Bill C-75

1st Session, 38th Parliament,

53-54 Elizabeth II, 2004-2005

house of commons of canada

BILL C-75

An Act respecting the establishment of the Public Health Agency of Canada and amending certain Acts

WHEREAS the Government of Canada wishes to take public health measures, including measures relating to health protection and promotion, population health assessment, health surveillance, disease and injury prevention, and public health emergency preparedness and response;

WHEREAS the Government of Canada wishes to foster collaboration within the field of public health and to coordinate federal policies and programs in the area of public health;

WHEREAS the Government of Canada wishes to promote cooperation and consultation in the field of public health with provincial and territorial governments;

WHEREAS the Government of Canada also wishes to foster cooperation in that field with foreign governments and international organizations, as well as other interested persons or organizations;

AND WHEREAS the Government of Canada considers that the creation of a public health agency for Canada and the appointment of a Chief Public Health Officer will contribute to federal efforts to identify and reduce public health risk factors and to support national readiness for public health threats;

NOW, THEREFORE, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

SHORT TITLE

1. This Act may be cited as the Public Health Agency of Canada Act.

INTERPRETATION

2. The following definitions apply in this Act.

“Agency” means the Public Health Agency of Canada established by section 3.

“Chief Public Health Officer” means the Chief Public Health Officer appointed under subsection 6(1).

“Minister” means the Minister of Health.

PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCY OF CANADA

3. The Public Health Agency of Canada is established for the purpose of assisting the Minister in exercising or performing the Minister’s powers, duties and functions in relation to public health.

4. The Minister presides over the Agency and has the management and direction of it.

5. (1) The Minister may, subject to any terms and conditions that the Minister specifies, delegate to an officer or employee of the Agency any of the powers, duties and functions that the Minister is authorized to exercise or perform under any Act of Parliament or any order made by the Governor in Council in respect of public health.

(2) Subsection (1) does not authorize the Minister to delegate a power to make regulations nor a power to delegate under that subsection.

CHIEF PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICER

6. (1) The Governor in Council shall appoint a Chief Public Health Officer, who is the deputy head of the Agency.

(2) The Chief Public Health Officer shall be a health professional who has qualifications in the field of public health.

7. (1) The Chief Public Health Officer is the lead health professional of the Government of Canada in relation to public health.

(2) The Chief Public Health Officer may, with respect to public health issues, communicate with governments, public health author- ities or organizations in the public health field, within Canada or internationally.

(3) The Chief Public Health Officer may communicate with the public, voluntary organ- izations in the public health field or the private sector for the purpose of providing information, or seeking their views, about public health issues.

8. (1) The Chief Public Health Officer holds office during pleasure for a term not exceeding five years.

(2) The Chief Public Health Officer may be reappointed for one or more additional terms.

9. The Chief Public Health Officer has the rank and status of a deputy head of a department.

10. (1) The Chief Public Health Officer shall be paid, for the performance of his or her duties and functions, the remuneration fixed by the Governor in Council.

(2) The Chief Public Health Officer shall be paid, in accordance with Treasury Board directives, for reasonable travel, living and other expenses incurred in performing his or her duties and functions while absent from his or her ordinary place of work.

11. The Chief Public Health Officer may delegate any of the powers, duties and functions that the Chief Public Health Officer is authorized to exercise or perform, except the power to delegate under this section, to any officer or employee of the Agency.

12. (1) The Chief Public Health Officer shall, within six months after the end of each fiscal year, submit a report to the Minister on the state of public health in Canada.

(2) The Minister shall cause the report to be laid before each House of Parliament on any of the first 15 days on which that House is sitting after the Minister receives the report.

(3) The Chief Public Health Officer may prepare and publish a report on any issue relating to public health.

(4) The Chief Public Health Officer shall, to the extent possible, in any report submitted or published under this section, set out the source of the data and information used in the preparation of the report and the methodology employed to arrive at the report’s findings, conclusions or recommendations.

(5) The Chief Public Health Officer may, in any report submitted or published under this section, refer to public health problems and their causes, as well as any measures that may, in his or her opinion, be effective in preventing or resolving those problems.

GENERAL PROVISIONS

13. The officers and employees necessary for the proper conduct of the work of the Agency shall be appointed in accordance with the Public Service Employment Act.

