Epidemiological crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic are affecting health systems in multiple dimensions. In Quebec as elsewhere, this type of major event may have influenced not only total public health expenditures, but also their distribution among the various public health functions. The pandemic may have led to a reallocation of funds by favoring certain expenditure items over others.

Organized in collaboration with the École de santé publique de l’Université de Montréal (ESPUM), this panel on public health funding in Quebec will provide a better understanding of decisions and trade-offs in the allocation of expenditures between major public health functions, such as expenditures on emergency and health risk monitoring, health surveillance, health protection, health promotion and disease prevention as well as a better understanding of the consequences of the choices made. This activity of the CIRANO Pole on the Efficiency of Health Services and Policies is part of the activities taking place in the context of the annual theme at CIRANO in 2024-2025 under the theme Efficiency at the heart of the Quebec health care system.

Mehdi Ammi (Carleton University), CIRANO Associate Researcher and Erin Strumpf (McGill University), CIRANO Researcher and Fellow and Main Researcher of the Health major theme, will present the findings of their recent CIRANO report. In this report, the authors suggest that reducing spending on promoting healthy living and good mental health, which are part of health promotion and disease prevention, may have had deleterious effects on population health. For example, there could be an increase in chronic diseases that would not have been detected early, adding pressure on the curative system and its costs. Another consequence could be a negative impact on cancer screening and non-COVID-19 vaccination efforts, such as measles, for example.

Olivier Jacques (Université de Montréal), CIRANO Researcher, and Thomas Bastien, Executive Director of the Association pour la santé publique du Québec (ASPQ) will also participate in the panel.

The panel will be moderated by Roxane Borgès Da Silva (Université de Montréal) and Carl-Ardy Dubois (Université de Montréal) who are co-leads of the CIRANO Pole on the Efficiency of Health Services and Policies.

Program and registration coming soon