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About Health Canada

Atlantic Region

Our Vision

Atlantic Canadians working together for excellence in health.

Our Mission

To work with our partners and the public to maintain and improve the health and well-being of Atlantic Canadians.

Health Canada -- Atlantic Region

Health Canada maintains six regional operations coast to coast to optimize its services to Canadians. The Atlantic Region has approximately 275 employees working in all four Atlantic provinces to carry out the Department’s mission. Our offices are located in Halifax, Nova Scotia; Fredericton, New Brunswick; Moncton, New Brunswick; Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island; St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador; and Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Atlantic Region works toward maintaining and improving the health of Canadians through a broad range of Health Canada activities delivered through various branches and corporate service offices:

Regional Director General - Atlantic Region

The Regional Director General is Health Canada's senior representative in the Atlantic region. Responsibilities include ensuring departmental activities are consistent and coordinated across the region, and that programs complement one another and serve the needs of provincial partners, stakeholders and the public. The Regional Director General is supported by Provincial Coordinators in each of the Atlantic provinces who establish and maintain key provincial relationships and partnerships.

Health Products and Food Branch

The Health Products and Food Branch in the Atlantic Region works to ensure the safety of food as well as health products including drugs, medical devices, blood, tissues and organs.

The Food Directorate in the Atlantic Region provides a link between Health Canada, the provinces, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and other Health Canada offices to develop safety standards and policies for food.

Health Canada inspectors and analysts test drugs, blood and tissues such as those used in fertility and reproductive clinics, as well as medical devices, veterinary products and natural health products to make sure they are safe.

The branch has approximately 16 employees located in Nova Scotia.

First Nations and Inuit Health Branch

The First Nations and Inuit Health Branch within the Atlantic Region provides funding to First Nations, Inuit and Innu communities for community-based health services. The branch helps First Nations, Inuit and Innu people improve their capacity to address urgent health needs, provides non-insured health benefits, and works with other key partners to facilitate the integration of health service delivery. The branch mandate is to ensure access to health services for Firsts Nations and Inuit communities, and help them to address health barriers, disease threat, and ultimately attain health levels comparable to other Canadians.

The Atlantic First Nations and Inuit Health Branch works with 33 First Nations bands in the region and has staff in all four Atlantic provinces, including the regional headquarters in Halifax and the Labrador Health Secretariat in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NL.

Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch

The Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch promotes safe living, working and recreational environments by:

  • assessing and reducing health risks posed by environmental factors.
  • promoting initiatives to reducing the harm caused by tobacco, alcohol and other controlled substances, environmental contaminants, and unsafe consumer and industrial products.
  • regulating the safety of industrial and consumer products, tobacco and controlled substances in the Canadian marketplace.

This work is carried out through five program areas:

The branch has approximately 65 employees in 7 offices throughout the Atlantic region.


Public Health Agency of Canada

In the Atlantic region, the focus of the Public Health Agency of Canada is on community-based programs, including grants and contribution programs. It works with local and provincial non-government organizations as well as with other governments to tackle issues that affect the health of Canadians. These include healthy child development, disease, alcohol, and drugs as well as nutrition and physical activity.

For more information on the Public Health Agency of Canada, please visit the Public Health Agency of Canada website.

For more information about the Atlantic Region please contact us directly.

Date Modified: 2007-03-21 Top