2024-25 Operating context: Health Canada
Raison d'être, mandate, and role
To find out about who we are and what we do, see Health Canada's Raison d'être, mandate, and role.
Operating context
Health Canada operates in a complex and dynamic environment, where several factors can impact on its efforts to deliver results for Canadians. These include health workforce shortages, the availability and affordability of health services, substance use-related harms and the overdose crisis, global supply chain disruptions, misinformation and disinformation, and the impacts of climate change, which often lie beyond the Department's sole control. Addressing these complex issues requires close collaboration with federal partners, provincial and territorial (P/Ts) governments, Indigenous organizations, non-governmental stakeholders, industry, and international regulators.
Health Canada works to foster sustainable health care systems, with the goal of ensuring that Canadians have access to appropriate and effective health care. However, these systems face significant challenges related to sustainability, access to services, and service delivery. Although health care delivery is primarily under P/T jurisdiction, with funding administered via the Canada Health Transfer, the Department plays an important role in supporting P/Ts in their health care and health system priorities. This includes upholding the Canada Health Act, advancing the Government's Working Together to Improve Health Care for Canadians Plan, which provides funding to support P/Ts on shared priorities, and improving access to oral health care services for Canadians.
The Department also works with domestic and international partners to assess, manage, and communicate the health and safety risks and benefits associated with health and consumer products, food, chemicals, pesticides, environmental factors, tobacco and vaping products, cannabis, and controlled substances. Addressing the need for increased access to health products, the overdose crisis, global supply chain disruptions, and emerging health and environmental risks requires ongoing regulatory development. Health Canada continuously modernizes its regulatory approaches, strengthens partnerships, and supports innovative initiatives to respond to health risks more effectively and efficiently, and with greater agility.
Health Canada's priorities remain focused on ensuring that government investments and the regulatory framework protect the health and safety of Canadians. There are both corporate- and program-level risks associated with the rapid delivery of government commitments, programs and services. As per its Risk Management Policy, the Department applies a consistent approach to risk management and maintains a comprehensive, up-to-date Corporate Risk Profile to support risk-based decision-making.
Key risks and risk responses are outlined in the following sections of the Departmental Results Report: