Public Accounts Committee on Feb. 20th, 2024

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Nobody knows. We have all these officials who make decisions that impact people's lives and nobody knows who makes decisions about when the government's going to relax the rules.

[Luc Brisebois]

For the Public Health Agency, I think the key issue was the dependency on the implementation of the OIC. Things had to be decided. In the context of this, the IT component would have been with CBSA.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Every department has an org chart with titles and with names. There are a lot of words going on, but who normally has the authority to decide to relax rules or processes?

[Luc Brisebois]

Do you mean with respect to the testing or the contracting?

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

I mean the testing.

[Luc Brisebois]

We were providing CBSA with the advice on what we needed in the application, and they were running the process.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Who would have the authority to suspend normal processes or relax rules?

[Luc Brisebois]

It would have been done through the governance of the DGs and the ADMs at the time. We would have to go back and take a look.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

I'll move on.

Regarding the 10,000 erroneous quarantine orders, was that a specific event? Was there one glitch that created all of that, or were those 10,000 wrongful quarantine notices given out cumulatively over time?

[Heather Jeffrey]

That was a specific event that was identified on June 28 and resolved on July 20.

It was a specific event in the app. It was an error that was identified and rectified. The Public Health Agency was involved in addressing that with—

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

It was one specific event.

Did you brief the minister that this event happened?

[Heather Jeffrey]

I was not present at that time, so I can't actually speak to what briefing took place, but we can take that away.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Were the 10,000—

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

I'm sorry. That was open-ended.

Are you going to get back to the committee? When you say “take it back”, are you implying you're going to come back to us with an answer on that, as to whether the minister was briefed?

Ms. Jeffrey, I will remind you that you're here representing PHAC. I know the questions are “you”, but the committee hopes you're responding for PHAC.

I heard you say you'll come back to us. Are you going to provide us with an answer to that question?

[Heather Jeffrey]

I'm not aware of what briefing was done at that time, but I take note of the request and I will go back to see if there's evidence of what briefing took place at that time.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Thank you. We will look forward to that answer. I appreciate it.

Mr. Scheer, you still have two minutes left.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Have the 10,000 individuals been notified? Have the travellers who were ordered to quarantine been notified that they were wrongfully ordered to quarantine?

[Heather Jeffrey]

Yes.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Who made the decision to pursue a non-competitive approach in all of this?

[Heather Jeffrey]

That decision would have been taken by the Public Health Agency to take advantage of the contracting vehicle that was set up by PSPC.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Which individuals would have said, “We're going to pursue this approach”?

[Heather Jeffrey]

I'll turn to Martin for who signed the authority.

[Martin Krumins]

That would have been directors general and executive directors within our program branch within the Public Health Agency.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Can we get names and titles?

[Martin Krumins]

I don't have those with me at the time, but I can endeavour to get that.