Coordinates a variety of services in support of the Minister of Health and the Chief Public Health Officer. The Secretariat also coordinates Access to Information requests, provides secretariat support to Agency governance and advisory committees, and manages cross-Agency projects.

The Office of Public Health Practice supports and improves key areas that help ensure effective public health practice. This includes improving the Agency’s workforce and information and knowledge systems, as well as public health law and information policy.

• Skills Enhancement for Public Health
• Canadian Field Epidemiology Program
• Workforce Development
• ES Development Program
• National Collaborating Centres
• Information Sharing Practices
• Public Health Law
• Public Health GIS (Geographic Information Systems)
• Canadian Integrated Public Health Surveillance (CIPHS)
• Surveillance Standards
• Data Coordination and Access Program (DCAP)
• Health Surveillance Coordination
• Policy Research Unit
  • Economic Burden of Illness in Canada
  • Population Health Impact of Disease in Canada (PHI)

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Carry out the Agency's mandate through such activities as program delivery, research and knowledge development, policy analysis and development, community capacity building, and public and professional education. The six Regions in which the Agency’s offices are located are:

• Atlantic
• Quebec
• Ontario & Nunavut
• Manitoba and Saskatchewan
• Alberta & Northwest Territories
• British Columbia & Yukon

Provides the Minister of Health, the Chief Public Health Officer, and Agency staff with strategic policy direction and advice on public health issues. To do this, the Directorate:

• Gathers, synthesizes and analyses policy information;
• Creates and cultivates partnerships; and
• Provides sound, evidence-based policy advice related to priorities and planning, intergovernmental and stakeholder policy, international public health and policy research.

Provides day-to-day issues management as well as strategic communications planning and advice to the Minister of Health, Chief Public Health Officer and Agency staff. Among its activities, the Directorate:

• Plans and supports events for the Minister of Health and the Chief Public Health Officer;
• Provides media relations services and manages public relations activities; 
• Manages risk- and crisis communications, to prepare for and respond to public health crises;
• Promotes the Agency through a variety of communications tools and activities (e.g., exhibits, website, outreach, publications); and
• Uses social marketing and public education to understand/change unhealthy behaviours.

Provides human resources services and develops HR policies, programs and tools to help managers and employees at all levels contribute to the Agency's vision, mission and mandate.

Provides corporate support associated with information management and project management relating to the delivery of information services. IMIT also provides information on product development, and local network and desktop support services.

Provides a wide range of Agency administrative services, including, accommodations, business continuity planning, security, occupational health and safety, project management, environmental management, sustainable development, and assets and materiel management.

Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention provides leadership in health promotion and undertakes programs designed to help Canadians stay healthy, reduce their risks for developing chronic illnesses, and prevent disease progression for those living with chronic diseases.

Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention includes four centres and one directorate:

• Centre for Health Promotion
• Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control
• Centre for Grants and Contributions and Program Evaluation
• Strategic Initiatives and Innovations Directorate
• World Health Organization Centre on Chronic, Non-communicable, Disease Policy

Centre for Health Promotion

This Centre promotes health and well-being by influencing and enabling communities and Canadians to increase control over their health and the factors that determine health through leadership, collaboration, innovation and action.

The Centre undertakes activities to support the achievement of the following:

• Better health for Canadians;
• Reduced health inequalities between Canadians;
• Increased knowledge to help people increase control over their health and the factors that determine health;
• Public policy that considers public health;
• Effective public health interventions; and
• Supportive environments that promote and encourage good health.

The Centre's four divisions focus on specific areas:

• The Division of Childhood and Adolescence uses strategic investments and develops practical knowledge and tools to help professionals, parents and caregivers make informed decisions to improve child and youth health and address health disparities.

• The Division of Aging and Seniors provides federal leadership on health issues for seniors and the aging population through its work on age-friendly communities, emergency preparedness and seniors, seniors' fall prevention, and seniors' mental health.

