Over the past decade, Canada's population increased from 5,301,000 in 1900 to more than 34,030,589 in 2011, mainly due to immigration ( Central Intelligence Agency, 2011). By 2056, one in four Canadians is expected to be 65 years or older, compared to 13 percent currently. This will put a strain on the country's healthcare system (Macleans, 2008 p.2). The future of Canada's health care system is under serious threat due to its growing and aging population. This triggers a shortage of physicians, particularly anesthesiologists, in some provinces of Canada (Canadian Medicine Journal, 2007). Anesthesiologists are medical specialists who provide intensive care to patients in a number of health programs: operative anesthesia for patients of all surgical subspecialties, acute pain management, procedural anesthesia, obstetric care and management high-risk medical care, chronic pain management, resuscitation, advanced care. airway management and critical care (Intermountain Healthcare, 2011). The current shortage of anesthesiologists has a strong impact on access to care in each of these areas. Due to the lack of foresight in government policies, the shortage of anesthesiologists in Canada is growing and becoming more critical. The Canadian government has failed to train, hire and retain enough anesthesiologists/assistants to meet the needs of Canada's growing population. The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) estimates that 26,000 more doctors are currently needed to bring Canada up to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average (Macleans, 2008, p. 2) . the system promises universality, portability and accessibility; unfortunately, it faces policy challenges of playing a significant role in this shortage because if they rebuild and formulate policies to accept and graduate more anesthesiology students, it will significantly reduce the shortage of anesthesiologists. Finally, the Canadian government must recruit more and retain enough anesthesiologists to meet the needs of its population. Instead of ignoring the issue, the government should see this as an opportunity to focus its efforts on building a good health care system that will allow Canadians to be healthier. This will require not only the efforts of government, but also those of hospitals, maternity care providers, health care and malpractice insurers, consumers and policy makers. Through future planning in government policies, this will alleviate this shortage of anesthesiologists and prevent it from occurring in the long term..