Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe

Health systems in transition Canada 41
There has been a marked improvement in risk management and disaster
planning since an earlier, and largely negative, assessment of the readiness of
Canadian hospitals and health care professionals working in hospitals to deal
with a national emergency (Government of Canada, 2002). According to the
federal government’s current emergency response plan, Health Canada and the
PHAC share responsibility for coordinating the public health and health care
emergency response dimensions of any national emergency or an international
emergency with a domestic impact (Government of Canada, 2011). In the
event of a nuclear or radiological emergency, Health Canada is responsible
for coordinating any response with affected P/T health ministries and other
affected parties (Health Canada, 2002), while the Canadian Food Inspection
Agency is responsible for coordinating the response to any major outbreak of
a food-related illness (e.g. bovine spongiform encephalopathy). The CBS and,
in Quebec, Héma Québec, are responsible for ensuring adequate inventories of
fresh blood and frozen plasma to prepare for an emergency.
Health Canada and the Canadian International Development Agency are
responsible for most of the health-related international development assistance.
The majority of this flows to lower income countries in Latin America and the
Caribbean islands as a result of Canada’s membership in the Pan American
Health Organization. In the fiscal year 2009–2010, Health Canada alone
distributed C$13.4 million in health-related development assistance.
2.6 Intersectorality
Some provincial governments have experimented with intersectoral cabinet
committees or committees of senior officials to address cross-cutting health
issues and policies, in particular emphasizing the determinants of health and
illness prevention. For example, the Government of Manitoba established
a Healthy Child Committee of Cabinet – one of four permanent cabinet
committees – to encourage intersectoral health initiatives to address the health
of children from the prenatal period through the preschool years.
In British Columbia, the government set up an intersectoral committee of
senior officials (assistant deputy ministers) to pursue health promotion and
chronic disease prevention throughout the province. In addition, ActNow BC
is a major health promotion partnership between the provincial government,
the voluntary sector and civil society that targets six population health areas:
physical activity; diet, schools; work environments; communities; pregnancy;
and tobacco use (HCC, 2010b).