Public Invited to Provide Input on New Public Health Legislation

  • Health and Community Services

February 21, 2018

The Provincial Government is seeking input from residents through an online questionnaire to help inform the drafting of new public health legislation. The deadline for responses is March 19.

Current legislation is outdated, with some sections not having been updated in more than 50 years. New, more modern legislation is essential to strengthening population health in Newfoundland and Labrador.

People who wish to provide input can visit www.engagenl.ca . If they haven’t already done so, they will be required to create an account before responding. Once their account is created, they will be able to participate in any future consultations conducted by the Provincial Government.

People who are unable to complete the online questionnaire may request a written copy by calling 709-729-0724.

Written submissions may also be sent through regular mail to the address below:

Public Health Legislation 
c/o Department of Health and Community Services
P.O. Box 8700
1st Floor, West Block
Confederation Building
St. John’s, N.L.
A1B 4J6

The Provincial Government will also hold a targeted stakeholder meeting later this month. Invitations to that meeting will be sent this week.

Quotes
“Through this process, we have the opportunity to develop a more modern, comprehensive piece of provincial legislation. We want to address gaps in the existing legislation and adopt recent best practices from other jurisdictions. I encourage everyone to take part. I look forward to hearing their views on public health and what they would like to see included before we introduce the new legislation in the House of Assembly this spring.”
Honourable John Haggie 
Minister of Health and Community Services

“The public health workforce in our province needs to be supported by legislation that has considered a wide variety of individual, community and population health issues and concerns. Modernized public health laws will help us to respond to emerging challenges like the potential for fast moving infectious diseases, the complexity of factors that affect chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer and the impact of technology. We welcome advice from the public on how best to proceed.”
Dr. David Allison
Chief Medical Officer of Health

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Learn More
Department of Health and Community Services Public Health Division – www.health.gov.nl.ca/health/publichealth

engageNL – engagenl.ca 

Follow us on Twitter: @GovNL  and @HCS_GovNL 

Media contact
Emily Timmins
Health and Community Services
709-729-6986, 693-1292
emilytimmins@gov.nl.ca

2018 02 21 10:35 am