Public Health in Ontario

History

Public health goes back more than 100 years in Canada.  The pattern of local public health services administration for Ontario was established in 1833 when the Legislature of Upper Canada passed an Act allowing local municipalities to establish Boards of Health to guard against the “introduction of malignant, contagious and infectious disease in this province.”   

Important Milestones

• 1873 The first Public Health Act was passed.
 
• 1882 the first board of health was established.
 
• 1934 the first county-wide health unit was established with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation - it included the four eastern counties of Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry, and Prescott.
 
• 1965 fifty-four boards of health were in place, which served 95 percent of the population.


• 1986 the World Health Organization held its first conference on health promotion that resulted in the Ottawa Charter – an international agreement which defines health promotion as the process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their health.


• 2004 the government of Ontario announces Operation Health Protection: an Action Plan to Prevent Threats to our Health and to promote a Healthy Ontario.
 
• 2009 the Initial Report on Public Health is released by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care as the first step in developing an accountability framework for boards of health.