.

subscribe to the e-bulletin                           français

                       visit our web site

Structural Profile of Public Health in Canada

Through this tool developed by the NCCHPP in collaboration with the National Collaborating Centres, you can scan how the essential public health functions are organized in the provinces and territories across Canada.
By surveying provincial and territorial government websites and through interviews, the NCCHPP has identified where public health responsibilities reside in each jurisdiction. Using the 5 essential public health functions put forward by the Federal/Provincial/ Territorial Public Health Working Group of the Advisory Committee on Population Health, this information was then categorized for each province and territory.

 
Click here to access the table.

Please us to keep this tool up to date by letting us know of any changes that we should make to the information contained in this table.

____________________________________________
.

Quebec's JASP 2008: an opportunity for the NCCHPP to discuss the role of evidence in public decision-making.

From November 17 to 20, 2008, Québec City was host to les Journées annuelles de santé publique-JASP (Annual Public Health Days) where over 1600 participants came together to exchange on public health issues.
 
During this, Quebec's most important public health event, the NCCHPP presented a day-long session that highlighted the role of evidence in public decision-making. This workshop brought together more that 200 participants and a dozen speakers to discuss the relevance of various types of evidence and to reflect on the manner in which they are dealt with and used to inform policy decisions.

Click here to view the list of presenters, summaries of the presentations, or to read the complete presentations.

It is not just in public health or in government sectors that people are talking about working multisectorally. It is a general phenomenon, but in terms of creating healthy public policy in complex environments, it is clear that learning how to work effectively across public health and government sectors is essential.

In this paper, François Gagnon and Denise Kouri examine how two provincial governments have created integrated governance initiatives in order to better coordinate public policies and ultimately improve health outcomes.

The authors begin by pointing out that "Healthy public policy is by nature intersectoral because those in the health sector are seeking to affect policy in other sectors. Intersectoral work is required, in particular, to address the determinants of health and to reduce health inequalities." (p.1.)

This paper addresses section 54 of Quebec's Public Health Act and British Columbia's ActNow as two strategies that are relatively well-known in Canada and which can serve as reference points for discussion and reflection about the contexts of integrated governance approaches, the conceptual frameworks by which they are informed, and their implementation strategies. This document is not an evaluation or a ranking of the respective strategies; it is clear that they are quite different. However, the approaches are used as a point of departure for analysis and clear thinking about working across sectors in practical terms.
.

To read the paper, click here
 355 K

Glossary of Integrated Governance concepts

The authors have also produced a glossary of key concepts in order to better understand:

integrated governance
intersectoral action
horizontal management
vertical management
joined-up government (whole of government)
network government

To read the glossary, click here. 
148 K

 ____________________________________________

Thank you for reading. We wish you all the best during the holidays.