Public health priorities
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Vision for 2024 to 2029
The Pan-Canadian Public Health Network’s (PHN) vision for 2024 to 2029 is to:
- support strengthened public health systems that take collaborative action to improve health, health equity and the well-being of people living in Canada
- reduce the pressures on healthcare systems
To achieve this vision, the PHN has developed a strategic plan that sets out pan-Canadian public health priorities and actions that will:
- focus efforts
- help jurisdictions and partners address current and emerging threats to our collective health
Strategic priorities
Through its strategic plan, the PHN will work to ensure that public health decision making is:
- based on evidence
- informed by local and regional differences
- accessible and easily understood
The PHN will also strive for public health actions taken by federal, provincial and territorial (FPT) governments to:
- produce equitable outcomes
- improve health and well-being
- proactively evolve to address new evidence and emerging threats
As part of its 2024 to 2029 strategic plan, the PHN has identified 4 thematic priorities to frame its collaborative work for the next 5 years.
Public Health Network’s strategic priorities (2024 to 2029)
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The Public Health Network’s 4 strategic priorities include:
- Public health data:
- Inform decisions with interoperable data management systems and availability of population data
- Emergency management:
- Anticipate, plan for and respond to emergencies from all hazard events, to reduce morbidity and mortality while minimizing societal disruption
- Communicable and infections diseases:
- Anticipate, prevent, identify, respond to and monitor infectious and communicable diseases
- Health promotion and chronic disease prevention
- Strengthen community health and wellness through upstream actions and early prevention of injury, chronic disease and substance use harms
The Public Health Network’s foundations for success include:
- upholding Indigenous rights and advancing reconciliation
- improving health equity
- strengthening the public health workforce
- building trust through communications
- advancing climate change mitigation and adaptation
Public Health Data
The PHN’s priorities for public health data are to:
- identify and champion FPT-Indigenous (FPTI) public health data priorities for collaborative action, as outlined by the Pan-Canadian Health Data Charter
- support the implementation of a Joint FPT Action Plan on Health Data to facilitate consistent approaches to data collection and sharing to better inform decision making
- accelerate FPTI work on public health data governance, policies, and standards, including promoting standards and policies for federated data sharing
- coordinate and oversee pan-Canadian data solutions that contribute to modern public health systems, including interoperable immunization data collection, sharing and use
Learn more:
Emergency Management
The PHN’s priorities for emergency management are to:
- advance FPTI pandemic preparedness, which includes areas such as the:
- redevelopment of the Canadian Pandemic Influenza Preparedness: Planning Guidance
- avian influenza preparedness
- work to clarify FPT roles and responsibilities regarding medical supplies and countermeasures, including with First Nations, Inuit and Métis governance and leadership
- update and regularly practice emergency plans including the FPT Public Health Response Plan for Biological Events
- develop and disseminate public health guidance, tools and plans to help:
- reduce the risk posed by health hazards
- effectively prepare and respond to them, such as with extreme weather events (including those exacerbated by climate change)
- collaborate on lessons learned from public health events and work towards continuous improvement in emergency management
Learn more:
- FPT Public Health Response Plan for Biological Events
- Canadian Pandemic Influenza Preparedness: Planning Guidance
Communicable and Infectious Diseases
The PHN’s priorities for communicable and infectious diseases are to:
- partner with First Nations, Inuit and Métis leadership to enhance efforts on surveillance, prevention and control activities for tuberculosis, recognizing the disproportionate impact on Indigenous Peoples
- reduce the health impact of sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections in Canada, including a focus on syphilis
- advance pan-Canadian immunization priorities to:
- prevent or eliminate vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD)
- enable consistent approaches to:
- planning, vaccine delivery, education and surveillance
- renewing the National Immunization Strategy
- approving national vaccination coverage goals and VPD disease reduction targets
- support the implementation of the Pan-Canadian Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance
- integrate and strengthen national surveillance and disease prevention and control activities for infectious respiratory diseases in Canada
- update and strengthen national invasive group A streptococcal disease surveillance and management guidelines in Canada
- enhance surveillance and public health actions associated with tick-borne, vector-borne and other climate-sensitive infectious diseases exacerbated by climate change
Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention
The PHN’s priorities for health promotion and chronic disease prevention will focus on improving well-being for people living in Canada across their lifespan. The Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Steering Committee was launched in 2024 and is being piloted for 1 year to assess its role in:
- scoping priorities
- crafting a work plan
- carrying out focused activities
- developing a key deliverable for demonstrating the utility of this steering committee
Currently, PHN priorities in health promotion and chronic disease prevention focus on:
- developing a mental health promotion and policy framework that provides jurisdictions with a common strategy and approach to enable equity-oriented action, incorporating a population health approach
- community resilience and social cohesion to develop indicators related to community resilience and social cohesion from an equity perspective, similar to the positive mental health indicators developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada
- healthy built environments and active living for children and youth to develop a report that analyses gaps and opportunities related to the healthy built environment and the promotion of active living and health leisure time among children and youth
Foundations for success
The PHN’s 5-year strategic priorities are built upon 5 foundations where action is required for success. By identifying key actions to bolster these foundations, the PHN can help drive structural and systemic change to strengthen public health systems across Canada and improve population health.
Upholding Indigenous rights and advancing Reconciliation
Guided by principles of truth, reconciliation and decolonization, the PHN steering committees and working groups will work with Indigenous leaders and public health experts to help address Indigenous-identified priorities within work plans. Through these efforts, the PHN will promote the inclusion of Indigenous leadership, knowledge and learning across the network, to advance Indigenous-led decisions and strengthen its FPTI partnership approaches.
Improving health equity
The PHN will embed a health equity approach across its priorities and work to improve health outcomes for key populations at risk of poorer health outcomes and those who have been marginalized in society. Recognizing that the social determinants of health drive health inequities, the PHN, in consultation with organizations and rights holders, will build collaborative, cross-cutting linkages to address the broader socioeconomic conditions that limit the ability for individuals to reach their full health potential.
Strengthening the public health workforce
Across its work, the PHN will help shape health sector workforce planning by leveraging health systems research to build resilience and enable workforce optimization. Public health workforce development, assessment and training considerations will be framed within broader health sector workforce action plans to ensure the considerations of:
- medical officers of health
- public health nurses
- epidemiologists
- public health inspectors
- laboratory personnel
- other key roles within wider health workforce planning activities
Building trust through communications
The PHN aims to deliver trusted, evidence-based advice that is culturally and regionally relevant. A coordinated communications approach will help advance key priorities and deliver common and coherent information on public health issues. This will be accomplished through:
- proactive and adaptable communication strategies
- modern tools
- high quality socio-behavioural evidence to support public health leaders in reaching public audiences, including at-risk populations across Canada
Advancing climate change mitigation and adaptation
By considering how climate change is impacting population health and public health program delivery, the PHN will support ongoing collaborative actions by providing a unique public health lens to ongoing efforts. PHN actions will include the:
- development and dissemination of:
- pan-Canadian national public health guidance
- best practices and tools
- supporting data and surveillance actions to enable monitoring and understanding of climate impacts on health outcomes
- alignment and amplification of risk communications to support action across Canada
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