Canadian Public Health | Health Policy Canada

Posted: 05-21-2020

Prime Minister Trudeau
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
May 21, 2020

Dear Prime Minister,

Attached you will find a letter signed by over 1000 researchers explaining the essential role of funding from health charities to the continuation of their ground-breaking and life-saving work. The health charities are asking for direct investments of up to $28 million per month which would allow organizations to continue their work supporting patients and ensuring continuity in research.

The Health Charities Coalition of Canada membership collectively invests $155 million annually into health research in Canada, supporting over 1300 primary investigators and over 2500 trainees, co-investigators, chairs and professorships, all contributing to the breadth and depth of Canada’s scientific capacity each year. Health charities play an important and complementary role to other funders, partnering with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, filling essential funding gaps and offering stable funding, and promoting patient-centred research and direct connections to patient communities.

As outlined in the attached letter, without immediate support the setbacks faced by researchers will have lasting impacts on health research in Canada. As such, hundreds of researchers are partnering with the Health Charities Coalition of Canada in asking for your support of health charities in this difficult time.

Through your government’s announcement last week, you have clearly recognized the need for support to maintain essential research operations and to support research staff. While that announcement was welcome, it does not support the individuals and projects that health charities support. It is one more example of government support programs that exclude the charitable sector and leave charities behind.

Health charities have been significantly impacted by COVID-19 and the accompanying economic downturn. With fundraising events on hold due to social distancing, health charities have seen a 50% drop in revenue to date. In spite of drastic measures including staff layoffs and decreases in salary for staff and executive teams, charities are still struggling.

Though your government has implemented measures to provide funding for businesses and not-for-profits, the actions taken to date have been insufficient to support these charities.

The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy has allowed some organizations to continue to operate and serve their communities during this challenging time, however the capacity to cover any portion of salaries remains difficult and impossible for some charities. For others, their revenue losses of 50% are not significant enough to participate in programs such as the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent assistance program.

These reductions in staff and operating capacity necessitate reductions in the valuable services that charities are providing to Canadians living with disease throughout the pandemic, including the education on the implications of COVID-19 on the day-to-day management of their disease. Charities would not be able to offer these services if they were to see a 70% cut in revenues and were therefore only able to operate at 70%.

For researcher projects, the structure of health charities’ research grants allows them to be used to fund hiring key support staff whose full salaries cannot be covered solely by research institutes and health care organizations. The announcement last week does not support the individuals and projects that health charities support, and that work continues to be at risk.

The importance of the funding from health charities to Canada’s research community is highlighted by the 1013 signatories on the accompanying letter.

The health charities are asking for direct investments of up to $28 million per month which would allow organizations to focus efforts on patient support, fundraising efforts and protecting gains in research. Our intent is to get back on our feet so we no longer need government support, but without immediate financial assistance, we will be unable to continue important work directly supporting Canadian patients and unable to support researchers forcing pauses to their progress on life-changing health research.

Sincerely,

Connie Côté

CEO, Health Charities Coalition of Canada

CC:

The Hon. Navdeep Singh Bains

The Hon. William Sterling Blair

The Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos

The Hon. Kirsty Duncan

The Hon. Chrystia Freeland

The Hon. Patricia Hajdu

The Hon. Mélanie Joly

The Hon. William Francis Morneau

The Hon. Carla Qualtrough

Prime Minister Trudeau

Office of the Prime Minister

80 Wellington Street

Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2

May 21, 2020

Dear Prime Minister,

Re: Emergency Funding to Support Life-Changing Health Research

The Health Charities Coalition of Canada (HCCC) represents an $650 million industry, supporting 2,500 employees and over 2.9 million patients directly.

The Coalition collectively invests $155 million annually into health research in Canada, supporting over 1,300 principal investigators each year. In addition, they fund more than 2,500 trainees, co-investigators, chairs and professorships and collaborators to sustain the breadth and depth of Canada’s scientific capacity.

Health charities play an important and complementary role to other funders, partnering with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), filling essential funding gaps and offering stable funding, and promoting patient-centred research and direct connections to patient communities.

Due to COVID-19, health charities have experienced a 50% drop in revenue as a result of fundraising efforts on hold due to the pandemic and the accompanying economic downturn. In response, health charities have taken significant steps to manage the financial crisis, including decreases in executive and staff salaries, furlough days, and staff layoffs.

In spite of these efforts, health charities are still facing a major challenge to continue supporting life-changing health research. Many research institutions and centres rely heavily on funding from the charitable sector and anticipate devastating short-term and long-term consequences on Canadian health research as a whole if funding from charities is significantly reduced.

A disruption in research funding presents immediate challenges. Researchers and research projects will lose key personnel and capacity and experience an erosion of expertise.

Certain projects and trials that have already begun are on hold and will not have the funds to continue, not only losing the potential of those trials but also the investment already made.

Decisions made today will also impact the long-term future of Canadian health research. With research competitions – including those specifically for PhD students and post-doctoral fellows – delayed or cancelled for 2020, the lack of funding will be deeply felt by young researchers, will reduce the ability to attract and retain research talent in Canada, and will impact the research sector for years to come. The focus on COVID-19, while essential to fighting the pandemic, has the potential to compete with other areas like cancer and chronic disease, and slow the important gains that have been made if funding is not also allocated to these areas.

Without immediate support, these setbacks will have lasting impacts on health research in Canada, affecting hundreds of researchers, undermining millions of dollars in investments already made, and contributing to poorer health outcomes for Canadians.

In response to the issues outlined above, the health research community is asking you to support health charities through this difficult time and in turn support ground-breaking and impactful health research in Canada and the health of all Canadians for years to come.