Canada’s healthcare systems are under increasing pressure: a rapidly aging population, new demands for services, fiscal challenges, and awkward interfaces between publicly and privately funded services are among the challenges to which Canadians must adapt. Sound research and advice from independent sources will be integral to achieving desirable policy outcomes. The C.D. Howe Institute’s Healthcare Policy Initiative is a four-year program to produce research, analysis and events to raise the level of debate around Canadian healthcare and to help motivate policy improvements. The program will address critical issues such as: international lessons on financing and incentives; defining the services provided under public plans; incentives and funding arrangements for hospitals and healthcare providers; federal and provincial policy on pharmaceuticals; options for primary-care reform; access and quality of care. As with all the Institute’s work, the program aims to provide research that is rigorous, evidence-based, and peer-reviewed, recommendations that are relevant, constructive, and timely, and communications that are clear, authoritative and practical.