• The Healthy Communities Division promotes the health of communities through the prevention of family violence and the promotion of mental health and healthy living.
  • Integrated Pan-Canadian Healthy Living Strategy
  • Mental Health
  • National Clearinghouse on Family Violence
  • Healthy Living Unit
• The Health Surveillance and Epidemiology Division provides timely and quality health information, both nationally and internationally, on injury and child maltreatment, and infant and maternal health in order to support the development of guidelines, policies and programs based on research evidence.
• The Office of the Voluntary Sector

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Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control

The Agency’s approach to chronic disease prevention and control addresses two areas:

• The risk factors shared by many chronic diseases (e.g., physical inactivity and unhealthy eating); and
• The unique features of major diseases affecting Canadians (e.g., cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory disease).

To achieve its goals, the Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control focuses on the following key areas:

• Tracking chronic disease trends to support public health action;
• Understanding the factors that influence increasing rates of chronic disease;
• Identifying and promoting effective chronic disease prevention programs; and
• Supporting the development of standards, guidelines and tools to put chronic disease prevention into practice.

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Centre for Grants and Contributions and Program Evaluation

This Centre provides corporate services in two main areas:

• The management of grants and contributions, as well as the administration of 15 funding programs; and
• Oversight and advice on the design, development and implementation of systems and evaluations that monitor the performance of the Agency’s programs, policies and initiatives.

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Strategic Initiatives and Innovations Directorate

This Directorate:

• Provides leadership and expertise to assess and influence the underlying global and national factors that impact the health of Canadians (known as determinants of health), including economic and environmental determinants;
• Collaborates with its partners in the Government of Canada’s Health Portfolio to develop comprehensive, innovative approaches to key emerging and cross-cutting public health issues, such as obesity; and
• Engages and supports other sectors and levels of government in developing public policy that considers health.

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World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre on Chronic, Non-communicable Disease Policy

Housed at the Agency, the WHO Collaborating Centre on Chronic, Non-communicable Disease Policy is the only collaborating centre of its kind in the Americas and Europe. In this role, the Centre:

• Is a global centre of excellence in the analysis of chronic disease (e.g., cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease), policy development and implementation; and
• Co-leads, along with the Pan American Health Organization, in the development of the Chronic Non-Communicable Disease Policy Observatory, whose aims are to:
• Support more effective non-communicable disease-related policy development and implementation; and  
• Create strong international and multi-sectoral collaboration on policy development for non-communicable diseases.

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This Centre has four key objectives:

• Prevent, reduce or eliminate vaccine-preventable and infectious respiratory diseases;
• Reduce the negative impact of emerging and re-emerging respiratory infections;
• Facilitate pandemic preparedness and response activities on behalf of the Government of Canada; and
• Maintain public and professional confidence in immunization programs in Canada.

To achieve these objectives, the Centre undertakes four main activities:

• Nationally coordinated surveillance, epidemiology, and research for vaccine-preventable and respiratory infectious diseases;
• Implementation of the National Immunization Strategy, including immunization registry development, national goals and objectives for vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine supply, vaccine safety, public and professional education;
• Enhancing preparedness, national and international collaboration for disease prevention and control; and
• Developing guidelines and protocols for disease prevention and control.

This Centre has two main goals:

• Decrease the incidence and transmission of communicable diseases and infections; and
• Improve the health status of those already infected, with a focus on specific populations (e.g., Aboriginals, seniors, children, immigrants and travellers, healthcare patients).

To achieve these goals, the Centre undertakes targeted prevention, control, support and research activities for communicable diseases and infections that can be acquired within both the community and health-care settings.

Key activities include:

• Developing and implementing HIV/AIDS programs and policies, such as the Federal Initiative to Address HIV/AIDS in Canada;
  • Surveillance and Risk Assessment
  • National HIV and Retrovirology Laboratories
  • National Laboratory for HIV Immunology
• Providing information, capacity and support to address community-acquired infections such as Hepatitis C, sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis;
• Undertaking ongoing surveillance, risk assessments and targeted research related to healthcare-associated infections and blood safety; and
• Undertaking ongoing surveillance (e.g., National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System) to monitor trends in communicable diseases across Canada.

