Prince Edward Island Roundtable Report

In Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the Minister of State met approximately 17 PEI 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 should have broad mandate which would include a focus on the determinants of health and chronic diseases;
• Within the Agency's communicable diseases mandate, it should focus on emerging diseases that are migrating from animals to humans;
• The Agency needs to embrace evidence-based decision-making. Within its mandate, it should review Health Canada strategies critically to determine their effectiveness; and,
• The Agency should work to build policy coherence between the provinces and the federal government.

2. Regarding Operational Strategies for a Public Health Agency

An Agency should consider:

• The Agency should engage educators and schools, as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) at the community and local level;
• Pharmacists should also have a well defined role in supporting public health policies and surveillance;
• In all strategies, the Agency should make a special effort to avoid duplication with other governments or other departments and, rather, enhance efficiencies;
• In order to address the communicable disease links between animal and human populations, the Agency needs formal links between the animal labs and the human labs; and,
• Policy needs to be developed with a lens on their application to diverse populations.

3. Investments

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

• Long-term, stable funding is critical;
• National surveillance and monitoring needs funding;
• Federal government needs to lead investment in national readiness for emerging communicable diseases and emergency preparedness; and,
• Agency will need to enhance size of public health staff on the ground.

4. Public Health Issues

Participants also raised concerns about specific public health issues:

• End of life care is important for the aging population; and,
• Seniors care needs to be considered in any national public health strategy.

5. Chief Public Health Officer

• Federal government would need to hire a Chief Public Health Officer who will be able to build support for and understanding of public health issues with the Canadian public.