Huh, I didn’t know it could do this until I tried.
julia> x = Dates.canonicalize(Dates.CompoundPeriod(t2-t1))
17 minutes, 18 seconds, 522 milliseconds
julia> x.periods
3-element Array{Base.Dates.Period,1}:
17 minutes
18 seconds
522 milliseconds
julia> x.periods[2]
18 seconds
julia> x.periods[2].value
18