Canadian Northern and Remote Health Network

Healthcare providers working in northern and remote areas of Canada face unique challenges when developing, implementing and evaluating effective and sustainable solutions.

The Canadian Northern and Remote Health Network (CNRHN) brings together senior decision makers, leaders, policy makers and practitioners to identify solutions to improve healthcare and the health status of people living in northern and remote areas of Canada. At the same time, members enhance their leadership and improvement skills by sharing learning, innovative ideas, tools and resources.

The Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement has supported the CNRHN since 2014 by providing secretarial support to, and serving as a co-chair of, the Executive Network. We also convene annual, in-person gatherings and roundtables to discuss shared areas of focus and priority.

The Executive Network Members

Northern Health Authority, British Columbia

North Zone, Alberta Health Services, Alberta

Northern Regional Health Authority, Manitoba

Saskatchewan Health Authority, Saskatchewan

Churchill Health Centre Division, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Manitoba

Western Health, Newfoundland and Labrador

Labrador-Grenfell Health, Newfoundland and Labrador

Government of Nunavut Department of Health

Northwest Territories Department of Health and Social Services

Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement

First Nations Health Authority, British Columbia

First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, Indigenous Services Canada

Yukon Department of Health and Social Services

North East Local Health Integration Network, Ontario

Annual Roundtable

Each year, the Executive Network members come together for an in-person roundtable event to learn with, and from, each other about priority focus areas of shared importance.

2019 Roundtable in Vancouver, British Columbia

Primary care continues to be a priority focus for the Network members. The 2019 Roundtable focused on the theme of “care closer to home” and the participants were afforded the opportunity to attend the First Nations Primary Care and Mental Health and Wellness Summit: Weaving Holistic Wellness into the Healthcare System in adjunction to the Roundtable.

2018 Roundtable in Ottawa, Ontario

This roundtable brought together Network members to learn about primary care models in northern and remote regions, and to enhance health leadership for reconciliation. The event overlapped with the Promoting Life Together Collaborative meeting discussing evaluation methods using Indigenous perspectives. Executive Network members attending the roundtable also had the opportunity to learn more about the collaborative and the evaluation approaches.

2017 Roundtable in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

The goal of this roundtable was to share wise practices to support healthcare delivery improvements in northern and remote regions of Canada. There were presentations and discussions of challenges and opportunities in: healthcare and policy planning stakeholder engagement; healthcare improvement in a time of fiscal constraint; crisis response; and technology and access. Discussions with members formed the foundation for a suicide prevention collaborative, which evolved to the Promoting Life Collaborative. There was a site visit to the community of Behchokǫ̀ which has an established self-government in the Northwest Territories that built a new health and social services centre.

2016 Roundtable in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

This roundtable followed a unique one-day Indigenous Cultural Competence Course delivered by CFHI and concluded with a site visit to the All Nations Healing Hospital in Fort Qu’Appelle on Treaty 4. CFHI was honoured to sign its first partnership agreement with an Indigenous organization, Thunderbird Partnership Foundation, committing to support the Mental Wellness Continuum Framework.

2015 Roundtable in Winnipeg, Manitoba

The goal of this roundtable was to further develop and strengthen working relationships between the Network members, by sharing common challenges and brainstorming innovations to support healthcare delivery improvements in northern and remote contexts. The discussion from this roundtable informed future programming for the then called Northern and Remote Collaboration.

2014 Roundtable in Banff, Alberta

Senior healthcare leaders from across Canada came together to create a common vision for cross-regional collaboration and improvement in healthcare delivery in the northern, rural or remote context. Joe Gallagher, CEO of First Nations Health Authority in British Columbia delivered a keynote speaker and a series of promising improvement projects were shared by Executive Committee members. Results of the 2014 roundtable informed the development of a regional collaboration.

2013 Roundtable in Calgary, Alberta

This event brought together a core group of health service delivery organizations and their research colleagues from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador.