These organizations help to ensure compliance with federal law in a variety of healthcare, agricultural, and pharmaceutical activities.

The department is responsible to Parliament through the minister of health—presently Mark Holland—as part of the federal health portfolio.

[14][16] On 29 March 2021, Sharma supported the National Advisory Committee on Immunization's declaration of a pause for the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Canadians under the age of 55.

[18] On 10 September 2012, a report on CBC Television questioned the safety of drugs sold in North America.

[20] Health Canada aims to provide responses to pharmaceutical innovators within 300 days of submitting a drug for review.

Health Canada's accelerated pathway for approval dubbed "conditional compliance" reduces its target timeline to 200 days, but its actual average delay was still 302 days, and only 8 percent of applicants received responses within the 200-day target.