Health Canada
What Health Canada spent in fiscal year 2025-26: its net expenditure by standard object, from the Public Accounts of Canada, Volume II.
Reports through Health; the overview shows it in that ministry.
What Health Canada does
Health Canada is the federal department responsible for protecting and improving the health of Canadians. It develops health policy, regulates pharmaceuticals and medical devices, enforces food safety standards, and funds public health programs, working with provinces and territories to support the health-care system. Through the Public Health Agency of Canada it monitors health risks and manages disease outbreaks, and it funds medical research through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Spending, 2025-26
Net spending, 2025-26
$11.5B
spent by Health Canada, less revenues it kept
Share, 2025-26
2.4%
of the net spending of every federal organization
How did Health Canada spend its budget in 2025-26?
By standard object. Revenues it kept are negative and netted against its spending. Transfer payments are broken into their largest named programs.
Spending by standard object, 2025-26
Transfer payments
Personnel
Professional and special services
Acquisition of machinery and equipment
Rentals
Information
Utilities, materials and supplies
Repair and maintenance
Transportation and communications
Other subsidies and payments
Acquisition of land, buildings and works
Internal revenues
External revenues
$9.98B
$1.21B
$383M
$33.7M
$31.9M
$27.5M
$24M
$18.4M
$8.9M
$6.2M
$3.2M
-$30.8M
-$242M
Total: $11.5B.
Workforce, 2025-26
Personnel spending
$1.21B
salaries, wages and benefits (the personnel standard object)
A full-time equivalent is a measure of employment, not a headcount: two half-time employees are one FTE. Personnel spending includes benefits and pension contributions, so per FTE it is not an average salary.
Transfer payment programs, 2025-26
The grants, contributions and other transfers Health Canada paid, program by program: $9.98B in all, against $9.98B for the transfer payments object above (the Public Accounts publish the two tables separately).
| Dental benefits in relation to the Canadian Dental Care PlanPayments | Other transfer | $4,186,253,708 |
| Contributions to Provinces and Territories for Shared Health PrioritiesPayments | Other transfer | $2,626,019,271 |
| Payments to provinces and territories for the Purpose of Home Care and Mental HealthPayments | Other transfer | $1,800,312,300 |
| National Strategy for Drugs for Rare Diseases ProgramPayments | Contribution | $472,933,889 |
| Substance Use and Addictions ProgramPayments | Contribution | $153,625,220 |
| Contribution to the Canadian Institute for Health InformationPayments | Contribution | $127,158,979 |
| Health Care Policy and Strategies ProgramPayments | Contribution | $125,969,328 |
| Payments to provinces and territories to increase existing public pharmacare coverage and to provide coverage for specific prescription drugs and related products under section 6 of the Pharmacare ActPayments | Other transfer | $76,711,630 |
| Contribution to Canada Health InfowayPayments | Contribution | $67,169,078 |
| Contribution to the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in HealthPayments | Contribution | $54,545,678 |
| Contribution to the Canadian Partnership Against CancerPayments | Contribution | $49,550,000 |
| Official Languages Health ProgramPayments | Contribution | $40,624,999 |
| Territorial Health Investment FundPayments | Grant | $35,000,000 |
| Canada Brain Research Fund ProgramPayments | Contribution | $28,393,089 |
| Contribution Funding to Improve Health Care Quality and Patient SafetyPayments | Contribution | $25,100,000 |
| 26 programs | $9,980,809,354 | |
Contracts of $10,000 and under
Contracts this small are not published one by one: Treasury Board publishes each organization's totals, by calendar year, for contracts of $10,000 and under (their original value and their amendments) and for acquisition card purchases. They are the value of contracts entered into, not what was paid in a fiscal year, so they are not part of the net expenditure above, and the years are calendar years.
| Calendar year | Goods | Services | Construction | Acquisition cards | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $1,586,257 | $20,449,048 | $125,858 | $18,984,141 | $41,145,303 |
| 2024 | $1,719,703 | $18,592,277 | $140,086 | $22,588,626 | $43,040,692 |
| 2023 | $1,997,536 | $20,493,984 | $93,693 | $22,063,894 | $44,649,107 |
| 2022 | $2,898,595 | $22,712,290 | $220,940 | $18,278,759 | $44,110,583 |
| 2021 | $2,863,373 | $22,640,125 | $178,266 | $19,331,865 | $45,013,628 |
| 2020 | $2,692,383 | $17,778,158 | $180,636 | $15,939,582 | $36,590,760 |
| 2019 | $3,177,607 | $18,384,951 | $284,518 | $21,476,980 | $43,324,056 |
| 2018 | $4,031,471 | $15,656,293 | $146,617 | $20,496,340 | $40,330,721 |
| 2017 | $7,443,507 | $16,874,799 | $180,043 | $26,977,714 | $51,476,062 |
Health Canada’s share of federal net spending
Other organizations in Health
Sources
- Public Accounts of Canada 2026, Volume II: Ministerial expenditures by standard object (Table 3)
- Public Accounts of Canada, Volume II: Transfer payments (multi-year open data)
- Proactive Publication - Contracts: Aggregated Total - Contracts $10K and under
Department figures are net expenditure (Public Accounts, Volume II), which doesn’t add up to the accrual expenses of the overview’s headline. See the methodology.
