The resources that were given to me were sufficient prior to the potential cuts. The issue wasn't even the cuts themselves. It was the rapidity of the submissions we had to provide to make those cuts that by their very nature constrained my flexibility to search out what would have the least impact.
Because of the way the processes were driven, my hands were tied in a certain way that would have led to cuts that I felt were completely unacceptable. Because of the pace at which it was moving, I felt I had no choice, given my personal accountability to myself rather than anybody else, to make sure that the leadership was aware that the train was going down a track, and unless you switch over, if you're not careful, it was going to go down. Once it starts rolling it's very hard to stop. That's why I sought out the vice-chief, as you know, because again, his intent was clear to me. I went and as you know, the train was stopped. It didn't go down that route, so I'm happy about that. Now I think the process is rolling out a little more methodically to try to really prioritize various potential cuts. But let's be clear. When you make a cut, it doesn't mean it isn't going to have an impact. It just means where's the impact?
Here I have to be very concerned about the terms “too much head” and “too much tail”, those kinds of aspects, because health care doesn't quite fit in the head and it doesn't quite fit in the tail either. If you cut administration, that sounds simple, but most of that administration isn't necessarily there to provide doctors with care. It's to provide answers to Parliament. It's to provide answers to the newspapers and a number of other areas. If you cut those admin positions, somebody still has to do them. It's not like I can say, “If you cut that, don't come to me with any questions.” If you cut those positions, somebody else has to pick up that piece. That means eventually, some clinician is going to spend less time seeing patients, to find out how many patients were seen for this and that. Cuts will have an impact.