Planning for the Next Pandemic Threat

Résumé du livre

Addressing Canada's ability to respond to public health emergencies has emerged as a top policy priority in the aftermath of SARS and given the current threat of an avian flu pandemic. The management of the SARS outbreak clearly demonstrated critical problems with this country's capacity and governance structures in responding to public health emergencies. Public health reform in response to SARS has largely focused on developing collaborative intergovernmental relationships that can be relied upon in the event of an emergency. In this study, Kumanan Wilson and Harvey Lazar argue that some of the emergency response problems that were highlighted in the reports examining the SARS outbreak remain unresolved. In particular, there are important limitations in the current federal legislative framework to address emergencies, which impede the federal government's ability to act at the early stage of an outbreak. They argue that legislative reform to provide the federal government with the freedom to act on an outbreak that is initially within the confines of only one province but is potentially of national concern should be a priority. While an amendment to the Emergencies Act may achieve this goal, a better option, according to the authors, would be to create separate public health emergency legislation. This legislation should, first, authorize federal intervention when an emergency can be reasonably assumed to pose a national threat; second, provide increasing federal power in accordance with the gravity of the threat; and finally, ensure that the use of federal power does not create an undue financial burden for provincial governments. They believe that appropriately designed legislation will (1) allow the federal government to intervene at an early stage when the ability to control an outbreak is greatest; (2) ensure that the federal government has full information on the outbreak that it can then communicate to other provinces so they can adequately prepare; and (3) allow Canada to meet its reporting obligations as outlined in the new International Health Regulations. This legislation would, however, only serve as a contingency plan since, ideally, existing collaborative intergovernmental relationships will work effectively in a time of crisis. Nevertheless, say the authors, the policy course they recommend would ensure that agencies responsible for public health at all levels of government are protected from the effects of problems in intergovernmental relationships that may occur in other policy areas and that could undermine federal, provincial and local cooperation in combating a developing epidemic.