Health Committee on Nov. 16th, 2010

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

I'm sorry, Dr. Duncan, your time is up now. We have to go to Ms. Davidson.

Pardon me?

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

I just have a point of clarification.

Could Ms. Duncan repeat the years that you were talking about here? Was that 2008?

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

For the...it was 2009.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

We'll go to Ms. Davidson.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thanks very much, Madam Chair.

Thanks very much to our three witnesses for being with us this morning. We appreciate the fact that you're here and understand that some of your testimony is not easy for you to be doing here in front of everyone this morning.

I want to take the discussion on a little bit different angle, if I can. It's my understanding, and I stand to be corrected on this, that you were each appointed through the Governor in Council process because of the specific expertise you would be bringing to the board.

You're no longer there, so first of all, then, how is your specific discipline being represented? How is the mandate of the board being carried out if in fact part of the overall concept of who is supposed to be represented at the board level is no longer there?

I guess first of all I need to know whether my assumption is correct that you were there because of your specific abilities and your contribution in a specific field.

[Dr. Françoise Baylis]

That's certainly my understanding of what the government would do in naming any board: make sure that it has disparate views, disparate geography, disparate gender, disparate language. All of that comes into the mix.

With respect to this particular process, we had to apply—at least, that was the original process—and we had to outline what our views were and what skills, talent, and knowledge we thought we would bring.

One thing I would like to stress for this committee is that one of the things I wrote in my letter of application was that I was deeply committed to consensus-building, and so I find it ironic to have ended up exactly where I am today.

In the course of this journey, if you will, at one point I actually had occasion to cite from my letter in correspondence with the chair--namely, that I'm attempting to do what I said I would do, so I'm being true to who I am and to the reason, I take it, I was chosen for this board, and I don't view what's happening as allowing that to go forward.

I personally believe it would have been important to have somebody with ethics expertise. If it hadn't been me, I would hope it would have been somebody else with that expertise. I left in March. I have not been replaced.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Ms. Slater?

[Barbara Slater]

My background is in women's health. I worked previously at Planned Parenthood and was the director of women's health at Hamilton Health Sciences' hospitals and then was in policy in government organizations.

That's my background, and that is what I brought to the board.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Are there other people on the board who have the expertise that you have?

[Barbara Slater]

I don't believe there are with the same kind of women's health background. As to policy, maybe some people have some policy. I don't believe they have governmental process policy backgrounds.

[Dr. Françoise Baylis]

As a point of information, if you like I can tell you who's left on the board and what expertise is there.

There's a retired family physician and former premier, who is the chair; a hemato-oncologist; a geneticist; a member of a biotechnology company; a scholar in Jewish studies; and a consultant for the Archdiocese of Toronto.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Ms. Ryll?

[Irene Ryll]

I was appointed to the board in September; that was several months after the board formed. I have experience as a patient, experience as a parent of children who use these technologies. That was one of the comments that the health minister's adviser mentioned to me when I heard that my appointment was going to be going through: that I had the knowledge of a parent and the knowledge of a patient and was bringing that to the board.

To my knowledge, I don't know whether anyone else on the board has that experience. I know there was a news report very early on that someone might have had that experience, but it was never discussed.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thank you.

That ends my questions, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you very much. Our time is up now anyway.

I want to thank the—

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Excuse me, Madam Chair.

As you know, I communicated with the chair via e-mail last week about concerns I had that the president and the current board chair and other witnesses would be brought forward on the same panel as these witnesses. I learned since then that the chair had separated the witnesses into two panels.

Once I received that communication via the clerk, I communicated with you that I actually hoped to move today to extend the time of the panel one witnesses. I think that's appropriate.

I had communicated to you that it was my intention to do so, so that there wouldn't—

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Could I just make one...?

I know that's your intention, but on all committees--just to remind you before you go any further--we always like to have balance. We've done that since the beginning of time.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

That's fair, Madam Chair, and as I wrote to you, I have no problem with.... I'm not trying to silence the president or the current chair. I think they can be scheduled for other days.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

We don't have a lot of time.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

As you know, we set an agenda together, as a committee, in camera.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

We did.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

As you can imagine, this likely came up at our meeting. We are doing two days on injury prevention, which is not exactly the pressing issue of the day--

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Ms. Leslie, if you want to bring the motion forward, bring it open, and we will.... We need to get to the next committee. So bring it forward and we'll vote on it.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

I would like to bring a motion forward that we extend the time of this panel and reschedule panel two for another day.