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Members of the Council will facilitate the activities of the various parts of the Network. The Council will serve as a central governance body and will represent the Network to the public. The Council will serve as the senior body responsible for taking a strategic, coordinated view of the ongoing conduct and operation of the Network. It will be responsible for the instruments and tools of the Network and report annually to the Conference of Deputy Ministers of Health.
Membership of the Council will consist of one senior representative from each participating jurisdiction. In selecting their member, jurisdictions may wish to consider officials with decision-making authority who exercise leadership in a public health organization within government. While each jurisdiction is free to name whomever they wish to the Council, Deputies may wish to be guided by the fact that the role of the Council is to serve the policy and program needs of the CDM.
Council will be co-chaired by its federal and a P/T member to rotate among provinces and territories. Health Canada has indicated that the federal representative will be Dr. David Butler-Jones, Chief Public Health Officer (CPHO) of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). This should enable the Network to take advantage of the Agency as a focal point among several FPT groups of the Network.
- The key recommendation of our report is the creation of a Pan-Canadian Public Health Network, to be led by a Council of representatives of each jurisdiction (that I describe in the previous slide).
- Functionally, the Network, through the Council, gets its mandate from and is accountable to the Conference of Deputy Ministers of Health. It will report on an annual, and an as needed basis during public health emergencies. The Council provides leadership and oversees the day-to-day business of the Network.
- The vast majority of the work of the Network will be executed through a series of Expert Groups and Issue Groups on various public health topics. The Task Force has recommended six initial Expert Groups.
- Some of these Expert Groups (e.g. EPR, Lab Network, Communicable Disease) already exist and will be integrated into the Network, building on existing expertise and collaborative efforts that are working well.