At a Glance: Departmental Evaluation Plan for Health Canada 2022-23 to 2026-27

The OAE Departmental Evaluation Plan for Health Canada describes the Program Evaluation Division’s (PED) scheduled work for the five-year period from 2022-23 to 2026-27. The Plan was developed to meet Health Canada’s commitments under the Policy on Results (2016) which requires that each department prepare a five-year plan, updated annually.

The projects included in this Evaluation Plan were selected to ensure full coverage of all Grant and Contribution spending over $5 million annually over a five-year period, and that prior commitments in Treasury Board (TB) Submissions were met, as well as addressing the information needs of program management, coverage of program risks, and optimal use of resources. The Departmental Results Framework, program inventory, and performance information profiles developed by Health Canada have formed the basis for this plan.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a significant impact on the work of Health Canada (HC) as it remains at the forefront of the Government of Canada’s response. The present Departmental Evaluation Plan (DEP) reflects the response of the Office of Audit and Evaluation (OAE) to these circumstances, as it is a plan that ensures that OAE focuses its efforts and resources on emerging priorities while continuing to meet our reporting commitments under the Financial Administration Act (FAA). In addition, the impact of COVID-19 on HC activities will be looked at as part of program activities in various evaluations in the DEP (i.e., Pharmaceutical Drugs, Medical Devices).

Planning for Evaluation

Over the next five years, OAE plans to conduct 29 evaluations that involve Health Canada: 18 will focus exclusively on Health Canada activities and two evaluations will examine the activities of both Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). The remaining nine projects are horizontal evaluations, three of which are led by Health Canada, and the remaining six projects are led by other government departments or agencies. A yearly breakdown is provided in Table 1. Table 2 outlines the direct program spending (DPS) by core responsibility for all scheduled evaluations for the next five years.

Table 1 – Number of evaluations per fiscal year

	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26	2026-27	Total
Health Canada	3	4	5	5	1	18
Health Canada and PHAC	1	0	0	1	0	2
Horizontal (HC-led)	2	1	0	0	0	3
Horizontal (OGD-led)	2	1	0	2	1	6
Total	8	6	5	8	2	29

