Public health systems governance for intersectoral action on climate change

Canada faces complex health and societal crises, one of the most urgent being climate change. Public health has an important and growing role to play in climate action; it must do this work collaboratively by working with multiple partners and communities, and research is needed to guide these efforts.

This research will look at governance arrangements, that is, the formal and informal rules, practices and relationships that influence how well public health leaders can engage and collaborate with these multiple partners across sectors. We will focus on the important climate change issue of chronic and extreme heat in three provinces (British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec) to:

1. describe the strategies and plans that involve public health authorities, cities, community organizations and other partners,
2. assess how well these collaborations are working by interviewing local leaders from health units/authorities, government, and community organizations, and
3. develop pragmatic solutions for improving these collaborative actions by hosting groups discussions (dialogues) with researchers, decision makers, and community partners.

Principal Investigators

• Sara Allin, Associate Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation; Director, North American Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
• Barry Pakes, York Region Medical Officer of Health
• Erica Di Ruggiero, Associate Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health; Director, Centre for Global Health
• Fiona Miller, Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation; Founder and Director, Centre for Sustainable Health Systems (CSHS)

Co-Investigators

Funding details

• Funding organization: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
• Program: Catalyst Grant – Chief Public Health Officer (CPHO) Report 2022
• Funding amount: $125,000
• Term: 1 year