Welcome to Canada Speaks! 2010:
Canadians Go for Gold in Health and Medical Research

The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC), BIOTECanada, the Canadian Healthcare Association (CHA), Canada’s Research Based Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D), MEDEC and Research Canada: An Alliance for Health Discovery are pleased to release the results of their public opinion survey on health and medical research.  This survey builds upon two previous surveys undertaken by Research Canada: Canada Speaks! 2006 Research Canada’s First Public Opinion Survey on Health Research in Canada and Communicating Health Research in an Era of Headline News 2007  providing important tracking data on Canadians views of health research and the media and science relationship in Canada.

Canada Speaks!  2010 demonstrates Canadians’ on-going commitment to Go for Gold in health and medical research and their desire to emerge from the middle of the pack even in the face of an economic recession.

Health and medical research is a top Health Care priority for Canadians—84% say health and medical research makes an important contribution to the economy, recognizing that the economy is the most important issue facing Canadians today. Further, 90% of Canadians believe basic research should be supported by government even if it brings no immediate benefit.
Even in recession, a large majority of Canadians would pay out of pocket to improve health and research capacity. Canadians would allocate 23 cents out of every health care dollar to health and medical research. Compared to 2006, a similar majority of Canadians are willing to pay $1 more per week out of their pocket to fund new health and medical research projects in Canada.
While a majority of Canadians consider the country to be a middle of the pack player among industrialized nations contributing to the global pool of health and medical research, 89% believe that Canada should be global leader in this area.
Canadians also see an important role for the private sector. Four out of five Canadians agree that the Federal Government should support tax and regulatory policies that encourage private industries to conduct more medical research. 

Health research holds a promise for the future. Canadians continue to have confidence about the ability of health and medical research to bring about continued improvement in patient outcomes: Most believe that breakthroughs for cancer, diabetes heart disease and Alzheimer’s are attainable within 10-20 years.

We are proud to present the results of this survey which demonstrate that Canadians continue to prioritize health and medical research among the nation’s health prerogatives. It provides direction to any government willing to make the necessary investments for Canada to break out of the middle of the pack and become a global research leader.