Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response (CEPR)

2006 Report of Activities

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Section II
What we do

Director General's Office

The Director General's Office (DGO) is responsible for the leadership and overall strategic direction of the CEPR, including business and strategic planning and performance measurement. The DGO also acts as a link to other units within the Public Health Agency of Canada and to other federal agencies, the provinces and the territories.

Public health security leadership

The DGO's oversight of internal reorganization and restructuring and its proactive approach to external coordination, collaboration and networking helped the CEPR become a more efficient, effective and responsive organization in 2006 – one that is better positioned than ever to contribute to the Agency's mandate of protecting the health of Canadians through leadership, partnership, innovation and action.

Developing health security partnerships

Through outreach and coordination initiatives involving the entire federal government, the DGO maintains strong relationships with strategic public health security partners, including the Department of National Defence, Public Safety Canada, Transport Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, and Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Ongoing strategic relationship-building on the part of the DGO in 2006 allowed the CEPR to proactively inform the federal emergency response community of the health implications of natural or human-caused disasters, and to ensure that public health is viewed as a top priority in disaster response activities at the federal level.

Liaison and collaboration

Spearheading liaison activities is an essential part of the DGO's role in developing and nurturing intersectoral linkages to address natural and human-caused threats across the entire spectrum of emergency preparedness and response activities – from prevention, mitigation, preparedness and detection to response, recovery and post-situational review. This consultative approach reflects the Public Health Agency of Canada's conviction that no one jurisdiction or level of government can succeed alone in preparing for and responding to national public health emergencies. Collaboration is the key to successful outcomes.

In this context, the DGO's challenge is to provide the strategic direction and coordination to forge greater collaboration among health authorities across Canada and to build better integrated and more effective mechanisms for addressing public health emergencies, both nationally and internationally.

National health emergency management system

The ODG contributed to the development of Canada's national health emergency management system in 2006 through increased collaboration with federal, provincial and territorial partners. This includes the development of the National Framework for Health Emergency Management, and continuing progress on a National Health Incident Management System to strengthen nation-wide planning and coordination before, during and after a national emergency event.

Director General's Office

Mutual aid agreement

National cooperation in emergency response was further enhanced in 2006 with the completion of a Federal/Provincial/Territorial Memorandum of Understanding on the Provision of Mutual Aid in Relation to Health Resources during an Emergency. The agreement facilitates greater resourcing cooperation among jurisdictions when responding to public health emergencies in Canada.

Innovative approaches to emergency preparedness and response

Throughout 2006 the Director General's Office directed its attention to a series of EPR objectives aimed at supporting the Agency's drive to increase public health capacity at all levels. These objectives include:

Enhancing community EPR involvement

There is increasing awareness among EPR practitioners at national, provincial and territorial levels that their activities must support local emergency response capacities, which means reaching out to non-traditional partners (including vulnerable populations) and inviting their input into the emergency management process.

Applying a health promotion model

Within the Agency, it is acknowledged that the best means of bringing community EPR stakeholders together is to build upon a strong health promotion model. This model aims to create stronger, healthier and more resilient communities in which locally based organizations combine their expertise with intimate knowledge of the community to help develop appropriate health emergency management programs.

Expanding the vulnerability/resiliency framework

The development of an expanded vulnerability/resiliency framework for health emergency management collaboration with the provinces and territories is an excellent means of building more resilient communities. Ideally, this framework would be used to formulate emergency response guidelines and protocols aimed at maintaining people's health and safety during disasters. They would also foster greater EPR resiliency by placing increased emphasis on health promotion, health protection, and health-related social and community development.

Re-alignment and enhanced business coordination

Keeping abreast of the challenges in an increasingly complex public health security environment and making corresponding changes is an important part of the DGO's leadership role. In 2006, the DGO initiated significant structural changes to help maximize operational efficiencies and ensure the CEPR's ongoing effectiveness as the health portfolio's coordinating centre for public health security.

The first change involved the dissolution of the Office of Public Health Security (OPHS), with its contingent parts assigned to other areas of the Centre to make more effective use of specific skills and expertise. Thus, the Emergency Operations Centre was moved to the Office of Management and Administrative Services, the E Team software and Geospatial Information Systems programs were moved to the Office of Emergency Preparedness, and health surveillance was incorporated into the Director General's Office. A second initiative saw the creation of the Office of Program and Business Coordination (OPBC) to facilitate program development and assist other areas within the CEPR in identifying and acting on emerging EPR opportunities.

Global health surveillance

Recent public health emergencies demonstrate that a communicable disease outbreak in one country can quickly evolve into a public health event of international concern. This is why the provision of global health surveillance to identify and track possible threats to public health is a key priority for the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Since 1997, public health authorities in Canada around the world have relied on the CEPR's Global Public Health Intelligence Network (GPHIN) for authoritative, accurate and timely information on potential public health threats. The network, developed by the Government of Canada in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), has proven itself to be an invaluable tool for investigating, verifying and mitigating global public health threats. GPHIN also provides support to mass gathering events by monitoring for any potential public health threats during each event.

As an advanced global early warning system, GPHIN is the primary source of informal information about potential public health threats worldwide for the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and international organizations such as the World Health Organization, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the Office of International Epizootics. Other users of the system include ministries of health around the world.

In 2006, GPHIN added a ninth language (Portuguese) to a worldwide media monitoring capability that already featured English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Farsi, Chinese (Traditional), and Chinese (Simplified). GPHIN also added a team of analysts to cover evening and night shifts in 2006, resulting in the provision of 24/7 analytical coverage to meet the needs of PHAC, the WHO and other users worldwide.

Looking ahead

Key priorities for the Office of the Director General in 2007 include:

• continued coordination of the activities of key emergency preparedness stakeholders;
• promotion of evidence-based emergency preparedness practices across the country;
• continued development of policies and strategies to establish a more integrated and comprehensive approach to managing health emergencies;
• further development of a national health incident management system; and
• ongoing clarification of the federal, provincial and territorial components of the national health emergency management system.

DID YOU KNOW?

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