Archived Table of Contents for Ministerial Transition Materials

Notice : Information was severed in accordance with the Access to Information Act.

An Overview of the Health Portfolio - Ministerial Briefing Volume I

Table of Contents

• A. An overview of the Health Portfolio and your new responsibilities
• B. An overview of the organizations that you oversee
  • 1. Health Canada
  • 2. Public Health Agency of Canada
  • 3. Canadian Food Inspection Agency
  • 4. Canadian Institutes of Health Research
  • 5. Patented Medicine Prices Review Board
  
  NB: More detailed information on each of these organizations can be found in Volume V.
• C. Decision-making in the Health Portfolio
  • 6. Overview of legislative and regulatory responsibilities
  • 7. Overview of Health Portfolio legislation
• D. Relationships with the provinces and territories
  • 8. An overview of the federal-provincial/territorial environment
  • 9. List of provincial and territorial Ministers of Health
• E. Relationships with critical health players
  • 10. An overview of pan-Canadian Health Organizations
  • 11. An overview of other important players in Canada's health landscape
  • 12. List of other key players
• F. Relationships with the international community
  • 13. An overview of the Minister's role in the international health community
  • 14. List of international partners for Ministerial engagement and upcoming international events

Hot Issues - Ministerial Briefing Volume II

Table of Contents

• A. Hot Issues for Immediate Decision or Attention
   
  Decision
  • 1. External panel on options for a legislative response to Carter vs. Canada (Physician Assisted Dying)
  • 2. Supervised Consumption Sites
  • 3. Canada Health Act - key current compliance issues
  • 4. Apotex litigation
  • 5. Expiry of the order - Minimizing the Risk of Exposure to Ebola Virus Disease in Canada
  • 6. Federal Framework for Suicide Prevention (legislated)
  • 7. Items approved through Budget 2015 that require Treasury Board approval
  • 8. Bringing the Safe Foods for Canadians Act into force
  • 9. Canadian Food Safety Information Network
  • 10. Decision on Lyme Disease Conference (legislated)
  • 11.
  • 12. Tlicho Funding Agreement (Northwest Territories)
  • 13. Canada First Research Excellence Fund - authority to access funding
  
  Attention
  • 14. Marijuana for medical purposes
  • 15. Review access to Naloxone in Canada
  • 16. Pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance (PCPA)
  • 17. Office of the Auditor General Fall 2015 Report - Study/Audit of Services to First Nations
• Other Hot Issues
   
  Regulatory Issues
  • 18. E-cigarettes / vaping
  • 19. Chemicals Management Plan
  • 20. Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., and the medicine Soliris
  • 21. Impact of Neonicotinoid pesticides on bees
  • 22.
  • 23. Legislative amendments to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA)
  • 24. Draft tamper-resistant properties for drug regulations
  • 25. Nutrition labelling
  • 26.
  • 27. Drug shortages regulations
  • 28. Protecting Canadians from Unsafe Drugs Act (Vanessa's Law) Regulations
  • 29.
  • 30. Regulation of Genetically Modified (GM) animals and foods
  • 31. Federal Tobacco Control Strategy
  • 32. Flavoured tobacco products
  • 33. Health Warning Messages on tobacco products
  • 34. Compliance and enforcement modernization (Inspection Review)
  • 35. Daime tea
  • 36. Asbestos
  • 37. Commercial cultivation of opium poppy
  • 38. Regulating APAAN (a powder used in the production of methamphetamines)
  • 39. Lead and Cadmium
  • 40. Canadian Food Inspection Agency: Service delivery and user fees
  • 41. Pesticide cost recovery
  • 42. Potable Water on Board Trains, Vessels, Aircraft and Buses Regulations
  • 43. Regulatory Transparency and Openness Framework
  • 44. Effective measures of a food safety system
  • 45. Product recalls
  
  Stakeholder Issues
  • 46. Compensation to victims of Thalidomide
  • 47. Dementia
  • 48. Fall 2015 Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development - Audit of Health Canada's pesticide program
  • 49. Safety Code 6
  • 50. Wind turbine noise and health
  • 51. Commissioner of Official Languages - Report on the Canadian Institutes of Health Research's (CIHR) support to Official Language Minority Communities
  
  Policy/program Issues
  • 52. Renewal of the mandate of the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC)
  • 53. Post-Ebola actions: Review of the International Health Regulations and G7 leaders Commitment
  • 54. Antimicrobial Resistance
  • 55. Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) -- Compensation regime for additional costs of drugs for provinces and territories
  • 56. United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem 2016 (UNGASS)
  • 57. Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative (CHVI)
  
  Aboriginal Issues
  • 58. Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) recommendations
  • 59. Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women
  • 60. Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) - Assembly of First Nations joint review
  • 61. Statement of principles on a tripartite process to transfer health services to First Nations in Manitoba
• C. Active Litigation
• D. Reports to be Tabled in Parliament
• E. Appointments

