Your question touches on a point that certainly concerns me. It sounds as if we've been reacting instead of relying on prevention. Yet, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure; that's the expression that comes to mind here. There is a constant focus on the immediate emergency. Everyone is very good, even within the federal government, at getting by and managing to do their job with the tools in place.
However, we really need to start being better prepared and better supported by our tools. In our office, as well as throughout the federal government, we see decisions being made to support individuals instead of investing in systems. We must remember that the effectiveness of any system relies on well-trained, intelligent individuals, but the system must also be prepared to support them by enabling data analysis.
So I would say that this is a government-wide problem, not just in the Public Health Agency of Canada. That said, this is the report that the committee is considering right now, and there are obviously gaps there as well.