Moving Forward from the COVID-19 Pandemic: 10 Opportunities for Strengthening Canada’s Public Health Systems
A summary of discussions from the CIHR Institute of Population and Public Health’s Community Dialogue series

The widespread impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the highly visible nature of the public health response have created a unique opening to take stock of the enduring challenges and novel opportunities facing Canada’s public health systems. We use the plural here intentionally as rather than a single national system, public health in Canada can be more accurately described as an amalgamation of multiple national, provincial, territorial, Indigenous, and local public health organizations and bodies. To leverage this opportunity, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research - Institute of Population and Public Health (CIHR-IPPH) convened a broad national dialogue with the public health community during Spring 2021 that identified key priorities and actions for building effective public health systems that are equipped to tackle ongoing and emerging threats and serve all Canadians. The dialogue sessions revealed that this is both a critical moment requiring systemic change and a time of great possibility for public health in Canada. Learn more