Cabinet has replaced its chief pandemic manager for the fourth time in 28 months. Heather Jeffrey, a career civil servant, was named $274,000-a year president of the Public Health Agency. The last three presidents abruptly resigned without completing their contracts, according to Blacklock's Reporter..“The scale and scope of the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented for us,” Jeffrey testified at 2020 hearings of the Commons health committee. Jeffrey was reassigned from her previous job as associate deputy health minister..The change in executives came three days after MPs on the Commons public accounts committee denounced the Agency’s waste of $1 billion worth of vaccines. “Shame, shame, shame,” said Conservative MP Stephen Ellis (Cumberland-Colchester, N.S.). “Shame. I have to say, shame on you.”.Harpreet Kochhar, immediate past president of the Agency, left with almost four years remaining in his five-year contract. Kochhar as president issued $120,000 worth of pandemic hero medallions in velvet boxes to each of the Agency’s 4,995 employees. “The Agency would like to recognize all employees,” management wrote in a notice COVID Coins last August 5..Iain Stewart, another president, quit in 2021 after being censured for contempt of Parliament. Stewart was cited for defying three House orders for records regarding an RCMP raid on Chinese scientists at the Agency’s National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. He became the first federal employee since 1891 to be summoned to the floor of the Commons for a public naming on grounds of contempt and obstruction..Kristina Namiesniowki, another president, abruptly resigned in 2020 after emailing staff that “I need a break.” Her resignation came 12 days before auditors completed a report faulting the Agency for “confusion,” “limited public health expertise” and failing to maintain an emergency stockpile of pandemic supplies..“We had significant lapses here,” Conservative MP Philip Lawrence (Northumberland-Peterborough South, Ont.) told a February 10, 2022 hearing of the Commons public accounts committee. “There were serious issues,” said Lawrence. “I believe in accountability.”.“Were there any officials held to account?” asked MP Lawrence. “Was there any type of discipline? Any suspensions, any firings, any discipline of any kind for the individuals who were responsible?”.“The accountability as such rests with the Public Health Agency in a cumulative way as well as with provinces and territories,” replied then-President Kochhar..“Was there anyone who faced any discipline at all?” asked MP Lawrence. “This is a cumulative responsibility within the Public Health Agency,” replied Kochhar.
