Two exchanges focusing on HIA kick off 2008 at the NCCHPP

The first of these meetings was held on February 7 with a South Korean delegation whose members were visiting to learn about HIA initiatives as they are being practiced in North America. The second meeting was held in Montréal on February 22, and reunited several experts in the HIA field to reflect on developments in this practice in Canada.

A visit by a South Korean academic delegation

On February 7, at the offices of the INSPQ in Montréal, the NCCHPP received an academic team from Seoul, South Korea who were visiting to learn about Canada’s experiences with HIA. This team of three students of community health and health policy accompanied by their professor, Ok Ryun Moon, professor of Health Policy at Seoul National University, made up part of a South Korean government mission to document worldwide HIA practices in order to inform their own work on the subject.

Three teams were travelling simultaneously around the globe to work on this project: one in the South Pacific, one in Europe, and one in North America. Their questions were principally concerned with the integration (or not) of HIA in environmental impact assessment, and on the resources and the challenges encountered during the implementation of HIA in Quebec.

In the afternoon, Richard Massé, Director-General of the Institut national de santé publique du Québec presented the work of the INSPQ and its role within the context of Québec’s HIA practices.

This proved to be an illuminating day of exchange in which links were made to expand the global HIA network.

Delegates from South Korea meet with representatives from the CCNPPS and the INSPQ in Montréal

Meeting of February 22, 2008 focusing on the experience and development of HIA in Canada

At the invitation of the NCCHPP, a group of Quebec, Canadian and international experts met on February 22, 2008 at the Hotel St Paul in Montréal to reflect on HIA in Canada.

There were three key objectives for the day’s meetings: to learn the opinions of the experts as to the NCCHPP’s position on HIA in Canada, to better understand the experiences of the past in order to draw lessons for the present and future, to share actual HIA experiences from the local level in Canada in order to discuss possible avenues for HIA in Canada and how the NCCHPP might situate itself to be most effective in this regard.

A group of experts meets to discuss HIA in Canada, Feb. 22, 2008

Based on the contributions and feedback from participants, this was a successful day, and it produced a good deal of learning for the Centre.

For more information, please consult our HIA background paper, which formed the basis for discussion at the meeting.

(pdf 200K) HIA background paper

For more information, please contact:

louise.saint-pierre@inspq.qc.ca