Public health capacity in Canada

W. Harding Le Riche is correct in suggesting that increasing public health capacity is an important challenge.¹ However, the suggestion that responsibility should be jointly supported by the academy and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada fails to recognize the government (if they are interested). I recently requested, under the Access to Information Act, the following document: Survey of Public Health Capacity in Canada — Report to the Federal, Provincial and Territorial Deputy Ministers of Health by the Advisory Committee on Population Health, January 2001. My request was refused because the report is “exempt from disclosure.” Why has this report, with its interest in the public health of Canadians, not been made public?

Duncan Hunter Assistant Professor Community Health & Epidemiology Queen's University Kingston, Ont.