The following are findings that emerged from data collection, however they are considered outside the original scope of the research question; with that being said, given
the exploratory nature of this study, these results no less inspire intellectual conversation surrounding the implications for IAs and Canada’s global identity. The following themes can generally be categorized as implications for Canadian foreign policy. The following findings will highlighted here in Chapter 4, but will be discussed at greater detail in 5.3 Other Considerations for International Agreements & Globalization.
One participant reflected how IAs may be helping to advance the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) as part of the United Nation’s (UN) mission to combat
issues like poverty eradication, environmental protection, human rights and protection for vulnerable populations. As one participant commented:
“As a result of all of this [re: MDG], in general, there have been significant reductions in infant mortality rates in the last 15 years, globally, some countries have done better than others, admittedly, but in general its’ been a huge improvement. What has happened however, and where people now are starting to see the impact from a tertiary care [perspective] is while more children have had the opportunity to survive where they might have died in infancy if not right at birth as a result of some complication, those children again might have died as a result of a tertiary care need, like a congenital heart defect or you name it, are now surviving but they can’t get the care they need in their home environment because the MDGs were never set up to basically put money into the tertiary care end of the health care spectrum, so at the primary/secondary end of the spectrum, so now there’s an increasing demand for pediatric care where we play, that I would argue in general for adults, at the tertiary care level in those countries to meet the ever increasing demand, demographic demand that they’re seeing as a result that more children are living now than ever would have lived in the past, but with conditions that they’d never had to treat in the past because those children didn’t live long enough to get to a center for treatment. So its both a positive and a negative if you will in terms of great idea and its worked very well, but now the health care community in general globally needs to step up to bridge that gap of the tertiary care end of the market so that those children can get the care they need in their home country and if not there then they have to potentially look at coming to a place like XX [OAHSC] where they’ll be treated”
-Participant L Another finding of the study was related to the intertwining of IAs and the implications for immigration and refugees. As one participant suggested:
“…In many cases these families are immigrating to Canada and to the US and other parts of the world, but for us they’re coming to Canada and to Toronto for economic reasons, for but now the XX [patients] are needing to be treated here
as well, and they are Ontario citizens, they may have been born elsewhere, but they’re Ontario citizens now, and so they need to have access to that care, so its, it’s a very interwoven kind of field…”
-Participant L Other study participants noted how IAs may be influencing international diplomacy or have an impact on Canadian relationships with foreign diplomats.
“…We work with the Canadian government and the Ontario government so the ministry of economic trade and development….We also worked with the Canadian government so the department of foreign affairs so we actually wouldn’t go anywhere that Canada does not have a presence… they don’t have an influence necessarily where we go, but where we go they happen to have either an embassy or a consulate, and so we’ll always connect with them, usually beforehand or during the process. Sometimes we’ve used the Canadian government to help us get a contract actually. So that’s part of what their role has been and how Canada advanced its role or its exports in other countries, so they can be incredibly helpful”
-Participant D “…We worked and continued to work very closely with the Canadian embassy in Beijing and they also helped us with potential clients. And they haven’t brought too many opportunities to our attention, but they do help us evaluate you know, we’ll tell them who we’re talking to and they’ll help us understand who these people are and whether they think it’s a good idea to continue talking to them, and the trade representatives in China and the other staff you know, we visit them almost every trip. I’ve met with the Canadian ambassador to China, and he’s very helpful and so that’s it. I think the government’s been very supportive, both federal as well as provincial government. “