Employees ready to do volunteer work
According to a survey by BMO, 90% of Canadians believe that their employer should encourage the idea of community service by employees, while only 35% of workplaces currently have established this kind of program. The study also reveals that one quarter of employees would undertake this type of work more readily if they were encouraged by their employer. Over the past year, 70% of Canadians say they have voluntarily served a charity. Their goals: giving back to the community (68% of respondents), a sense of duty (38%), meeting new people (35%), reducing stress (33%) and gaining new professional experience (24%). These volunteer activities are most often carried out with local charity programs (27%), child services associations (19%) and health and disease research programs (17%).
Access to new drugs: Canadians less well served
The public drug insurance plans in Canada provide less access to new drugs and vaccinations than other OECD countries. According to the Rx&D international report on access to medicines, the Canadian public plans are below the average for refund in all areas of disease, except for arthritis and urology. While access to medicines is comparable to other countries for HIV and drug addiction, it proves to be much lower in other categories such as pain relief, mental health, blood disorders and neurological diseases. Globally, Canada ranks 23rd place out of 32 countries analysed. Another point from this study is that only half of new drugs approved by Health Canada are made available to Canadians through public drug plans.