Advancing environmental public health in Canada: professional identity, collaboration, and collective impact

Environmental public health (EPH), in Canada is undergoing a pivotal transformation.Once focused primarily on regulatory compliance, the profession now operates within a complex public health landscape shaped by climate change, globalization, and equity-informed practice.Environmental Public Health Professionals (EPHPs), commonly titled Public Health Inspectors or Environmental Health Officers, are increasingly recognized as essential contributors to population health, yet their preventative work often limits visibility and public recognition (CIHI, 2024; PHAC, 2023).Workforce pressures and evolving professional identity, further challenge sustainability.Research underscores that environmental public health practice is dynamic and integrative, combining technical expertise with leadership, advocacy, and systems thinking (Barnes, 2026;Dunn et al., 2024).This convergence of growing responsibility and expanding expectations highlights the need for strong professional leadership, national coordination, local mobilization, and global engagement.As Canada's only national organization representing the field of environmental public health and EPHPs, the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors (CIPHI) plays an important role in meeting these challenges.Through regional, national, and international advocacy, partnerships, and professional development, CIPHI helps ensure the profession remains cohesive, credible, and future-ready.This editorial highlights the evolving demands on environmental public health, the organizational responses led by CIPHI, and the critical importance of member engagement in advancing the profession. Challenges Rising demands in environmental public healthEnvironmental public health activities protect population health through prevention-focused activities spanning food safety, drinking water protection, infection prevention and control, communicable disease mitigation, and environmental risk assessment.This work forms a largely invisible but essential layer of public health infrastructure, operating upstream of public awareness.The COVID-19 pandemic briefly spotlighted the profession, highlighting EPHPs' adaptability and essential role in public health emergency response, while simultaneously exposing long-standing constraints related to workforce capacity and system readiness (Murphy et al., 2025; PHAC, 2023).Despite the importance of this work, national workforce data indicate that environmental public health remains a relatively small component of Canada's broader public health workforce (CIHI, 2024; PHAC, 2023).EPHPs operate across complex regulatory, environmental, and health systems domains, where preventive action significantly reduces far more costly health impacts later (PHAC, 2017); yet detailed and consistent data on workforce size, distribution, and capacity remain limited.This lack of visibility mirrors broader challenges in professional recognition, where environmental public health is essential, but undervalued in health planning and investment. Trends reshaping EPH practiceThree interrelated trends are reshaping environmental public health practice and highlighting the need for coordinated professional leadership.Firstly, the scope of practice is expanding beyond inspection, education, and regulatory compliance to include systems-level work addressing interconnected risks.Climate change, extreme weather, water security, food system resilience, globalization of food systems, vector-borne disease, and emergency preparedness require EPHPs to apply systems thinking, interdisciplinary collaboration, and policy engagement.Emerging research emphasizes the need for competencies in climate adaptation, emergency response and recovery, reflecting the shift toward a more integrative and preparatory role (Perreault-Carranza et al., 2024).Second, workforce pressures related to recruitment, retention, and capacity are intensifying.Challenges are most acute in rural, northern, remote, and underserved communities, where EPHPs often manage multiple program areas and serve as primary public health resources (Smith et al., 2021;Whiley et al., 2018).High workloads, administrative burdens, and limited leadership support contribute to burnout and staff turnover, threatening continuity of essential services.The overwhelming