14. (1) The Minister may establish advisory and other committees in relation to public health and provide for their membership, duties, functions and operation.

(2) Members of a committee shall be paid, for the performance of their duties and functions, any remuneration that may be fixed by the Governor in Council.

(3) Members of a committee are entitled to be paid, in accordance with Treasury Board directives, for reasonable travel, living and other expenses incurred in the performance of their duties and functions while absent from their ordinary place of work, in the case of full-time members, or from their ordinary place of residence, in the case of part-time members.

15. (1) The Governor in Council may, on the recommendation of the Minister, make regulations respecting

(a) the collection, analysis, interpretation, publication and distribution of information relating to public health, for the purpose of paragraph 4(2)(h) of the Department of Health Act; and

(b) the protection of that information if it is confidential information, including if it is personal information as defined in section 3 of the Privacy Act.

(2) Every person who knowingly possesses, uses or discloses information in contravention of a regulation made under subsection (1) is guilty of an offence and is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding $50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to both.

TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS

16. The following definitions apply in sections 17 to 19.

“former agency” means the portion of the federal public administration known as the Public Health Agency of Canada.

“new agency” means the Public Health Agency of Canada established under section 3.

17. (1) The person occupying the office of Chief Public Health Officer on the day on which this section comes into force remains in office and is deemed to have been appointed under subsection 6(1).

(2) Nothing in this Act is to be construed as affecting the status of an employee who, immediately before the coming into force of this section, occupied a position in the former agency, except that the employee shall, on that coming into force, occupy that position in the new agency.

(3) In subsection (2), “employee” has the same meaning as in subsection 2(1) of the Public Service Employment Act.

18. (1) Any amount that is appropriated, for the fiscal year in which this section comes into force, by an appropriation Act based on the Estimates for that year for defraying the charges and expenses of the federal public administration for the former agency and that is unexpended on the day on which this section comes into force is deemed, on that day, to be an amount appropriated for defraying the charges and expenses of the federal public administration for the new agency.

(2) If a power, duty or function is, under any Act, order, rule or regulation, or under any contract, lease, licence or other document, vested in or exercisable by an officer or employee of the former agency, the power, duty or function is vested in and shall be exercised by the appropriate officer or employee of the new agency, unless the Governor in Council, by order, designates a deputy minister or an officer of the federal public administration to exercise or perform that power, duty or function.

19. (1) A reference to the former agency in any of the following schedules and orders is deemed to be a reference to the new agency:

(a) Schedule I to the Access to Information Act, under the heading “Other Government Institutions”;

(b) Schedules I.1 and IV to the Financial Administration Act;

(c) the schedule to the Privacy Act, under the heading “Other Government Institutions”;

(d) the schedule to the Access to Information Act Heads of Government Institutions Designation Order;

(e) the schedule to the Direction Applying the Auditor General Act Sustainable Development Strategy Requirements to Certain Departments;

(f) the schedule to the Privacy Act Heads of Government Institutions Designation Order; and

(g) any order of the Governor in Council made pursuant to the definition “department” in subsection 2(1) of the Public Service Employment Act.

(2) The designation of a person as deputy head of the former agency in any order of the Governor in Council made pursuant to paragraph 29(e) of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act or to the definition “deputy head” in subsection 2(1) of the Public Service Employment Act is deemed to be a designation of the Chief Public Health Officer as deputy head of the new agency.

20. Subsections 12(1) and (2) do not apply until the expiry of the fiscal year following the fiscal year in which those subsections come into force.

RELATED AND CONSEQUENTIAL AMENDMENTS

Department of Health Act

21. The Department of Health Act is amended by adding the following after section 4:

Quarantine Act

22. Paragraph 9(b) of the Quarantine Act is replaced by the following:

(b) may appeal the detention to the Chief Public Health Officer, or any other person that the Chief Public Health Officer may designate, who may allow the appeal, dismiss it or make any order with respect to the detention or the release of the detained person that a quarantine officer may make under subsection 8(2).

COORDINATING AMENDMENT

23. If section 82 of the Quarantine Act, being chapter 20 of the Statutes of Canada, 2005, comes into force before section 22 of this Act, then, on the later of the day on which that section 82 comes into force and the day on which this Act receives royal assent, section 22 of this Act is repealed.

COMING INTO FORCE

24. This Act, other than section 23, comes into force on a day to be fixed by order of the Governor in Council.