Table 2 – Coverage of Direct Program Spending

Program	Evaluations planned in the next five years	Fiscal year of approval	2022-23 spending covered by evaluation ($)Footnote 1	Rationale for not evaluating program or spending
Core Responsibility	Health Care Systems ($2,347,462,519)
Health Care Systems Analysis and Policy ($121,216,132)	Health Care Policy and Strategies Program	2023-24	$92,366,132
	Chemicals Management Plan	2023-24	$50,000
	Addressing Racism and Discrimination in Canada's Health Systems Program	N/A	$4,300,000	The timing for the evaluation will be determined during the development of a future Departmental Evaluation Plan.
	COVID-19 Safe Restart Agreements Program	N/A	$22,500,000	The timing for the evaluation will be determined during the development of a future Departmental Evaluation Plan.
	Innovations Solutions Canada	N/A	$2,000,000	Innovative Solutions Canada is a horizontal Government of Canada initiative, coordinated by Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada. The timing for the evaluation will be determined during the development of a future Departmental Evaluation Plan.
Access, Affordability, and Appropriate Use of Drugs and Medical Devices ($44,991,502)	Pan-Canadian Health Organizations	2023-24	$31,284,352
	Improving Affordable Access to Prescription Drugs Program	N/A	$13,707,150	This is time limited funding (August 2021 – March 2025) and is essentially money transferred to the provinces for an area that is under their jurisdiction and for which Health Canada has no decision-making role.
Home, Community and Palliative Care ($1,203,561,295)	Home Care and Mental Health Services Initiative	N/A	$1,203,561,295	This funding is essentially a transfer of funds to the provinces and we do not typically evaluate such transfers. Furthermore, as per the various funding agreements, the provinces have committed to conducting evaluations to demonstrate the impact of this funding. In addition, the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) reports annually on common indicators for these arrangements and this reporting will be addressed during the Pan Canadian Health Organization evaluation as CIHI is a funding recipient under this Program.
Mental Health ($628,770,429)	Health Care Policy and Strategies Program	2023-24	$7,767,333
	Pan-Canadian Health Organizations	2023-24	$14,250,000
	Home Care and Mental Health Services Initiative	N/A	$606,753,096	This funding is essentially a transfer of funds to the provinces and we do not typically evaluate such transfers. Furthermore, as per the various funding agreements, the provinces have committed to conducting evaluations to demonstrate the impact of this funding. In addition, CIHI reports annually on common indicators for these arrangements and this reporting will be addressed during the Pan Canadian Health Organization evaluation as CIHI is a funding recipient under this Program.
Digital Health ($47,800,000)	Pan-Canadian Health Organizations	2023-24	$47,800,000
Health Information ($98,924,479)	Pan-Canadian Health Organizations	2023-24	$98,924,479
Canada Health Act ($1,659,838)	Canada Health Act Administration	N/A	$1,659,838	HC’s activities have focused on the administration of the Act, such as monitoring for compliance. On an annual basis, the federal Minister of Health is required to report to Parliament on the administration and operation of the Canada Health Act, which provides good oversight on this activity.
Medical Assistance in Dying ($963,293)	Medical Assistance in Dying	N/A	$963,293	The potential for conducting an evaluation will continue to be examined in the future; however, parliamentary reporting requirements provide good oversight on this activity at this time. In addition, the materiality associated with this program is low
Cancer Control ($47,720,000)	Pan-Canadian Health Organizations	2023-24	$47,720,000
Patient Safety ($24,750,000)	Pan-Canadian Health Organizations	2023-24	$24,750,000
Blood Systems, Organs, Tissue and Transplantation ($9,880,000)	Blood Safety (Blood Research and Development Programs and PHAC Blood Safety Program)	2022-23	$5,000,000
	Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Program	2025-26	$4,880,000
Promoting Minority Official Languages in the Health Care Systems ($39,018,752)	Action Plan for Official Languages 2018-2023 Investing in our Future	2022-23	$39,018,752
Brain Research ($31,682,739)	Canadian Brian Research Fund Program	N/A	$31,682,739	This Program is sunsetting - end date March 31, 2024 and most recent evaluation was just completed in 2021-22.
Thalidomide ($19,524,060)	Canadian Thalidomide Survivors Support Program	2024-25	$19,524,060
Territorial Health Information Fund ($27,000,000)	Territorial Health Information Fund	2023-24	$27,000,000
Core Responsibility	Health Protection and Promotion ($666,551,207)
Pharmaceutical Drugs ($59,753,098)	Pharmaceutical Drugs Program – Human and Veterinary Drugs	2023-24	$59,017,098
	ROEB Occupational Health and Safety Program for Inspections and Other Field Activities	2024-25	$736,000
Biologics and Radiopharmaceutical Drugs ($42,927,673)	Biologics and Radiopharmaceutical Drugs	2025-26	$42,927,673
Medical Devices ($16,282,151)	Medical Devices Program	2025-26	$16,282,151
Natural Health Products ($18,629,768)	Natural Health Products Program	2026-27	$18,629,768
Food Safety and Nutrition ($64,130,720)	Impact Assessment and Regulatory Processes (IARP) Horizontal Initiative	2022-23	$5,469,106
	Food & Nutrition Program - Nutrition Policy	2022-23	$4,996,424
	Food and Nutrition Program – Food Safety and Veterinary Drugs	2024-25	$53,665,190
Air Quality ($20,245,530)	Addressing Air Pollution Horizontal Initiative	2025-26	$20,245,530
Climate Change ($2,908,975)	Climate Change and Health Adaptation Program	2025-26	$2,908,975
	Adapting to Impacts of Climate Change (Roll-up of Departmental evaluations)	2026-27	$0
Water Quality ($2,657,400)	Chemicals Management Plan	2023-24	$2,657,400
Health Impacts of Chemicals ($69,963,980)	Impact Assessment and Regulatory Processes (IARP) Horizontal Initiative	2022-23	$4,976,246
	Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan: Phase IV	2023-24	$1,657,441
	Chemicals Management Plan	2023-24	$62,699,024
	Genomics Research and Development Initiative	2025-26	$631,269
Consumer Product Safety ($32,481,551)	Consumer Product Safety	2022-23	$32,481,551
Workplace Hazardous Products ($3,860,521)	Workplace Hazardous Products	2025-26	$3,860,521
Tobacco Control (including vaping) ($30,727,026)	Health Portfolio's Tobacco and Vaping Activities	2025-26	$30,727,026
Controlled Substances ($203,791,295)	Canadian Drugs and Substance Strategy (including Opioids and drug overdose crisis in Canada)	2022-23	$203,791,295
Cannabis ($14,777,829)	Horizontal Evaluation of the Legislation and Regulation of Cannabis	2022-23	$14,777,829
Radiation Protection $16,032,462)	Radiation Protection Activities	2024-25	$16,032,462
Pesticides ($46,824,077)	Pesticides Program	2024-25	$46,824,077
Specialized Health Services and Internationally Protected Persons Program ($20,557,151)	Specialized Health Services	N/A	$20,557,151	No requirement to inform major policy or spending decisions. Low enterprise risk.
Footnotes Footnote 1 To obtain detailed estimates on program budgets, annual data for 2022-23 is presented. This financial data was extracted by the Chief Financial Officer Branch on February 17, 2022. As a result, these budget figures may not fully align with those contained in other corporate reporting documents such as the Departmental Plan, the Departmental Results Report or the Three-Year Transfer Payment Program Plan. Return to footnote 1 referrer