Grant: Team Grant: Environments and Health: Intersectoral Prevention Research - LOI

Resource development influences the determinants of health through interrelated socioeconomic, ecological, cultural, and political pathways that are particularly important for rural, remote, northern and aboriginal communities. These dynamics are especially important in Canada, where the economy remains tightly coupled with the extraction and development of natural resources by the mining, oil and gas, forestry, fisheries, and hydroelectricity industries and where the rate and scale of social and environmental change occurring in resource-rich regions is fueling a growing debate regarding the health impacts of resource development. Our team is proposing a project focused on the 'Resource Development' nexus areas and titled "The ECHO Network (Environment, Community, Health Observatory): Strengthening intersectoral capacity to understand and respond to health impacts of resource development". The team composition reflects an explicit focus on three place-based cases in jurisdictions experiencing resource extraction and development (BC, AB, NB), and targeted advisory groups based on existing collaborations and knowledge user priorities. The overall aims of the proposed research program are: i) to make evidence-based recommendations on the form and function of a cross-jurisdictional ECHO that will foster integrative understanding about the complex dynamics of resource development and health, and; ii) to inform, enhance and evaluate intersectoral strategies to address the cumulative determinants of health that interact over time, targeting actions and responses that cannot be achieved by the health sector alone. These strategies will focus on reducing health inequities and fostering safe, healthy and sustainable environments. The program of research will involve a series of four interrelated phases and research objectives to be addressed over five years. The development of each research phase is informed by case priorities and experience across the research team.