The meat, dairy and poultry industries, including many processors, want to do more to protect their businesses, farms and livelihoods from the risk of major, multi-species border-closing infectious disease events. Building on direction from FPT governments in the National Plant and Animal Health Strategy, several industry leaders have agreed to champion the development of “Animal Health Canada”, a new governance model built on industry-government partnership in decision making, resource sharing and program management. The goal is to strengthen Canada’s capacity for animal disease prevention, preparedness, response and recovery (PPR&R) by reducing fragmentation of accountabilities, ensuring greater sustainability in resource commitments, increasing timeliness of action and planning more effectively for the future. Industry, federal, provincial and territorial government partners have formed a working group to undertake activities that will inform the development and implementation of alternative governance models for animal health emergency PPR&R in Canada, building on the elements of the existing models that have been tested and have proven effective during events.
In order to successfully identify key desired criteria for Animal Health Canada, it is critical to first understand the current state of animal health in Canada. The first workplan element for the Animal Health Canada Working Group is to develop an inventory of the current activities, programs and organizations in Canada with respect to emergency PPR&R. This activity will clearly articulate current efforts that are working well, legislation, roles and responsibilities, in addition to the gaps that presently exist in the management of animal health in Canada. This information may then be used to identify opportunities and solutions for aligning governance, efforts and resources in the form of a new governance model for Canada.
The deliverables from this RFP are as follows and may be provided by one or multiple Proponents as determined by the NFAHW Council (on behalf of the AHC Working Group):
- Assess the current state of animal health and emergency prevention, preparedness, response and recovery in Canada – to define what is working well, what could be improved, and what is not working, and where gaps exist, or nothing is happening at all
- Define requirements to resolve identified issue and who is responsible to address (Examples: improved processes to existing solutions, new governance model, or a blend of solutions)
