By Antonia Maioni, Director, Institute for the Study of Canada, McGill University

In the past decade, every Canadian province has published at least one health care report. Some, like the Clair Commission report in Québec (2001), have been very broad and elaborate. Others, such as the Ontario hospital restructuring commission (2000), were more specifically targeted. The more controversial reports, such as Don Mazankowski's for Premier Ralph Klein in Alberta (2002), have resonated long and loud in health reform circles.

During the same period, the federal government (under Jean Chrétien's Liberals) commissioned two major reports. The National Forum on Health (1997) was designed to find out what was right about health care in Canada. The Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada (2002), chaired by Roy Romanow, sought to identify challenges and remedies. In the context of framing health care reform as a cost crisis issue, even the Senate of Canada flexed its political muscle by mandating the Standing Committee on Social Affairs, chaired by former Senator Michael Kirby, to survey and report on health as well (2002). And the SARS crisis brought public health to the forefront and spawned the Naylor commission as well.

Major-league commissions, extensive research budgets, thick and voluminous reports, dozens upon dozens of recommendations … to what end?