Public Health Agency of Canada
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC; French: Agence de la santé publique du Canada, ASPC) is an agency of the Government of Canada that is responsible for public health, emergency preparedness and response, and infectious and chronic disease control and prevention.
Not to be confused with Health Canada, the department of the federal government responsible for general health policy and regulation.Agency overview
2004
- Health Canada's Population and Public Health Branch
4,211 (March 2023)[1]
$675.4 million (2018–19)[2]
- Heather Jeffrey, President of the Public Health Agency of Canada
- Dr. Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer
- Dr. Howard Njoo, Deputy Chief Public Health Officer
- National Microbiology Laboratory, Centre for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control (CIDPC), Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response (CEPR), Laboratory for Foodborne Zoonoses (LFZ),Pandemic Preparedness Secretariat (PPS)Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Branch (HPCDP)
- Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control (CCDPC), Centre for Health Promotion (CHP), Transfer Payment Services and Accountability Division, Public Health Practice (PHPRO), Office of Public Health Practice (OPHP), Strategic Policy, Communications and Corporate Services Branch (SPCCS)
The president is a Governor in Council appointment for a term of five years.[30] While in early years of the PHAC the President of the organization was identical to the Chief Public Health Officer, who is required by law to be a scientist, the Harper government innovated to manage the organization via the more malleable civil service, and a split personality developed with the twin agencies of President and CPHO.
The post of President is presently held by Iain Stewart, who was appointed on 21 September 2020 to replace Tina Namiesniowski.[17] Vice-president of the Health Security Infrastructure Branch Sally Thornton[31] was also dismissed on 15 September in the midst of controversy over the disbandment of the GPHIN system.[32]
The chief public health officer (CPHO) is Canada's lead health professional. The CPHO is also a Governor-in-Council appointment whose role is to provide advice both to the Minister of Health and to the President of the PHAC. Dr. Theresa Tam was named CPHO on June 26, 2017.[33]
The Public Health Agency of Canada Act[34] empowers the CPHO to communicate with other levels of government, voluntary organizations, the private sector and Canadians on public health issues. Each year, the CPHO is required to submit a report to the Minister of Health on the state of public health in Canada.
The PHAC houses several bureaucrats:
Because the portfolio at the PHAC crosses so many boundaries, and especially jurisdictional ones, the civil servants have evolved what are known as Special Advisory Committees (SAC), which include Federal/Provincial/Territorial (FPT) officials such as deputy ministers of health, so as to attempt to ensure a timely response to the needs of Canadians.
The Public Health Network Council (PHNC) is an FPT committee that is co-chaired by the deputy CPHO, Dr Howard Njoo. The PHNC is populated by an array of directors, deputies, chiefs, experts and coordinators, from far and wide the public health guardians of Canada.
The FPT SAC on Public Health Response Plan for Biological Events has been in place since at least October 2017:[9]