Healthy Canada by Design (HCBD) is releasing six new case study reports today. Prepared by new health authority partners from Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, these case study reports describe the steps taken by the six HCBD project teams over the last two years to influence local land use and transportation planning policies with the aid of an embedded Planner. 

Under the second round of funding from the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer’s Coalitions Linking Action and Science for Prevention (CLASP) Program, five of these new HCBD partners – Capital Health in Halifax, the New Brunswick Department of Health’s Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, the Newfoundland and Labrador Wellness Advisory Committee & Building Healthy Communities Collaborative, Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region, and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority — received funding to hire a Planner to work with them for an extended period.  The sixth, Ottawa Public Health, hired a Planner on a permanent basis just prior to joining HCBD. 

In all six cases, the Planners were charged with the task of: building capacity on land use and transportation planning processes among public health professionals; building relationships between public health professionals and the land use and transportation planning professionals in their local communities; increasing awareness about the links between public health and the built environment; and affecting change in local policies with the goal of creating healthier built environments.  All six project teams were directed to focus on projects related to active transportation.

The six case study reports concisely describe the objectives set by each project team, the strategies employed, the outcomes achieved, the challenges encountered, and the lessons learned.   The six projects vary substantially from one another reflecting the opportunities presented by local planning processes, the priorities of each project team, the circumstances in their local communities, and the capacity of the project teams and their local partners. 

Among the highlights discussed in these reports are:

• The adaptation and piloting of the Rural Active Living Assessment (RALA) tool in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan;
• The addition and implementation of a Well Minded Community Award to the annual Tidy Towns competition in Newfoundland;
• The development and piloting of Active Building Design Criteria by Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and the City of Winnipeg;
• The development of Complete Street Policies and Implementation Guidelines by Capital Health and the Regional Municipality of Halifax; and
• The inclusion of health considerations in the Transportation Master Plan, the Cycling Plan, and the Pedestrian Plan for the City of Ottawa.

These reports can be accessed on the HCBD Website at:  http://hcbd-clasp.com/clasp-i-resources-tools/

Prepared by Kim Perrotta, HCBD Knowledge Translation & Communications Lead, Heart and Stroke Foundation