The Pan-Canadian Public Health Network (PHN) is a network of individuals across Canada from many sectors and levels of government, who effectively work together to strengthen public health in Canada.

The PHN is a forum for public health experts from across Canada to come together, to raise issues and lay plans – and to make connections – for the benefit of all Canadians.

A key to the PHN’s effectiveness lies in its connectedness. The Pan-Canadian Public Health Network takes a collaborative approach to public health that is not only critical during public health emergencies – but also to assisting jurisdictions across Canada in gaining a stronghold on public health issues, such as obesity, and other chronic and communicable disease.

Creation

The Pan-Canadian Public Health Network was established by Canada’s Federal, Provincial and Territorial (F/P/T) Health Ministers in 2005, as a key intergovernmental mechanism to:

• Strengthen and enhance Canada's public health capacity,
• Enable F/P/T governments to better work together on the day-to-day business of public health, and
• Anticipate, prepare for, and respond to public health events and threats.

What the Network does

The Pan-Canadian Public Health Network ensures that Canada is better prepared for future public health events by:

• fostering cooperative and collaborative approaches on public health matters;
• establishing, maintaining and implementing instruments, initially in the form of collaborative public health strategies, formal inter-jurisdictional arrangements, and a framework for a common approach to public health legislation and regulation;
• facilitating collaboration and mutual aid across jurisdictions during public health crises and urgent situations;
• establishing consensus-based priorities helping governments focus and refine their public health investments and resources;
• encouraging processes for developing, implementing, maintaining and updating standards, guidelines, and best practices in the public health field;
• negotiating arrangements which will govern intergovernmental collaboration in the day-to-day business of public health;
• facilitating processes whereby applied research can be best translated into policies, programs and practice; and,
• developing strong and robust public health partnerships between governments, academics, researchers, non-government organizations and health professionals.

In undertaking its work, the Network:

• respects the authority and jurisdiction of each government to manage public health operations within their own domain;
• embraces the differences in how each jurisdiction exercises its public health responsibilities, establishes priorities and manages its public health infrastructure;
• recognizes that there is no 'one size fits all' approach to public health; and,
• includes as part of the scope of the Network's activities, collaboration with, and participation of, non-governmental organizations, researchers, academics and other public health experts.