OTTAWA -- The president of the embattled federal agency that is meant to police Canada's fertility industry defended her frequent travel to Vancouver Tuesday after a report suggested she had been mixing business with pleasure.
Dr. Elinor Wilson told the House of Commons health committee that Assisted Human Reproduction Canada, created just three years ago, is in the midst of moving its employees from Ottawa to Vancouver, where its head office is supposed to be located.
"We are in a period of transition," Wilson said.
A Quebec newspaper reported Tuesday that Wilson had travelled to Vancouver at least 16 times since 2007. Le Devoir said the trips sometimes coincided with traditional Canadian holidays and that Wilson had family in Vancouver.
Wilson declined an interview with QMI Agency. Opposition MPs grilled her over her schedules, over minutes of board meetings and over the departure of staff from the agency.
Three respected members of the AHRC board have resigned in the past several weeks, citing lack of transparency in agency spending.
ARHC has an annual budget of about $10 million, but is currently spending only about half that amount because it's still waiting for regulations from Health Canada that would permit it to do the regulatory part of its job.
That includes licensing and policing fertility clinics and reproductive procedures in Canada.
Jocelyn Downie, a bio-ethicist at Dalhousie University, describes the regulatory situation at fertility clinics in Canada as "a free-for-all." An effective agency matters to Canadians, she said, because "these are ethically charged issues and practices" involving millions of dollars.
The agency and Health Canada say their hands are tied on producing regulations until a case currently before the Supreme Court of Canada dealing with jurisdictional issues is sorted out.
Dr. John Hamm, chairman of the agency's board, said in the meantime if the agency becomes aware of potential illegalities in the reproductive industry, it refers cases to police.
christina.spencer@sunmedia.ca