Platform Analysis - Ministerial Briefing Volume III

Table of Contents

• A. New Health Accord
  • 1. Health Accord Overview
  • 2. Home care availability
  • 3. Prescription drug access and cost reduction
  • 4. Mental health care availability
  • 5. Pan-Canadian Collaboration on health innovation
• B. Marijuana
  • 6. Legalization, regulation and access restriction
• C. Healthier Kids
  • 7. Better food Choices
  • 8. National strategy on vaccination and concussions
  • 9. Plain packaging of tobacco products
• D. Food Safety
  • 10. Enhanced inspections of domestic and imported foods
• E. First Nations
  • 11. Nation-to-nation process, fiscal relationship and Truth and Reconciliation Commission
• F. Blood Safety
  • 12. Ending blood donation ban on MSM (men who have sex with men)
• G. Reference Documents
  • 13. Liberal platform: A New Plan for a Strong Middle Class
  • 14. Backgrounder: Investing in health and home care
  • 15. Letter to Canada's Premiers
  • 16. Letter to the Premier of Quebec

Strategic Advice - Options - Ministerial Briefing Volume IV

Table of Contents

• A. Towards a New Health Accord
  • 1. Understanding the stat of Canada's health care system: a diagnostic on performance, gaps and challenges in the system
  • 2. Overview of a new health accord: key elements and proposed approach
  • 3. Advancing a new health accord
    • a.
    • b.
    • c.
    • d.
  • 4. Putting the new health accord into action:
    • e. Engaging with provinces, territories and First Nations: an overall strategy for engaging with provinces, territories and First Nations to advance a health accord
    •  f.
    • g. Moving forward with a new health accord: a critical path of key milestones in the development of a new health accord.
•  B.
  • 5.
  • 6. 
  • 7. 
  • 8. 
  • 9. 
  • 10. 
  • 11. Advancing Canadian health priorities internationally: leveraging opportunities to engage internationally to advance priorities

Background on Health Portfolio Organizations - Ministerial Briefing Volume V

Table of Contents

• A. List of Key Contacts in the Health Portfolio
• B. Details on each Health Portfolio organization
   
  Health Canada
  • 1. Health Products and Food Branch
  • 2. Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch
  • 3. Pest Management Regulatory Agency
  • 4. First Nations and Inuit Health Branch
  • 5. Strategic Policy Branch
  • 6. Regions and Programs Bureau
  • 7. Legal Services
  • 8. Chief Financial Officer Branch
  • 9. Communications and Public Affairs Branch
  • 10. Corporate Services Branch
  
  Public Health Agency of Canada
  • 11. Infectious Diseases Prevention and Control Branch
  • 12. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Branch
  • 13. Health Security Infrastructure Branch
  • 14. Strategic Policy, Planning, and International Affairs Branch
  • 15. Office of International Affairs
  • 16. Audit and Evaluation Functions
  
  Canadian Food Inspection Agency
  • 17. Canadian Food Inspection Agency Branches
  
  Canadian Institutes of Health Research
  • 18. Canadian Institutes of Health Research Overview
• C. Health Portfolio Financials
• D. List of Acronyms

Background on Government and Portfolio Processes - Ministerial Briefing Volume VI

Table of Contents

Government-wide Processes

• A. Government-wide Decision-Making (Cabinet Process)
  Description of the Cabinet process (Cabinet Committees, Memoranda to Cabinet, Records of Decision, etc.)
• B. Parliamentary Process
  Description of the legislative and parliamentary process (Question Period, Parliamentary Committees, etc.)
• C. Overview of Legislative Instruments
  Description of the types of legislative instruments that a Minister has at his/her disposal to make policy changes and their intended objectives
• D. Overview of Regulatory Development Process
  Description of the steps in the highly-structured federal regulatory process (e.g., consultations, drafting, Treasury Board decisions, publications in Canada Gazette)
• E. Financial Management
  Description of the steps in the government expenditure cycle, the Minister's role (i.e., Main Estimates appearance) and how funding flows to departments

Portfolio Processes

The tabs in the section below provide an overview of how key areas under the Health Portfolio's responsibility operate in practice

• F. How approvals & oversight work for key products
  Overview of how Health Canada's regulatory review and approvals process works for the product lines below
  • 1. Drugs
  • 2. Medical Devices
  • 3. Natural Health Products
  • 4. Over the Counter drugs
  • 5. Vaccines
  • 6. Consumer Products
  • 7. Pesticides
• G. Canada's Food Safety System
  Overview of Canada's food safety system and how the CFIA manages the food recall process
• H. Risk Communications
  Description of risk communications for health advisories and warnings, along with a description of the process within the department
• I. Canada's Health Care System
  • 8. Canada's health care system:
    Description of Canada's health care system and the role of the federal government vis-à-vis provinces and territories
  • 9. Administration of the Canada Health Act
    Description of Health Canada's role in administering the Canada Health Act and the ways that a Minister can intervene when there are violations
  • 10. How the Canada Health Transfer system works
    Description of the Canada Health Transfer payment structure and how payments are made as well as the role of Health Canada vis-à-vis Finance
• J. Health System for Aboriginal Canadians
  Overview of how health delivery is managed for Aboriginal Canadians (i.e., role of federal government vis-à-vis the provinces and territories)
• K. Public Health
  • 11. Public health system
    Description of Canada's public health system (i.e., role of the federal government vis-à-vis the provinces and territories, and other stakeholders)
  • 12. Emergency Preparedness and Response (infectious disease and food-borne illness outbreaks)
    Overview of what PHAC does when there is an infectious disease or food-borne illness outbreak
• L. Health Portfolio Operations
  • 13. Access to Information (ATI)
    Description of the government's ATI process - specifically for the Health Portfolio
  • 14. Grants and Contributions (G&Cs)
    Description of the process for initiating and approving G&Cs programs, as well as reviewing and making decisions about submissions