Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
First, I want to begin by thanking the witnesses for their outstanding work during this very difficult time for Canadians. It's been difficult, I think, not only for our frontline health care workers, but also for folks who manage our critical supplies, including those at the national stockpile.
I do have a very important role to play on behalf of Canadians, which is to get to the root issue of accountability as to why certain deficits were present, particularly in the early part of the 2010s. I really want to get to that point. I do believe that Canadians deserve an answer as to why those deficiencies were identified and then not followed up on appropriately, in order for us to best plan for the future and have confidence in our systems moving forward. I do want to spend some portion of my limited six minutes to summarize for Canadians and for the witnesses some of the concerns that I'm most impacted by.
From report that was presented to us, I'll summarize section 10.25 onwards to section 10.32. There was a 2010 report, if I am correct, and this internal audit suggested significant findings related to the national emergency strategic stockpile. Then again in 2013, the agency conducted a follow-up internal audit and found that the federal stockpile issues raised three years previously had not been fully addressed. That's my first concern.
My second concern is this: “We found that the Public Health Agency of Canada did not fully address [those] significant findings about the National Emergency...Stockpile”. In both the 2010 and 2013 reports, they found that management committed to do so, but didn't properly follow up or address them.
Before I ask the deputy minister to respond, my final point is related to the why. Why was there such a complete breakdown of oversight and accountability for a very long period of time—in particular from 2010 to 2015—given those reports?
What caused such deficits in a system that's supposed to be proactive and prepared for emergencies?