Short Title

Marginal note:Short title

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

Interpretation

Marginal note:Definitions

2 The following definitions apply in this Act.

Agency

Agence

Agency means the Public Health Agency of Canada established by section 3. (Agence)

Chief Public Health Officer

administrateur en chef

Chief Public Health Officer means the Chief Public Health Officer appointed under subsection 6(1). (administrateur en chef)

Minister

ministre

Minister means the Minister of Health. (ministre)

Public Health Agency of Canada

Marginal note:Establishment

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.

Marginal note:Minister to preside

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

Marginal note:Delegation to Agency

• 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.

• Marginal note:Restriction

  (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

Marginal note:Appointment

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

• Marginal note:Qualifications required

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

Marginal note:Lead health professional

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

• Marginal note:Communication with governments, public health authorities and organizations

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

• Marginal note:Communication with the public, voluntary organizations and the private sector

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

Marginal note:Tenure of office and removal

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

• Marginal note:Reappointment

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

Marginal note:Rank and status

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

Marginal note:Remuneration

• 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.

• Marginal note:Travelling, living and other expenses

  (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.

Marginal note:Delegation

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.

Marginal note:Annual report on public health

• 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.

• Marginal note:Tabling in Parliament

  (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.

• Marginal note:Other report on public health

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

• Marginal note:Data and methodology

  (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.

• Marginal note:Contents of a report

  (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

Marginal note:Officers and employees

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.

Marginal note:Committees

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

• Marginal note:Remuneration

  (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.

• Marginal note:Travel, living and other expenses

  (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.

Marginal note:Regulations

• 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.

• Marginal note:Offence

  (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

Marginal note:Definitions

16 The following definitions apply in sections 17 to 19.

former agency

former agency means the portion of the federal public administration known as the Public Health Agency of Canada. (ancienne agence)

new agency

new agency means the Public Health Agency of Canada established under section 3. (nouvelle agence)

Marginal note:Chief Public Health Officer

• 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).

• Marginal note:Employees

  (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.

• Marginal note:Definition of employee

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

Marginal note:Transfer of appropriations

• 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.

• Marginal note:Transfer of powers, duties and functions

  (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.

Marginal note:References

• 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.

• Marginal note:Deputy head

  (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.

Marginal note:Annual report

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 [Amendment]

Quarantine Act

22 [Repealed, 2006, c. 5, s. 23]

Coordinating Amendment

23 [Amendment]

Coming into Force

Marginal note:Order in council

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

• Return to footnote ^*[Note: Section 23 in force on assent December 12, 2006; Act, other than section 23, in force December 15, 2006, see SI/2006-145.]