will be notified of the status of their proposal before June 30, 2025.

Registration fee: $100 for full-time faculty and those with institutional/organizational support. $50 for contract faculty, those without institutional /organizational support. Limited participation subsidies are available for participants who need support.

For more information, contact Tracy Glynn at tglynn@healthcoalition.ca.

The Canadian Health Coalition was founded in 1979 and comprises frontline health care workers’ unions, community groups, students, and public health experts.