The activities are realized through the following public health actions:

• Risk assessment / management;
• Research, including laboratory science;
• Health promotion, public health policy development, and
• Prevention and care programs. 

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This Centre is a leader in the areas of animal-to-human disease transmission, epidemiology, surveillance, disease outbreak management, and emerging environmental public health issues.  

The Centre's primary goals are to assess and reduce the risk of food-borne, water-borne, environmental and zoonotic disease in Canada. To help achieve these goals, the Centre works to better understand how Canadians are affected by diseases such as Avian Influenza, West Nile Virus and Giardiasis.

The Centre’s key activities include:

• Conducting national surveillance on gastrointestinal and zoonotic diseases;
• Undertaking targeted research projects; and
• Managing Canada’s national and international response to food and water-borne disease outbreaks.

The Centre also works with international public health organizations such as the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization on emerging global food-borne, environmental and zoonotic infectious diseases.

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The goals of this Centre are to maintain the safety and national health security of Canadians through emergency preparedness and response, and through protection from all hazards, including natural and human-caused disasters.

To achieve these goals, the Centre undertakes three key activities:

• Provides national leadership and coordination for public health emergencies, in collaboration with other federal departments and agencies, and with provinces, territories and municipal officials; 
• Provides support and coordination, through the Government of Canada’s Health Portfolio Operations Centre, for preparing for and responding to national and international health events; and
• Initiates and participates in emergency management exercises, within Canada and internationally.

To strengthen its leadership during national and international health events, the Centre is working towards a 24-hour/7-day operational capacity for Canada’s Health Portfolio Operations Centre,which will complement its 24/7 global health event monitoring through the Global Public Health Intelligence Network and analysis conducted by the Centre’s Risk Assessment Unit. 

In addition to these duties, the Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response is also leading the implementation of the International Health Regulations and preparations for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

• Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response (CEPR)
  • Office of Emergency Preparedness
  • Office of Emergency Services
  • Office of Laboratory Security
  • Office of Public Health Security
  • Quarantine, Travel Medicine and Migration Health Programs

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This Lab, located in Guelph, Ontario with satellite facilities in Lethbridge, Alberta and St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, focuses on the early mitigation of public health risks for infectious and chronic diseases and illnesses arising from the interaction between humans, animals, and the environment. To achieve its goals, the Lab:

• Collaborates with universities, federal/provincial/territorial governments, public health partners, industry stakeholders and international organizations; and
• Develops and uses innovative tools and applications to create science-based information and advice.

The Lab’s key activities include:

• Research;
• Reference services;
• Surveillance of diseases and illnesses resulting from the interaction between humans, animals, and the environment; and the
• Provision of scientific and policy advice through risk analysis, modelling, knowledge translation and policy assessment.

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The goal of this Lab, located in Winnipeg, Manitoba is to contribute to infectious disease control at the provincial/territorial, national and international levels. To achieve this goal, the Lab:

• Combines four public health service laboratory programs;
• Undertakes research on established, emerging and rare pathogens; and
• Provides internationally recognized leadership, scientific excellence and public health innovation.

The Lab’s key activities include:

• Surveillance for infectious diseases;
• Reference microbiology and quality assurance;
• Preparedness and response to biological threats; and
• Applied and fundamental research.

The Lab’s programs focus on:

• Bacteriology and enterics, such as E.Coli, Salmonella;
• Prion diseases, such as Creutzfeld-Jakob disease;
• Viral diseases, such as Hepatitis, measles;
• Zoonotic diseases, such as West Nile Virus; and
• Special pathogens, including Level 4 agents such as Ebola, Marbug, Lassa fever.

The National Microbiology Lab also:

• Houses Canada's only operational Containment Level 4 laboratory, a state-of-the-art facility capable of accommodating the study of infectious diseases in both humans and animals at the highest level of bio-containment; and
• Operates a mobile lab unit that can be deployed to provide emergency field support anywhere in the world.

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The goal of this Directorate is to provide support and direction to the Infectious Disease and Emergency Preparedness Branch while ensuring policy coherence and consistency, standardization, and coordination across the Branch’s Centres and labs.