New Brunswick Roundtable Report

In Fredericton, New Brunswick, the Minister of State met approximately 17 New Brunswick public health stakeholders.

They advised the Minister to consider the following factors in building a Public Health Agency of Canada.

1. Regarding a Mandate for a Public Health Agency

• The Agency has an important role in advising the broad range of government policy makers on the public health effects of non-health policies. Environmental standards have become part of government culture; health standards should be too;
• The Agency should be broad-based and multidisciplinary;
• It should work with all levels of government, and help establish roles and responsibilities for intergovernmental cooperation;
• Communications should be a key part of the Agency's mandate:
  • Directly with Canadians;
  • Between governments in Canada; and
  • Internationally.
• The Agency should also help public health professionals in one part of Canada know what has worked and what has failed for communities elsewhere in the country.

2. Regarding Operational Strategies for a Public Health Agency

An Agency should consider:

• Taking measures to avoid duplications in funding by better coordinating grants with provinces;
• Building coordination on public health issues among governments - a protocol is better than legislation, as legislation would be too rigid;
• Engaging the volunteer sector directly. Many volunteer agencies take special efforts to measure health outcomes in the communities they serve; and,
• Finding ways to ensure that privacy legislation does not prevent sharing of public health information.

3. Investments

Participants urged an Agency to focus on the following priority investments:

• Canada must invest in a national immunization strategy. Otherwise, citizens in some provinces will have a greater burden of infectious disease than those in other provinces;
• Chronic disease surveillance:
  • This is very important, has often been pushed aside but will have a huge impact in the long term ability to manage health and health care.
• Funding should be adequate to address:
  • Communications;
  • More health human resources;
  • Surveillance of chronic disease; and,
  • Health promotion.
• Canada needs a structure for cooperation, and more people on the front lines - rather than bricks and mortar around an Agency.

4. Public Health Issues

Participants also raised concerns about specific public health issues:

• The Agency has to consider better coordination in services for the aging population:
  • Aging issues are currently the responsibilities of eight or nine ministers; and,
  • Involve seniors in designing the public health strategies that target them.
• The Agency needs to pay particular attention to First Nation communities' elevated risks of diabetes and suicide.

5. Chief Public Health Officer

• Should be a public champion for public health:
  • Otherwise, that leadership is left up to political leaders; and,
  • Has to ensure that public health is about research based practices - not about a political agenda.
• Should be able to coordinate actions with provinces, but not take over their responsibilities;
• Calling this position a public health officer, as opposed to medical officer, sends the right message that public health is not just about medicine; and,
• This position should allow provincial medical officers of health to ensure that their dialogue with the federal government is not just with bureaucrats.