Ten finalists have been chosen for the Hunter Prize for Public Policy, along with their groundbreaking ideas to fundamentally improve Canada’s health-care system.
A diverse group of finalists targeted areas like community health, virtual long-term care, and new funding that dynamically responds to wait times in an attempt to find a politically feasible policy reform that would solve Canada’s wait-times crisis.
“We are delighted to have received such an overwhelming response in our inaugural year of the Hunter Prize,” said Derrick Hunter, a trustee at the Hunter Family Foundation, which funds the prize.
“Clearly, we have touched a nerve. Canada is full of concerned citizens keen to offer novel solutions to some of the intractable and ‘wicked’ problems that we face as a nation. We hope that this forum continues to prove its worth in the years ahead as ideas move into implementation,” said Hunter.
The finalists were picked from nearly 200 entries and the winning entry will be chosen by an esteemed panel of judges, including Robert Asselin, Dr. Adam Kassam, Amanda Lang, Karen Restoule, and Trevor Tombe.
The Hub will publish ten op-eds by the finalists that will explain their high-impact, low-cost, but politically feasible proposal to reduce health-care wait-times in Canada. The winner will be unveiled in September.
The finalists are vying for $50,000 in cash prizes, including $25,000 for the winner to help translate their idea into actionable public policy. The runner-up will receive a $5,000 prize. Those placing three through 10 will receive prizes of $2,500.
The ten finalists, in no particular order, are as follows.
- Ayeshah Haque, a midwife and researcher, for a proposal to leverage community-based health-care providers to reduce ER visits.
- Kristina Kokorelias, a senior academic program coordinator and associate scientist, along with co-author Ashley Flanagan, a health research and
