Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
and the problematic responses of the government at both the provincial and federal
levels, deserve serious investigation. Specifically, in the Canadian case the epidemic
revealed that canadian public health infrastructure was fragile, particularly in the
province of Ontario, which saw the most significant outbreak of SARS outside
of China. Ontario experienced significant problems in infection control, ranging
from the questionable leadership of colin D'cunha, the province's commissioner
of public health, to problems in staffing hospitals, to the persistent violation of
quarantine and subsequent spread of infection. the canadian case also illustrates
chronic problems in communication between the provincial government in toronto
and the federal government in Ottawa, exacerbated by the perennial conflict over
which tier of governance should preside over matters of public health. at present
such duties are relegated to the provinces, as is the matter of funding supplemented
by transfer payments from ottawa. Partisan differences may have also led the liberal
federal government of Prime Minister Jean chrétien to be less than cooperative
with ontario's conservative provincial government of ernie eaves. the chrétien
government also demonstrated a significant failure of leadership during the crisis, as
the federal minister of health, anne Mcclellan, often proved less than cooperative
in her dealings with the province and the wHo. Moreover, chrétien displayed a
striking lack of leadership when he refused to interrupt his vacation abroad to return
to ottawa and deal with the rapidly expanding epidemic in the Greater toronto region.
As a result of these glaring deficiencies in the Canadian response to the epidemic, the
SarS commission (under the stewardship of Justice archie campbell) determined
precisely how the system failed, and developed recommendations for improving the
response capacity of canadian public health delivery (SarS commission 2006).
Prescott (2003, 218) chides Canadian officials for their limited response to the
emergence of contagion in toronto:
Canadian officials appeared to be more concerned with the short-term impact of a [WHO]
travel advisory on tourism, retail and other industries, even though the epidemic appeared
to have spread through the community and to other countries partially because the
canadian health authorities had ignored a wHo advisory that all departing passengers
from toronto be screened by medical personnel.
Ultimately, the canadian response to the exogenous shock of the SarS epidemic
provides some evidence to confirm the PE model. Specifically, the federal government
created a new cabinet-level Public Health agency of canada (PHac), led by a chief
public health officer who (despite a certain degree of autonomy) reports to the minister
of health. a central mission of this agency is the facilitation of cooperation between
the federal and provincial governments in the domain of public health emergencies.
this clearly demonstrates the increasing salience of public health issues in the mind
of canadian political elites. the SarS debacle clearly resulted in the elevation of
public health to the level of 'high politics' in ottawa. this is evident in the reference
in the report of canada's national advisory committee on SarS and Public Health
(2003, 220) to benjamin Disraeli's argument that 'public health was the foundation
