Question Period Note: Long-Term Funding for the Public Health Agency of Canada

To enable Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Canada (GC) was required to make significant short-term investments to increase Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) capacity as the lead federal Agency in the COVID-19 response. Much of this investment has been short-term. A PHAC renewal exercise, which is already underway, will help inform longer-term financial needs.

Key Messages
• We recognize the importance of ensuring that the Public Health Agency of Canada has the resources required to sustain its pandemic operations and advance a broad range of public health issues.
• We are working to ensure that immediate resourcing needs are addressed, while also examining the level of resources needed over the long term.
• The Public Health Agency of Canada has already initiated an exercise that will help guide the longer-term financial needs of the Agency. It is focused on lessons learned and positioning the Agency for the future.
If pressed
• The government is investing significantly to ensure that PHAC has the immediate funding it needs to respond to the pandemic in the short-term.
• Many of these investments will continue to benefit Canadians into the future.

The majority of the COVID-19 investments are time limited and will end in March 2022. However, PHAC’s expanded role—and most of the new or enhanced activities—is likely to be needed for the foreseeable future. Several recent internal and external reviews have provided insights on activities that are essential undertakings of a highly effective public health agency.

Since the start of the pandemic, the Agency has assumed new functions to support Canada’s pandemic response, pushing it beyond its traditional mandate. While some of these new functions are time-limited, others will need to continue for the foreseeable future. PHAC will not be in a position to snap back to pre-pandemic operations, but will be poised to learn from the lessons of COVID-19.

Preparatory activity to support the renewal of the Agency has already begun. The PHAC renewal is a rigorous exercise that will identify current and future public health needs and priorities. It will also guide longer-term PHAC financial needs and funding requests. However, the renewal exercise will take time and will involve many stakeholders.

Long-term funding decisions for PHAC are anticipated to support the transformative change that many experts have called for, both before and during the pandemic. Long-term stable funding would enable PHAC to apply lessons from the pandemic, and tackle some long-standing issues, such as modernizing systems to improve data interoperability, negotiating stronger data sharing protocols with provinces and territories and strengthening the National Emergency Strategic Stockpile, among other priorities

Key Facts
• The Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) 2021-22 Main Estimates had a net increase of $8,109.3 million over the 2020-21 Main Estimates of $641.8 million. The main reasons for this increase were due to temporary funding to address the COVID-19 pandemic, including: for medical research and vaccine deployment; to acquire protective gear and medical equipment; surge capacity; medical countermeasures – biomanufacturing capacity; border and travel measures and isolation sites; and Sero-surveillance.