About Us

Northwestern Health Unit (NWHU) is the most westerly of Ontario’s 34 public health units, serving part of the Kenora district and the entire Rainy River district.

Our catchment area stretches across 173,828 square kilometres, about one-fifth of the Province of Ontario. This area includes 19 municipalities; 39 First Nations communities; and two unincorporated/unorganized territories, which include Kenora Unorganized and Rainy River Unorganized. 

The region has a dispersed population of 87,677. Our catchment area has a population density of approximately 0.5 people per square kilometre, compared with the provincial average of 14.1 people per square kilometre.

Using a distributed services model, we have offices in 13 municipalities that work to provide services across the region.

Sources of information about our area and demographics include Statistics Canada.

Part of public health is educating the public

An important part of keeping communities healthy is education. This site works to help make important public health information accessible to you, the public.

Because of this, all of the information that we provide is free and open to anyone to use for their own learning purposes. For more information about how you can and cannot use the information that we provide, please see our User Disclaimer page.