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Mea maxima culpa: In last week's column it was stated, erroneously, that Canada does not have public health goals.

In fact, at a meeting in December, 2005, the federal, provincial and territorial health ministers adopted health goals.

Carolyn Bennett, former federal minister of state for public health, and Theresa Oswald, former Manitoba minister for healthy living (and current provincial Health Minister), guided a process of public consultations that led to the formulation of a document that was unanimously endorsed. For the record, here it is:

OVERARCHING GOAL

As a nation, we aspire to a Canada in which every person is as healthy as they can be - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

HEALTH GOALS FOR CANADA

Canada is a country where:

Basic needs (social and physical environments)

Our children reach their full potential, growing up happy, healthy, confident and secure.

The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and the places we live, work and play are safe and healthy - now and for generations to come.

Belonging and engagement

Each and every person has dignity, a sense of belonging, and contributes to supportive families, friendships and diverse communities.

We keep learning throughout our lives through formal and informal education, relationships with others, and the land.

We participate in and influence the decisions that affect our personal and collective health and well-being.

We work to make the world a healthy place for all people, through leadership, collaboration and knowledge.

Healthy living

Every person receives the support and information they need to make healthy choices.

A system for health

We work to prevent and are prepared to respond to threats to our health and safety through co-ordinated efforts across the country and around the world.

A strong system for health and social well-being responds to disparities in health status and offers timely, appropriate care.

This is a lovely bit of public health poetry - all Mother Earth and apple pie.

That our governments, from coast-to-coast-to-coast, would endorse these principles of healthy living and holistic care is a marvel, but they remain one of Canada's best-kept secrets.

One cannot help but be reminded of the philosophical riddle: "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

In this case: If Canada has public health goals and nobody knows it, do they really exist?

If so, where's the evidence governments have acted on them?

It is telling that when these goals were endorsed at the health ministers' meeting three years ago, media coverage focused exclusively on the adoption of national standards for the maximum length of time patients should wait for treatment in five target areas, including heart surgery and hip replacements.

For years, federal and provincial health ministers have obsessed about surgical wait times and spent billions to shorten wait lists.

For the most part, wait times have shrunk in the targeted areas - though there are technical issues with benchmarks and data collection that make a more equivocal statement impossible.

But the point is that when you fix precise goals and set your mind to achieving them, good things happen.

In fact, a report issued last year by the Health Council of Canada noted that there were "key factors for success" in reducing wait times:

Support from government leaders.

Strong program leadership, with administrative and clinical champions.

Full-time staff dedicated to programs.

Information systems that allow for the creation of centralized lists and make information publicly available.

A broad, comprehensive approach that recognizes many large and small changes are required.

It's wonderful that Canadians are no longer waiting as long for angioplasty, new hips and other common surgical procedures.

But imagine if our health ministers dedicated themselves to the promises in the public health goals - such as reducing disparities in health - as much as to the promised reductions in wait times.

So far, the principles, the "health goals for Canada," have been stated and endorsed. Now it is time for them to be embraced and acted upon.

That requires specific targets such as increasing breastfeeding rates by 5 per cent and reducing the incidence of child injury by 5 per cent (as Nunavut, a leader in public health, has done).

It also requires major investments - in public health programs and staff, in health information systems and in prevention and complementary social welfare programs - all of it bolstered with strong political leadership.

Leadership that consists of more than signing one's name to a document and forgetting all about it.