Program directory · Public Health Agency of Canada

Emergency Preparedness and Response

Department: Public Health Agency of Canada
Program code: BVR01 (PHAC)
Core responsibility: Health Security
In Departmental Plans: 2018-19 – 2026-27 · New since an earlier plan

What it does

The Program supports broader Government of Canada emergency management responsibilities and sustaining Canada’s broader capacity to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies. The Program supports domestic (provincial, territorial and other government department) obligations and international activities for public health emergencies, such as infectious disease outbreaks, pandemics, extreme weather events, and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) events. Program actions include:

• Preparedness activities to ensure readiness to respond to public health emergencies,

• Event-based surveillance to detect potential emerging public health emergencies,

• Facilitating access to surge supports of niche medical countermeasures and other medical assets, upon request,

• Supporting workforce development and surge personnel deployment, including training, and Leading and coordinating Federal responses to public health emergencies.

Source: the department's Program Inventory, via GC InfoBase.

History and lineage

First appears in GC InfoBase's actual spending by program in 2018-19. The data does not record when a program was created; it may be older than its first appearance here, which is limited by the sources (program spending starts in 2010-11, Departmental Plans in 2018-19).

Bars: spending by fiscal year (dark: actual; light: actual restated on the 2017-18 program structure; outlined: the latest plan's forecast; grey: related programs). Bands: each program in the lineage over the years it has data.

Program	Relation	Years with data	Actual spending over those years
Emergency Preparedness and Response	This program	2018-19 – 2028-29	$6.49B

No earlier or later program in the same department has a similar name.

Significant changes in scope and budget

Detected from the data: renames between plans, programs it appears to replace, merge with or split into (matched by name), year-over-year changes in spending of at least 25% and $5M, or in employees of at least 20% and 25 FTEs, linked budget measures, and results indicators added or dropped.

Year	What changed	Source
2019-20	Spending $229M, against $40.3M in 2018-19 (+468%).	Actual spending (GC InfoBase)
2020-21	Employees (FTEs) 381, against 239 in 2019-20 (+59%).	FTEs (GC InfoBase)
2020-21	Spending $4.3B, against $229M in 2019-20 (+1774%).	Actual spending (GC InfoBase)
2021-22	Spending $976M, against $4.3B in 2020-21 (−77%).	Actual spending (GC InfoBase)
2022-23	Indicators added: % of provincial and territorial requests for assistance (for deployment of Agency staff) responded to within negotiated timelines; % of provincial and territorial requests for assistance (for inter-jurisdictional mutual aid for health care professionals) responded to within negotiated timelines; % of provincial and territorial requests for assistance (for the provision of supplies) responded to within negotiated timelines	Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase)
2022-23	Indicators dropped: % of provincial and territorial requests for assistance responded to within negotiated timelines	Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase)
2022-23	Spending $420M, against $976M in 2021-22 (−57%).	Actual spending (GC InfoBase)
2023-24	Spending $284M, against $420M in 2022-23 (−32%).	Actual spending (GC InfoBase)
2025-26	Planned employees (FTEs) 315, against 414 in 2024-25 (−24%).	FTEs (GC InfoBase)
2026-27	Indicators added: % of provincial and territorial requests for assistance responded to within negotiated timelines	Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase)
2026-27	Indicators dropped: % of provincial and territorial requests for assistance (for deployment of Agency staff) responded to within negotiated timelines; % of provincial and territorial requests for assistance (for inter-jurisdictional mutual aid for health care professionals) responded to within negotiated timelines; % of provincial and territorial requests for assistance (for the provision of supplies) responded to within negotiated timelines	Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase)
2027-28	Planned employees (FTEs) 192, against 307 in 2026-27 (−37%).	FTEs (GC InfoBase)
2027-28	Planned spending $141M, against $216M in 2026-27 (−35%).	Latest Departmental Plan

Success criteria

The program's indicators from its department's Departmental Results Framework: the target set in each year's plan, and the result reported the following year. Source: GC InfoBase.