Finance committee  I hope that does happen, but in this case it's not just to the minister that matters. We're in a federal model, in which we need to make sure that the chief public health officer is able to communicate to Canadians, to the rest of the federation, knowing that the advice is based

Finance committee  The reality is that the chief public health officer would be reporting to an agency president; so, yes, I guess, the legislation says that advice would be transmitted to the minister, but there's—

Finance committee  Well, I hope that's what ends up happening. My concern, as a law professor, is that there is the opportunity for the filtering to happen. Again, it's not just the federal government where this matters, it's other actors. If the chief public health officer in the future is told

Finance committee  In the proposed bill, there's language saying how the chief public health officer would advise the president and the minister. So, yes, it's clear that there would be advice provided. But of course under the new system there would be an agency president. The CPHO would be reporti

Finance committee  It's because the chief public health officer's performance is based on that agency president. If the president is the one responsible for the agency, it means that the advice will be filtered. There's no mechanism for others outside of government to trust it.

Finance committee  Oh, I'm not sure, but it seems that many other health professionals, they're all going...and they're all criticizing it, so....

Finance committee  What I mean is that under this legislation there is the opportunity for that to happen, and when looking at recent events, it appears that it may be the case. I don't have first-hand knowledge of what the minister has advised the chief public health officer.

Finance committee  I disagree with Professor Kettner. I think it's very clear that, when you have a deputy minister who is the head of an agency, subject to the minister, that person is the one in charge. So if you have a chief public health officer who is then, of course, reporting to the deputy m

Finance committee  There's a provision in the Public Health Agency of Canada Act that says the public activities of the chief public health officer will be reimbursed. It gives the language to make sure that this public mandate is able to be funded. For section 258, there's the removal of that prov

Finance committee  I would agree that it's definitely sending that signal.

Finance committee  I think that's exactly right. That's exactly my concern. I think it's particularly important in the context of a Canadian federal model like we have.

Finance committee  Well, it's clear that the proposed bill would mean that the chief public health officer is no longer the agency head, so that's a clear demotion. Even in the way that the current chief public health officer was hired, it's clear that it was meant to be a lesser role than what the

Finance committee  Certainly that's what many of my colleagues have been talking about. Whatever the motivations for this bill and these changes are, concerns about that situation are deepened. We have a situation here in which the chief public health officer will no longer be able to exercise the

Finance committee  Mr. Chair and committee members, thank you for inviting me to make submissions about Bill C-43 concerning changes to the Public Health Agency of Canada Act. By way of background, I'm an assistant professor of law and director of the global strategy lab at the University of Ottaw