Challenges in Public Health Governance: The Canadian Experience is an examination of public health from a governance perspective. Part 1 begins with an examination of the fragmented nature of public health in Canada, identifies some major fault lines that characterize the public health realm, and reviews briefly the notion of network governance. Part 2 looks at specific public health theatres: crisis issues such as SARS and the HlNl pandemic, and the ongoing work of the Canadian Heart Health Initiative. It also examines the Pan-Canadian Public Health Network as the key piece of network infrastructure at the national level.
It seeks to demonstrate that current governance structures and mechanisms are inadequate to deal with the governance challenges facing public health, and that network governance, appropriately applied, is a means through which public health in Canada can better achieve its objectives. Part 3 examines the nature of the relationships with the voluntary sector and discovers that much of the potential of these organizations to contribute to public health is being lost.

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Claude M. Rocan (1950–2020) was born in St. Boniface, Manitoba. He studied at Glendon College (York University), McMaster University, and earned a PhD in Political Science from York University. He held policy/advisory positions within the Government of Saskatchewan and the Government of Canada at the senior professional and executive levels. As Director General of the Centre for Health Promotion at the Public Health Agency of Canada, he had the opportunity to directly experience the complexities and challenges—and potential — of collaborative governance. Following his career in the public service, he became Visiting Fellow at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. In 2012, he published Challenges in Public Health: The Canadian Experience (Invenire Books). In his later years, he worked as an independent public policy writer, researcher, and consultant, specializing in governance.