A new national public health center might be in Canada's future, says Federal Health Minister Anne McLellan. The center, which would be similar to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, would be “a nerve center of expertise and research,” McLellan announced in her 18 August speech at the Canadian Medical Association's annual meeting.

Canada's health-care system was left reeling after the epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) there earlier this year. It became obvious then that Canada lacks expertise in dealing with public health crises, says Alison McGeer, a leading SARS researcher and director of infection control at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. “What we most missed was a team to collect and analyze data more quickly as the outbreak was going on,” McGeer says. In the case of another outbreak, the proposed national agency would coordinate epidemiology, laboratory investigation and public health experts across the country.

The center is just one part of a pledge by Canada's federal, provincial and territorial health ministers to make public health their top priority. The ministers are also working to increase public health human resources, form a national health council to monitor health-care reform and spending, enhance existing national disease surveillance and information infrastructure and make the case for an additional C$2 billion for health care.

The details of the center's structure and location are still being worked out by health ministers. But it won't come cheap—costs for the multisite agency are estimated to approach C$1 billion. “Getting money for public health is always a problem,” says McGeer. “[But] I hope we've learned enough from SARS in Canada that we'll spend the money.”