Ontario Public Health Association 468 Queen Street East, Suite 202 Toronto ON M5A 1T7 tel: (416) 367-3313 / 1-800-267-6817 (Ont.) fax: (416) 367-2844 e-mail:
[email protected] website: www.opha.on.ca Extending the Principles of The Canada Health Act to Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Services A resolution adopted at the 1999 OPHA Annual General Meeting Code: 1999-02 (RES) Status: Active Prepared by the Community Health Nurses Initiatives Group of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario Adeline R. Falk Rafael, RN, PhD Joyce Fox, RN, BSc Ruth 0’Donnell, RN, MHS Barbara Mildon, RN, MScN Helen Thomas, RN, MScN Charlotte Nosegaard, RN, MScN RESOLUTION WHEREAS public health services, that is health protection and promotion and disease prevention services, have been seriously eroded in the 15 years since the Canada Health Act was passed; WHEREAS the federal government, in various documents, such as the Lalonde Report of 1974, the 1986 Epp health promotion framework: Achieving health for all, and the 1986 Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, has identified health promotion and disease prevention as critical to improving the health of Canadians; and WHEREAS the federal government, in its endorsement of the Alma Ata Declaration in 1978, committed to the principles of primary health care as essential health care services that are an “integral part of the country’s health system” and key to improving the health of Canadians; and WHEREAS despite the lack of a Canadian national public health service, provincial public health services have,