Thank you, Chair.
I want to follow up on Mr. Rankin's comments. First of all, it's reassuring to know that Mr. Rankin praises the current chief public health officer, which makes me wonder why he doesn't listen to him then, because when he was here before committee he very strongly supported these changes and was very much in favour of them. He said:
The president, as deputy head of the agency, will assume some of the management responsibilities currently assigned to the CPHO including accountabilities for finance, audit, evaluation, staffing, official languages, and access to information and privacy. These are all important functions requiring the attention of a senior leader. The changes proposed do not diminish the role of the chief public health officer, they enhance it. In essence, they associate internal management and capacity issues with a dedicated agency head and direction on public health issues with the CPHO. It makes good management sense and good public health sense to make these changes.
I would really encourage Mr. Rankin to consider the words of the chief public health officer when he decides how to vote on this.