Executive Summary
This plan has been developed as a response plan for the Federal/Provincial/Territorial (F/P/T) health sector in order to facilitate formal coordination of F/P/T responses to public health events that are biological in nature and of a severity, scope or significance to require a high level F/P/T response. Informed by lessons learned from past F/P/T public health responses and best practices of current F/P/T structures (i.e., the Public Health Network structure and Special Advisory Committees), this plan focuses on the implementation of F/P/T responses led by senior-level public health decision-makers at the federal, provincial and territorial level in order to facilitate an efficient, timely, evidence-informed and consistent approach across jurisdictions to event-specific response activities. Improving effective engagement amongst public health, health care delivery and health emergency management authorities during a coordinated F/P/T response is a key objective of this plan. It is intended to serve as an F/P/T resource for F/P/T public health and emergency management authorities; specifically those who are involved in public health response preparedness and implementation. In order to further support coordination of public health events at a national level, this plan aims to build on the strengths of existing F/P/T tools and mechanisms while providing a single, overarching user-friendly response plan that is scalable and flexible enough to be utilized in full or in part for a range of F/P/T public health responses.
The concept of operations of the plan indicates how notification of public health events that potentially require a coordinated F/P/T response should be made to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), and how response needs are assessed to determine the appropriate level of F/P/T response coordination required. Four response levels that range from routine to emergency response are included to facilitate scaling of response activities as needed. The plan includes the details of a governance structure intended to be activated for those events in which a coordinated F/P/T response (i.e., led by senior-level decision makers) is deemed necessary and/or beneficial. The governance structure aims to: streamline response processes to a public health event; facilitate clarity on roles, responsibilities and approval processes; facilitate a high degree of situational awareness; and centralize risk management and task delegation. It incorporates three main streams: a Technical stream, a Logistics stream and a Communications stream. These streams are led by advisory committees/working groups and have been included in order to facilitate clarity regarding roles for issue management, response support, product development (e.g., recommendations, guidance, protocols), policy review and approval processes. "Cross stream" support and coordination will be essential to an efficient, informed and transparent response and therefore mechanisms for achieving this are also included.
Coordinated F/P/T responses will be conducted with each activated committee/group in the governance structure fulfilling the roles and responsibilities and decision-making processes as described in Section 4 of this plan and according to their respective terms of reference (included in corresponding appendices). Specifically, the Special Advisory Committee (SAC) will be the main approval/decision-making body for the duration of a coordinated F/P/T response under this plan, with governance structure products going to the Conference of Deputy Ministers of Health (CDMH) as required.
Public health emergencies involving multiple jurisdictions in Canada are relatively rare events. This plan is not exclusively an emergency response plan and therefore is expected to also be utilized for events not meeting the threshold of a public health emergency (i.e., for events requiring or that would benefit from enhanced F/P/T coordination); thus facilitating familiarity and opportunities to modify and improve this plan based on response experience.
This document is not intended to replace existing F/P/T health sector arrangements but rather is intended to complement and interact with the existing suite of plans and protocols currently in use by the health sector by providing an overarching governance framework with which the existing protocols will interact and/or align. Changes to those existing plans and protocols will be made following approval of this plan in order to clarify these linkages.
