In recent years, the Government of Canada has renewed a commitment to ongoing dialogue and constructive engagement with civil society in the response to HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV) and other sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBIs). In response to calls from national HIV organizations, the federal government—in collaboration with provincial and territorial governments, researchers and community organizations—is developing a new, updated “national framework” to guide Canada’s response to HIV and other STBBIs, and, as part of that larger framework, an updated action plan for the federal government.
But the commitment to fund that made-in-Canada strategy is missing. In fact, to date there has been no commitment even to simply reverse the chronic underfunding of the HIV response that has dragged on for more than a decade.