On Parliament Hill

Millions of Canadians will suffer from neurological illnesses during their lives, impacting their families and their communities. Neurological illnesses are costly to patients, their families and care givers, communities and the healthcare system.

Directly or indirectly, there’s hardly a Canadian who does not know someone affected by neurological illness.

To address this issue, our Government is using innovative new public-private partnerships to stretch dollars being used to improve the neurological and mental health of Canadians.

This is why Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently announced that our Government will be supporting five new research projects in the areas of Alzheimer prevention and Autism under its Canada Brain Research Fund.  He also announced additional federal funding towards the Azrieli Neurodevelopmental Research Program, a key component of the Fund. The federal government will spend more than $9 million supporting these research projects to study autism and Alzheimer’s disease.

The research projects aim to discover new treatment and prevention strategies to address Autism Spectrum Disorders, Fragile X syndrome, and Alzheimer disease and related disorders.

This investment is part of our government’s commitment to provide up to $100 million over six years, from 2011-’17, to support research in neuroscience.

Prime Minister Harper was joined at the announcement by members of the Brain Canada Foundation, the Azrieli Foundation and the Chagnon Family, who are partnering in these initiatives through the public-private partnership funding model.

The Canada Brain Research Fund was launched in 2011 between the Federal Government and the Brain Canada Foundation as a unique new funding partnership to support neuroscience research, resulting in one of the largest single public-private investments in health research in Canadian history.

This public-private partnership funding model is allowing the Government of Canada and non-governmental organizations involved in neuroscience research to improve the neurological and mental health of Canadians.