Canada. Health and Welfare Canada. Policy, Planning and Information Branch : The roots of the Policy, Planning and Information Branch (PPIB) of the former Department of National Health and Welfare (NHW) are found in the creation of a Research Division shortly after the department's establishment in 1944. The Division collected, examined and assessed the socio-economic aspects of health, welfare and social security, and provided much of the information basis for NHW's planning. Renamed the Research and Statistics Division in 1956 and subsequently the Research and Statistics Services Division (1961), in 1966, it became a directorate separate from the rest of the Administration Branch.
In the early 1970s, NHW decided to separate health research from welfare research, and therefore created the Long Range Health Planning Branch and the Research Planning and Evaluation Branch (RPEB) in 1971. The latter was further subdivided into three areas: Long Range Planning for Welfare, Research and Evaluation, and Policy Analysis. New policy initiatives in 1973 in the field of social security led to the re-structuring of the RPEB into two other branches. The Policy Research and Long Range Planning Branch focused its activities on analysing current social security policies and programmes as a basis for proposals for change, and to provide basic research in these broad areas to meet departmental needs. Its companion, the Policy and Program Development and Coordination Branch, was more involved in the development of new and revised legislation and departmental programmes in areas of social security such as Old Age Security, Family Allowance, Canada Pension Plan, and the Canada Assistance Plan. The Welfare Information Systems Branch was also created in July 1975 to provide welfare information to federal and provincial governments, to the public, and to national and international organizations, and to develop supporting information systems.
In order to integrate policy development, planning and information systems, the Policy, Planning and Information Branch was created in 1979 by amalgamating the Long Range Health Planning Branch, the Policy Research and Long Range Planning Branch, and the Welfare Information Systems Branch. PPIB was given three main functions: to provide research, analysis and planning advice on health and social policy; to provide support to policy development activities in other programme branches; to develop and disseminate to departments and the provinces information on health and welfare programmes for planning, evaluation and programme management.
In the years immediately following its creation, a variety of other functions were added to and removed from PPIB. In 1979, the Science Policy Liaison Unit was set up to help the development of department-wide policies relating to scientific matters and provide support to the Departmental Committee on Scientific Activities; it was closed in 1984. In November 1980, the Branch created the Office on Aging in order to provide policy support to the Minister on matter relating to the aging of the Canadian population; this office was abolished in 1987.
In 1986, PPIB became the Policy, Communications and Information Branch when the Communications Directorate (formerly the Public Affairs Directorate, responsible for with media relations, publications, conferences, and audio-visual productions) was transferred from the Corporate Management Branch. In 1989, Communications was upgraded to branch status, and the remaining functions again became the Policy, Planning and Information Branch. Beginning in 1991, the Review of Demography and its Implications for Economic and Social Policy (renamed the Demographic Review Secretariat), reported to the Minister of NHW through the PPIB.
Following the federal government re-organization in June 1993, policy functions relating to social welfare became the responsibility of the newly-formed Department of Human Resources Development. At this time, the new Department of Health renamed the remaining functions of the former PPIB the Policy and Consultation Branch.
