Public Health is prepared to effectively and efficiently respond to any health emergencies that occur within the agency or the community. This is a requirement of the Health Protection and Promotion Act (HPPA) that provides legal authority for boards of health to respond to a public health emergency such as a health hazard or a disease outbreak.
We have an on-call system that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for responding to potential health hazards or incidents.
The Medical Officer of Health (MOH) may activate the Emergency Response Plan when there are incidents or situations with actual or potential risk to the community. Such risks could include:
- Severe weather emergencies
- Hazardous material spills
- Human health emergencies like an outbreak or pandemic
When emergencies happen, we provide guidance to the community to protect human health. We also work to prevent emergencies from happening. Some of the ways we do this are:
- Inspecting locations where food is prepared and served
- Inspecting drinking water systems
- Managing outbreaks of disease
- Immunizing against diseases that could spread quickly in our community