Public Health Agency of Canada’s 2025-26 Departmental Plan: Corporate Information
Mandate and Role
Information on PHAC's mandate and role is available on the Public Health Agency of Canada's website.
Raison d'être
Public health involves organized efforts to keep people healthy and to prevent illness, injury and premature death. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has put in place programs, services, and policies to help protect and promote the health of all Canadians and residents of Canada. In Canada, public health is a responsibility that is shared by all levels of government in collaboration with the private sector, non-governmental organizations, health professionals, and the public.
PHAC was created within the federal Health Portfolio to deliver on the Government of Canada's commitment to increase its focus on public health to help protect and improve the health and safety of all Canadians and strengthen public health capacities across Canada.
Operating context
PHAC operates in a complex, interconnected, and evolving environment where drivers such as social determinants of health, climate change, and advancements in technology affect the health of Canadians. PHAC continues to adapt its resources, such as human resources, skills, tools, processes, and partnerships, to maintain the capacity to rapidly and effectively prevent, detect, and respond to emerging global and domestic public health events and keep people across the country healthy and safe from emerging threats.
The health, social, and economic policies and well-being of Canada's population are deeply interconnected and there is tremendous complexity in mobilizing resources and responding to simultaneous global public health crises affecting all regions of Canada. The recent COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the importance of PHAC's role at the centre of federal public health response coordination.
Canada will continue to face some persistent public health challenges in the coming years. As the population lives longer, the rates of chronic diseases and conditions such as diabetes and dementia are increasing. Exacerbated by the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder continue to be of concern, with certain population groups being more vulnerable to mental health issues than others. Substance-related harms and deaths, especially related to opioids, remain significant, highlighting the necessity to address root causes, reduce stigma, and reduce the social and health harms of substance use.
Climate change also presents increased risks to the health status of Canadians, including heat exposure, poor air quality notably caused by wildfires, and the increasing spread of infectious and vector-borne diseases, like Lyme disease. PHAC is working to address these climate-related challenges at the population level while acknowledging that climate change-related emergencies will impact certain populations more than others.
As health inequities and inequalities persist and intensify further among segments of the Canadian population, northern, rural, and remote communities, low-income families, children living in conditions of risk, Indigenous Peoples, unemployed or underemployed adults, and older adults continue to experience poorer health outcomes than the average Canadian. In addition, immigration remains an important driver of Canada's population growth and refugees and migrants continue to be disproportionately vulnerable to public health challenges. Consequently, PHAC continues to consider and address these enduring inequalities in its work.
Technological innovation presents new opportunities and challenges in addressing public health priorities in Canada and worldwide. Timely and reliable data are essential to developing sound policies, ensuring effective programming, delivering accurate information to people in Canada, and supporting overall government priorities (for example, SGBA Plus, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals). PHAC works with stakeholders as part of its continued commitment to facilitate evidence-informed decision making in public health.
PHAC maintains its support to the Government of Canada in the implementation of public health measures based on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent other emerging threats and combat mis- and disinformation including on social media, which continues to be a direct contributor to the growing global and domestic concerns over vaccine hesitancy. This enduring spread of false information creates a barrier to managing the increasing rates of vaccine-preventable diseases among people in the country. Concurrently, Canadians are facing an increasing risk of antimicrobial resistance, which was identified by the World Health Organization as an important global concern. There is also a steady rise in sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections, such as HIV, hepatitis C, and syphilis, and PHAC is developing information for the public to advise on risks to help individuals protect themselves and their partners.
Public health is a shared responsibility in Canada, requiring coordination between the federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments and collaboration with Indigenous rights-holders and partners. By improving its understanding of the priorities, activities, and concerns of partners and stakeholders, PHAC adapts its programs, including those supported by grants and contributions, to respond to the diverse public health needs across Canada. PHAC's commitment to accountability, openness, and results helps promote important multi-sectoral collaborations and the solutions needed to help improve the health of people in Canada.