| Agency Name: | Ministry of Health |
| Type: | Ministry |
| Formed: | 1882 (current name since June 20, 2019) |
| Preceding1: | Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care |
| Jurisdiction: | Government of Ontario |
| Headquarters: | 777 Bay Street Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Minister1 Name: | Sylvia Jones |
| Minister1 Pfo: | Minister of Health |
| Minister2 Name: | Michael Tibollo |
| Minister2 Pfo: | Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions |
| Minister3 Name: | Robin Martin |
| Minister3 Pfo: | Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Health |
| Child1 Agency: | Ontario Health |
The Ministry of Health is the Government of Ontario ministry responsible for administering the health care system in the Canadian province of Ontario.[1]
The ministry is responsible to the Ontario Legislature through the minister of health, presently Sylvia Jones since June 24, 2022.
The ministry also regulates hospitals, operates some medical laboratories and regulates others, and co-ordinates emergency medical services for the province.
The ministry once operated ambulance services outside of major cities in Ontario, but the services were downloaded to municipalities around 1998.
In the early years of Canadian Confederation, health was still considered primarily a municipal rather than provincial matter. The Public Health Act of 1873 permitted the Lieutenant Governor to establish, by proclamation, a temporary "Central Board of Health" to deal with disease if it reached epidemic proportions. However, no proclamations were ever made, and a Central Board was never established.
The Provincial Board of Health was established on March 10, 1882, and it was charged with overseeing the many local health boards. It also assumed the responsibility of dealing with an epidemic, if one should arise. The board reported to the Lieutenant Governor (1882-1903), to the Provincial Secretary (1904-1918), then to the Department of Labour (1919-1924).
In 1924, the Provincial Board of Health was replaced by the Department of Health. In 1930, the department accepted from the Department of the Provincial Secretary the responsibilities for administering Ontario's psychiatric hospitals and inspecting the province's public and private hospitals. Also in 1930, the Department of Hospitals was established under the direction of the first Minister of Health; that department became a division of the Department of Health in 1934. In 1952, cancer research and the operation of cancer clinics was added to the department's responsibilities. Insured hospital services and insured physicians' services, introduced in 1959 and 1966 respectively, were combined under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) in 1972. The department also had responsibility over areas that are no longer associated with health, such as water and sewage functions (prior to 1957), mental retardation facilities and children's services (transferred to the Ministry of Community and Social Services in 1974), and occupational health (transferred to the Ministry of Labour in 1976).
In 1961, the Royal Commission on Health Services, chaired by Justice Emmett Matthew Hall, was appointed, which served as a catalyst for a major overhaul of the department.
In 1972, the Department of Health was renamed the Ministry of Health in a government-wide restructuring. In 1999, the Ministry of Health was renamed the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. On June 20, 2019, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care was split into the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Long-Term Care.
| Name | Term of office | Tenure | Political party (Ministry) | Note | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ministers of Health | |||||||
| Dr. Forbes Godfrey | Conservative (Ferguson) | ||||||
| John Robb | |||||||
| Conservative (Henry) | |||||||
| Dr. James Faulkner | Liberal (Hepburn) | ||||||
| Harold Kirby | Concurrently Minister of Public Welfare (October 27, 1942 – May 18, 1943) | ||||||
| Liberal (Conant) | |||||||
| Liberal (Nixon) | |||||||
| Dr. Percy Vivian | PC (Drew) | Concurrently Minister of Public Welfare | |||||
| Russell Kelley | |||||||
| PC (Kennedy) | |||||||
| PC (Frost) | |||||||
| Dr. Mac Phillips | |||||||
| Dr. Matthew Dymond | |||||||
| PC (Robarts) | |||||||
| Tom Wells | |||||||
| Albert Lawrence | PC (Davis) | ||||||
| Dr. Richard Potter | |||||||
| Frank Miller | |||||||
| Dennis Timbrell | |||||||
| Larry Grossman | |||||||
| Keith Norton | Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Tom Wells served as acting minister while Norton was on sick leave (October 11 to December 5, 1983) | ||||||
| Alan Pope | PC (Miller) | ||||||
| Philip Andrewes | |||||||
| Murray Elston | Liberal (Peterson) | ||||||
| Elinor Caplan | Mother of later minister David Caplan (2008–09) | ||||||
| Evelyn Gigantes | NDP (Rae) | Resigned after inadvertently revealing the name of a Toronto man who had been sent to the United States for drug treatment that wasn't offered in the province. | |||||
| Frances Lankin | |||||||
| Ruth Grier | |||||||
| Jim Wilson | (first instance) | PC (Harris) | Resigned for ministerial responsibility (his aide improperly disclosed confidential health information to a reporter), reinstated after conclusion of investigation. | ||||
| David Johnson | |||||||
| Jim Wilson | (second instance) 2 years, 32 days in total | ||||||
| Elizabeth Witmer | Cam Jackson served as Minister of Long-Term Care (July 27, 1998 to June 17, 1999) | ||||||
| Ministers of Health and Long-Term Care | |||||||
| Elizabeth Witmer | |||||||
| Tony Clement | Helen Johns (February 8, 2001 – April 14, 2002) & Dan Newman (April 15, 2002 – October 22, 2003) served as Associate Ministers | ||||||
| PC (Eves) | |||||||
| George Smitherman | Liberal (McGuinty) | While Deputy Premier (September 22, 2006 - November 9, 2009) Jim Watson (June 29, 2005 – October 30, 2007) & Margarett Best (October 30, 2007 – October 20, 2011) served as Ministers of Health Promotion | |||||
| David Caplan | Son of previous minister Elinor Caplan (1987–90) | ||||||
| Deb Matthews | While Deputy Premier (February 11, 2013 - January 17, 2018) | ||||||
| Liberal (Wynne) | |||||||
| Dr. Eric Hoskins | Dipika Damerla served as Associate Minister (Long-Term Care and Wellness) (June 24, 2014 – June 13, 2016) | ||||||
| Dr. Helena Jaczek | While Chair of Cabinet | ||||||
| Christine Elliott | PC (Ford) | While Deputy Premier | |||||
| Ministers of Health | |||||||
| Christine Elliott | While Deputy Premier Michael Tibollo as Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, from to present and for | ||||||
| Sylvia Jones | PC (Ford) | While Deputy Premier Michael Tibollo as Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, from to present and for | |||||