| 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] |
| Ministers responsible | |
| Department executives |
|
| 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—presently Mark Holland—as part of the federal health portfolio.[3] The minister is aided by the associate minister of health, and minister of mental health and addictions—presently Ya'ara Saks. 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 Portfolio". Canada.ca. Government of Canada (2017). Retrieved 29 April 2020.
- ^ "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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