July 2010 - Our Voice in Action

Take this opportunity to influence the provincial Organizational Standards

The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care is continuing to move forward on implementing a performance management framework for public health in Ontario. As part of this implementation an Organizational Standards document has been drafted.

The Ministry is providing you with an opportunity to review the draft Organizational Standards document and provide individual responses to the Organizational Standards electronic survey (e-survey) between Thursday, July 15, and Wednesday August 11, 2010.

To get an overview of the Organizational Standards and the e-survey, you can review the slide deck given at a recent webinar through the link below. To support this consultation, a full draft of the Organizational Standards has been posted on the public health portal.

As the survey is meant to be completed by individuals, please feel free to forward this invitation to any of your staff, or colleagues who you feel would be interested in participating in this consultation.

If you have any questions regarding the consultation process or the development of the Organizational Standards in general, or need technical assistance during the webinar, please contact Michele Weidinger, Lead, Performance Management Unit, Public Health Practice Branch at Michele.Weidinger@ontario.ca, or at (416) 314-1728.

Please take this opportunity to make your voice heard.

 

OPHA's Marketing to Children Workgroup met with Health Canada

Brian Cook, Chair of the OPHA Marketing to Children Workgroup and member of the OPHA Food Security Workgroup, had an opportunity to meet with Health Canada on June 8th regarding not only Marketing to Children but also Natural Health Products standards. Dietitians of Canada (DC) was also represented at the meeting. Attendees at the meeting included 2 policy advisors, as well as Michelle Boudreau (Director General of Natural Health Products, Health Canada) and William Yan (Director, Bureau of Nutritional Sciences, Health Canada).

Brian focused his presentation to Health Canada staff members on OPHA's position (total children's ad ban) and exposed the industry's weak attempts to make changes via the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. Health Canada staff did not appear to be aware of the commitment Canada made in signing the WHO resolution calling on member states to limit unhealthy food advertising to children. They promised to get back to us regarding the Ministry plan to implement those recommendations in Canada.

Regarding Natural Health Products (NHPs), Dietitians of Canada argued that the new wave of fortified NHPs (including energy drinks) should not be allowed on the market. OPHA and DC have argued that NHPs that are food should be regulated under Food and Drug regulations rather than as NHPs. Health Canada reinforced that a new regulatory system will be in place in Fall 2011 requiring NHPs to have an NHP number.

These actions will still do nothing to address concerns regarding the ability of food companies to market fortified NHPs without the same nutrition labels required of all foods.

 

Discontinuing Census Long Form effects ability to provide accurate information on health of the population

The Federal Government recently announced that it will discontinue mandatory completion of the Canadian Census long form (Form 2-B) and replace it with a voluntary National Household Survey.

This presents a major problem for public health as the Census provides the only source of detailed information on the population, specifically vulnerable sub-populations who will be under-estimated in a voluntary household survey.

This information is essential for making evidence-based decisions on public health programs and services as well as in understanding the changing nature of Ontario’s diverse population, and identifying and understanding health inequalities and health inequity. The data from the long form are used by all public health units for all programs and is specifically mandated through the Ontario Public Standards and the Public Health Assessment and Surveillance Protocol. Information on the prevalence of low income, mobility, immigration, ethnicity and language, employment and occupation as well as dwelling characteristics, to name but a few, are essential to planning and preparing responses to urgent threats such as the H1N1 pandemic.

Without the information collected through the mandatory Census long form public health will no longer be able to access unbiased information to make this assessment. The long form information serves as the “gold standard” against which other population surveys are measured. The voluntary collection of information will severely impact on the quality of the information for protecting and promoting the health of the population.

OPHA is calling on the Federal Government to re-instate the Census long form for 2011. The letter has been posted on the OPHA website.