Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response (CEPR)

2006 Report of Activities

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Executive Summary

2006 was a year of transition and strategic re-alignment for the Public Health Agency of Canada's Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response as it reorganized key activity areas to increase operational efficiency and pursue a more strategic approach to emergency management collaboration and coordination.

Strategic re-alignment of resources

CEPR reorganization saw the dissolution of the Office of Public Health Security (OPHS), with the Public Health Agency of Canada Emergency Operations Centre moved to the Office of Management and Administrative Services, E Team software and Geospatial Information Systems moved to the Office of Emergency Preparedness, and the health surveillance function was incorporated into the Office of the Director General. The reorganization also led to the creation of the Office of Program and Business Coordination (OPBC), which is responsible for CEPR strategic program development. The OPBC is expected to play an important role in the ongoing development of a robust national health emergency management system.

National Forum on Emergency Preparedness and Response

Externally, the Centre's progress toward an ever more proactive and influential role in emergency preparedness and response (EPR) coordination was capped with its highly successful co-hosting of the 6^th National Forum on Emergency Preparedness and Response in Vancouver at the end of 2006. The Forum proved to be a watershed event, facilitating, for the first time, dialogue on EPR issues and problems common to multiple sectors within a framework that affects EPR thinking across jurisdictions. The Forum was particularly effective in advancing discussion on the best means of expanding EPR system resiliency in face of public health safety and security challenges.

Expanding national EPR collaboration

The National Forum's identification of common strategic priorities for EPR practitioners was mirrored by the Centre's efforts to identify strategic approaches to EPR collaboration, while supporting Agency efforts to address health disparities and strengthen overall public health capacity. These approaches include: greater involvement of non-traditional partners (including vulnerable populations) in the emergency management process; building on the Agency's health promotion/health determinants model to develop greater resiliency in times of health emergencies; and developing an expanded vulnerability/resiliency framework for national health emergency management, in collaboration with the provinces and territories.

Canada's new Quarantine Act

In 2006, the Centre's Legislative and Regulatory Affairs (LRA) Group made a significant contribution to PHAC efforts to increase preparedness for public health emergencies by playing a central role in the development of Canada's new Quarantine Act, which became law in December 2006. The new legislation caps a two-year effort by the LRA to modernize the centuries-old piece of legislation. It provides the Government of Canada with new authorities and modern tools to respond rapidly to a heightened risk of global disease transmission by preventing travelers suffering from serious communicable diseases from entering or leaving the country. The CEPR's National Quarantine Division provided front-line support for the new legislation by staffing and maintaining quarantine stations at Canada's major points of entry and by developing new operating procedures and training for Quarantine Officers and Quarantine partners across Canada.

Successful emergency training

The Agency's ability to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies was also enhanced this past year through a series of comprehensive training initiatives coordinated by the CEPR's Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP). The Office's National Forum exercise, Coherence Trecedim II, was particularly effective in advancing collaborative communication among governmental and non-governmental partners and in clarifying roles and responsibilities during the management of pandemic influenza.

Strategic Review of NESS

No national health emergency management system is complete without the capability to deploy all-hazards emergency medical expertise and resources at any time, to any part of the country. In 2006, the CEPR's Office of Emergency Response Services (OERS) completed an important strategic review of its National Emergency Stockpile System (NESS), including an evaluation of NESS content and functionality in light of new and emerging public health threats such as pandemic influenza, climate-induced natural disasters and the re-emergence of infectious diseases and readily transmittable diseases such as tuberculosis. The review will help ensure the system's ongoing development as a modern, highly responsive emergency stockpile system.

The OERS also came a step closer to developing additional all-hazards federal surge capacity in 2006 by drafting an operational framework for its proposed Health Emergency Response Team (HERT), and by working with national authorities on the development of appropriate mechanisms for engaging HERT medical and social service volunteers across the country.

Leadership in global health security

In a global public health environment in which the distinction between "domestic" and "international" health events is becoming increasingly blurred, the Public Health Agency of Canada is committed to a proactive role in strengthening international public health capacities. The CEPR's Office of Laboratory Security (OLS), long a prominent player on the international biosafety scene, built on its leadership role in global public health security in 2006 by contributing to the Global Health Security Initiative, an international partnership established to address the threat of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear terrorism, as well as pandemic influenza. The OLS also made a significant contribution to the Global Health Security Action Group (GHSAG) laboratory network and assisted Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada with Canadian implementation of the Biological Toxins and Weapons Convention.

Continued leadership and growth in 2007

The combination of internal re-alignment and strategic EPR outreach and coordination at national and international levels enabled the CEPR to build on its well-established EPR leadership role in 2006. Key priorities for 2007 are to expand the Centre's domestic and global collaborative capacities, as well as its strategic policy and program coordination.

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