Connected Care - A Key Building Block for Improved Children’s Healthcare

Ottawa – February 5, 2026 - Children’s Healthcare Canada wants to congratulate the Government of Canada on the introduction of Bill S-5, the Connected Care for Canadians Act, aimed at building a more integrated and responsive health system. This is an important and timely step toward improving how health information is shared and used across the country—benefiting children and youth, families, and providers alike. 

This legislation also moves Canada in the right direction when it comes to right-sizing children’s healthcare. In our Beyond Bandaids report, Children’s Healthcare Canada called for fundamental health system transformation grounded in three key building blocks, including publicly accessible child health data collected through national health data strategies. A connected care system that enables the collection, linkage, and use of child-specific data is essential to improving outcomes and ensuring children receive the right care, at the right time, in the right place. 

At the same time, data alone will not deliver change. Canada must also focus on building and sustaining a robust, highly specialized pediatric workforce—one with the capacity, skills, and supports needed to meet growing and increasingly complex needs. Finally, the third element needed to achieve system transformation are dedicated funding envelopes for children’s health services, across the continuum of care, including child health research. 

Ultimately, these efforts must be brought together through a National Children’s Healthcare Strategy, as has been put forward in Bill S-212 by Senator Rosemary Moodie. Children represent 100% of our present and our future, and investing in their health is not only a moral imperative—it is nation-building work.