Canadian Nurses Association Launches Bold Federal Election Platform to Strengthen Health Care

Press Release

Ottawa – March 26, 2025 – The Canadian Nurses Association (CNA), representing Canada’s 478,000 nurses, unveils its federal election platform: A Healthier Canada, Powered by Nurses: A Vision for 2025 and Beyond. CNA urges all political parties to commit to significant action to build a stronger, more accessible, equitable, and sustainable health system by fully leveraging nurses’ leadership, expertise, value and impact.

Given ongoing U.S.-Canada trade tensions and rising health system pressures, CNA stresses the critical need to strengthen Canada’s internal trade and bolster our health system. CNA highlights three specific examples of immediate federal action:

• Optimizing the nursing workforce through proven models of care such as nurse practitioner role integration in primary care and registered nurse prescribing expansion beyond rural, northern, remote, and Indigenous communities.
• Streamlining ethical international recruitment practices with proven retention strategies for both internationally educated nurses and Canada’s domestic supply to ensure their true value is fully realized.
• Implementing a national licensure framework to improve nurses’ labour mobility so the nursing workforce can respond to system pressures across the nation and provide care where it’s needed the most.

“Nurses are central to transforming Canada’s health system to achieve better patient outcomes, improved population health, and greater equity and value for Canadians,” said Dr. Kimberly LeBlanc, CNA president. “Our platform provides clear, evidence-based actions that parties can adopt immediately to strengthen health-care delivery across the country.”

Five Key Priorities for Federal Action:

1. Improve Access & Quality by Implementing Bold Policy Levers
   Modernizing regulatory requirements and federal legislation will enable nurses to work to their full potential. This includes the development of national licensure, supporting ethical international recruitment, and strengthening data-driven workforce planning at the federal level.
2. Unleash the True Value of the Nursing Workforce to Meet Population Health Needs
   Expanding team-based and nurse-led models of care, alongside increased investments in nursing leadership, education, and digital health, will achieve better outcomes at lower costs. This will help create a more responsive health system.
3. Invest in the Well-Being of the Health Workforce & Prioritize National Workplace Protections
   Protecting nurses from workplace violence, moral distress, and mental health challenges is critical. CNA is calling on the federal government to implement national workplace protections and mental health supports for nurses.
4. Tackle Social Determinants of Health & Invest in Planetary Health
   Addressing environmental factors such as housing, food security, and income stability, as well as reducing the health sector’s carbon footprint, is key to improving long-term health outcomes. Nurses are critical partners in this work.
5. Strengthen Our Public Health System & Combat Mis-/Disinformation
   Strengthening pandemic preparedness, enhancing disease surveillance, and investing in public health infrastructure will ensure that Canada is ready for future health challenges. CNA also calls for increased efforts to combat misinformation about health, particularly with nurses leading evidence-based public education campaigns.

“Optimizing nurses’ roles not only improves patient outcomes and reduces costs but also ensures that the investments made in our highly qualified and skilled professionals are being fully realized and visible,” said CNA CEO Dr. Valerie Grdisa. “Targeted investments in nursing leadership, education, and innovation are essential to creating a sustainable, resilient health-care system for Canadians.”

“With $344 billion spent on health annually, Canadians deserve a modern, agile, and equitable health system,” added LeBlanc. “CNA’s election platform offers pragmatic, nurse-led, and data-driven solutions to build that future.”

CNA’s federal election platform outlines bold, nurse-led, and data-driven actions to create a responsive, equitable, and future-ready health system. We urge the federal government to seize this critical opportunity to optimize the health workforce, address social determinants of health, and build lasting resilience for all Canadians.

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About the Canadian Nurses Association

CNA is the national and global professional voice of Canadian nursing. Our mission is to advance the nursing profession to improve health outcomes in Canada’s publicly funded, not-for-profit health system. CNA is the only national association that speaks for all nurses in all sectors and practice settings across all 13 provinces and territories. We represent unionized and non-unionized nurses, retired nurses, nursing students, and all categories of nurses (licensed and registered practical nurses, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, and registered psychiatric nurses).

For more information, please contact:

Amber Morley
Media and Communications Coordinator
Cell: 613-282-7859
Email: amorley@cna-aiic.ca

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