"Why would the government choose to cut this program when it has a surplus?" asked Connie Clement, executive director of the Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse, one of the network's affiliates. "Where does it put the question of partnerships between the government and the non-profit sector?"
Four or five years ago, such a move might have been understandable. The Canadian Health Network got off to a slow start. During its developmental stages, few people knew what it was or how it worked.
But lately, its website has been getting 380,000 hits a month, 40 per cent of them health-care professionals. In the last year alone, its usage has increased by 70 per cent. It has established a reputation as a trustworthy portal in a cyberworld of drug manufacturers, health-care conglomerates and self-promoting quacks.
Shutting down the network was a "very difficult decision," said Alain Desroches of the Public Health Agency. "The agency will continue to look for effective and innovative ways to provide Canadians with high quality, credible information through other means."
In fact, Health Minister Tony Clement launched a new website,
www.healthycanadians.gc.ca, in October, to provide users with information about all of the government's programs – its children's fitness tax credit, its revised Canada Food Guide, its toy safety tips, its latest product recalls and its healthy pregnancy guide – designed to promote an active, well-balanced lifestyle.
There's certainly nothing wrong with centralizing all of Ottawa's health information in one place.
What's missing from the new database is any reference to the links between health and the environment, disease and poverty, or violence and gun control. Nor does it touch sensitive topics such as abortion, genetically modified foods or sexual abuse. It completely overlooks mental illness.In contrast, the Canadian Health Network is all-encompassing. It looks at controversial questions from all sides. It is constantly updated as new knowledge becomes available.Losing the program won't be the end of the world. Canadians will find other useful websites such as MedlinePlus.gov run by the National Institutes of Health in the United States or AboutKids-Health.ca run by Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. The members of the network will find other ways to reach out to the public.
But the idea of a comprehensive, national database, built and maintained by the best people in their fields will wither.
The belief that Canadians can work together, with the government providing a common forum, will wane.
A promising experiment will die.
And the government will look for another non-essential program to cut.
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