Finance Committee on Nov. 19th, 2014

[Dr. Gregory Taylor]

Correct.

I see this as a real advantage, actually.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you so much for clarifying that. I appreciate that.

To Ms. Durdin, with respect to the timetable, we have your recommendation that you have enough time, and I think you've seen around the table there's a lot of sympathy for that.

I don't know if you want to put a timetable on that, but can you give the committee an approximate time for you to be able to respond to the department?

[Martha Durdin]

I would hesitate to put a timetable on it, but at the minimum it would be two years after the enactment of the bill.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

I have the question in your opening remarks. Can you state the question you would have for the committee on the two-year timetable, because you're essentially asking the committee to clarify when that two-year timetable starts?

[Martha Durdin]

That's right. It's unclear to us when the clock starts, whether it started with the bill being put in the House, whether it starts at the end of the consultation period or whether there's flexibility in when it starts.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

You'd obviously prefer it would start later rather than sooner?

[Martha Durdin]

That's right.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay.

I have a couple of minutes. Mr. Allen, did you want to follow up with something?

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Yes, I would, Chair.

I want to follow up with Mr. Taylor with a question specifically referencing your remarks where you said:

...we've been moving this way as an agency for some time now and have, in fact, adopted this type of management structure since 2012. At that time we began to separate out the roles and responsibilities of the CPHO on an interim basis.

Can you comment about the conflict during that two-year period? It sounds to me as if you've been doing some of the administration and everything else. What percentage of your time has been allocated to what we'll call the back-office things, as opposed to the things we really want you to do?

[Dr. Gregory Taylor]

During that period of time, which was precipitated by David Butler-Jones' stroke and his stepping down, Krista Outhwaite continued as the acting deputy head and I was the deputy chief public health officer. So we separated the role and I focused on the content of the CPHO role and she focused on management. In essence we've been functioning like this for the last two and a half years, which I think has been very effective. I think I've been able to focus on a number of issues as the deputy chief public health officer, H5N1, etc., as we've been moving forward.

All this does in the current situation is stratify and formalize that role of the new CPHO.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

You've built up that relationship so it's tickety-boo, away you go the rest of the way.

[Dr. Gregory Taylor]

I think it's a very effective relationship. I've spent a lot of time working with Krista and she's a very effective manager and she has been able to focus and bring a lot of management changes and management excellence to the agency, whereas I could not have been able to do that because I've been focusing out of the area. As I say, I'm very supportive of the change.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Thank you for clarifying that.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you very much, Mr. Allen.

Thank you for challenging the interpreters with interpreting “tickety-boo”.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

I want to thank our guests for being here this afternoon and for your patience with the vote that we had, and especially for staying later. We appreciate that very much.

Thank you, colleagues.

The meeting is adjourned.