Health Canada
| Santé Canada | |
| Department overview | |
|---|---|
| Type | Department responsible for federal health policy in Canada |
| Jurisdiction | Canada |
| Headquarters | Ottawa, Ontario |
| Employees | 11,223 (March 2020)[1] |
| Annual budget | $3.9 billion (2021–22)[2] |
| Minister responsible |
|
| Deputy Ministers responsible |
|
| Website | www |
Health Canada (HC; French: Santé Canada, SC)[NB 1] is the department of the Government of Canada responsible for national health policy. The department itself is also responsible for numerous federal health-related agencies, including the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), among others. These organizations help to ensure compliance with federal law in a variety of healthcare, agricultural, and pharmaceutical activities. This responsibility also involves extensive collaboration with various other federal- and provincial-level organizations in order to ensure the safety of food, health, and pharmaceutical products—including the regulation of health research and pharmaceutical manufacturing/testing facilities.
The department is responsible to Parliament through the minister of health as part of the federal health portfolio.[3] The deputy minister of health, the senior most civil servant within the department, is responsible for the day-to-day leadership and operations of the department and reports directly to the minister.
Originally created as the "Department of Health" in 1919—in the wake of the Spanish flu crisis[4]—what is known as Health Canada today was formed in 1993 from the former Health and Welfare Canada department (established in 1944), which split into two separate units; the other department being Human Resources and Labour Canada.[5]
- ^ "GC InfoBase". www.tbs-sct.gc.ca. Retrieved Mar 5, 2021.
- ^ "GC InfoBase". www.tbs-sct.gc.ca. Retrieved April 15, 2021.
- ^ "Health Canada". Canada.ca. Government of Canada (2025). Retrieved 15 March 2025.
- ^ "Influenza, 1918-1919 | Canada and the First World War". Canadian War Museum. Canadian Heritage. 2017 [2008]. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
- ^ Cheung-gertler, Jasmin H. (2014) [2008]. "Health Canada". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
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