From competencies to professional recognition: Securing the future of public health in Canada

The publication of Core Competencies for Public Health in Canada: Release 2.0 (2025) provides an unprecedented opportunity to strengthen Canada's public health workforce. Developed through an inclusive, pan-Canadian, and decolonizing process, the updated competencies articulate the capabilities required to address increasingly complex public health challenges, including reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, systemic racism, climate change, and widening health inequities.

Competencies alone do not build workforce capacity. Their impact depends on implementation across the education-practice continuum-from academic preparation through workplace learning, continuing professional development, and leadership development. We argue that Release 2.0 can provide a common foundation aligning public health education, practice, workforce development, accreditation, certification, and career progression. Without institutional structures supporting this continuum, Canada's public health workforce will remain vulnerable to fragmentation and recurrent underinvestment.

Governments, academic institutions, employers, professional associations, and Indigenous partners should invest in a coordinated strategy that strengthens the education-practice continuum and establishes competency-based pathways for lifelong learning and professional recognition. Such an approach can help build a resilient, equitable, and trusted public health workforce capable of meeting Canada's evolving population health needs.