Annual Meeting 2011
Resolutions
CNA Resolutions - June 2004
| RESOLUTION 5 | LOBBYING FOR A STRONG MANDATE FOR THE PAN-CANADIAN HEALTH AGENCY |
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(Approved) |
BE IT RESOLVED
, That the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) lobby the prime minister, minister of health, minister of state (public health), and other political leaders in the federal government to ensure a broad mandate for the pan-Canadian Public Health Agency, one that would include determinants of health and core functions of public health practice; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED,
That CNA lobby the federal government to establish targeted benchmarks to measure success in reducing child poverty and homelessness.Background
The SARS outbreak of 2003 highlighted the chronic underfunding of public health in Canada and the low priority given to health promotion and disease prevention in our nation. Among the recommendations of the Naylor Report was the need to establish a pan-Canadian public health agency to ensure a strong response capacity in the event of a public health emergency. The minister of state (public health) has held a series of roundtables on the proposed public health agency to gather input regarding the mandate of the agency and the scope of its work.
Canada undoubtedly needs a strong capacity to prevent and respond to health threats. However, this cannot be at the expense of programs that focus on determinants of health. For the agency to adopt a narrow focus would be to ignore the basic needs of Canadians and undermine the leadership Canada has provided in the past. The mandate of the agency must be inclusive of determinants of health and all health disciplines – particularly public health nursing, which has made tremendous contributions to the health of individuals, families, and communities. Further, the agency must have sufficient resources to achieve these ends.
Two areas that require urgent attention are child poverty and homelessness. The agency needs to establish clear benchmarks to reduce child poverty. It is appalling that in a nation as rich as ours, more than 1,000,000 children live in poverty.1 In addition, Canada must establish targets to reduce homelessness, a problem that increasingly affects children. Today, homelessness is no longer limited to urban males or the mentally ill; increasingly it is families who are living in shelters, in their cars and on the streets. The relationship between the lack of affordable housing and homelessness and poor health is clearly established.
The proposed public health agency must have the capacity to strengthen public health with a strong and broad mandate that centers on the health needs of all Canadians.
Submitted by the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario
