Absolutely. All artists from all sectors need more money.
Evidence of meeting #17 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was program.
Evidence of meeting #17 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was program.
11:45 a.m.
Executive Director, Regroupement québécois de la danse, Mouvement pour les arts et les lettres
Absolutely. All artists from all sectors need more money.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Luc Harvey Conservative Louis-Hébert, QC
When things are going well, we should add money. When things aren't going well we should take it away?
11:45 a.m.
Executive Director, Regroupement québécois de la danse, Mouvement pour les arts et les lettres
On the contrary, you need to add more.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Luc Harvey Conservative Louis-Hébert, QC
Fine.
Mr. Baumann, I must say that you are very modest. I had a conversation with you in French and you managed quite well. I would like you to tell us in French this time how the $30 million would be allocated and invested?
11:50 a.m.
Executive Director, Road to Excellence Program, Canadian Olympic Committee
Of course.
The $30 million. As I mentioned a number of questions back, the focus needs to be on coaching and technical leadership. Approximately $9 million of that $30 million would be spent on ensuring that we get the best coaches in this country to provide not only the right daily training environment, but also the right competitive environment. We can't be shy in terms of trying to get the best people in the world, and that costs money.
The second aspect is ensuring that we provide quality support services, whether it's sports medicine, physiotherapy, strength and conditioning, or sports science, to be leading edge in the world. And those support services, particularly in the daily training environment, ensure that our athletes are well taken care of, that when there are injuries we take care of those injuries. And there's approximately $7 million allocated for that.
There are some additional funds for the national sporting organizations. I think it's about $6 million for training competition, because a lot of things that are coming from the national sporting organizations are about the fact that they don't have enough competitions to actually attend, and that's critical, particularly in the lead-up to the Olympics. There's a component there for research, and there's also a component for team sports, because I don't think that at this point in time we have a team sport strategy. So there's approximately $2 million for that. And I think that adds up close to the $30 million.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Luc Harvey Conservative Louis-Hébert, QC
I have four children. One of my two older daughters is preparing for national level soccer and the two others play at the provincial level. Parents have to shoulder, amongst other costs, the cost of hotels and transportation, and they have to devote their weekends to this. I thought that there was something available for those who might be making their way to the podium.
Mr. Hall, you talked about stocks. Were you referring to Tamiflu? I know that Roche is the producer of this product whose effectiveness, according to the information I've seen, is rather average. Are you talking about stocking up on Tamiflu pills in the case of a future virus pandemic? This would perhaps involve the H5N1 or something like that.
11:50 a.m.
Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, Hoffman-La Roche Ltd.
Yes, Tamiflu is the medication that Hoffman-La Roche provides and it is the medication that we recommend for stockpiling.
Would you like me to address the efficacy question about Tamiflu?
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Luc Harvey Conservative Louis-Hébert, QC
Please. According to the information I have its effectiveness is not as significant as you appear to be saying it is.
As my friend Massimo said, you can understand the government's situation. It is receiving differing opinions. We have to see both side of the coin. Some individuals feel that we should lower taxes while others tell us not to do that, and to spend money. The idea is to make the best possible investments. Our role is to be proactive, to protect the public, but we must not be naive. That is why I am asking you whether or not Tamiflu, for which you are the pattent holder, is truly effective.
11:50 a.m.
Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, Hoffman-La Roche Ltd.
Yes. It's a great question, and obviously as a Canadian and a taxpayer, I would have the same concerns and questions.
Tamiflu is approved by Health Canada for the prevention and treatment of influenza. As a result, it has gone through the rigorous clinical trial program that all drugs that get approved in Canada, or for that matter across the world--United States, Europe--need to go through to prove their efficacy and safety. Through the clinical trial work, that has been done. The evidence is that Tamiflu reduces the signs and symptoms and outcomes of the influenza virus and also some of the complications that might occur from that, like bronchitis. So the data shows clearly that there is a net positive effect, and that's the reason the drug was approved by Health Canada.
As far as the H5N1 virus, which is the avian flu virus, is concerned, there are case studies across the world, where that virus has infected human beings, that indicate it is an effective medication to treat individuals who are infected with the avian flu or, for that matter and probably more importantly, to prevent them from getting it in the first place.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Thank you very much.
With the committee's indulgence, I have a couple of final questions that I'd like to ask the presenters.
The first one is to Alex Baumann. You quoted from a report by the Standing Committee on Health. There are some people in this room who are quite passionate about that report and take a lot of pride in it. Those same people are actually even more passionate about some of the outcomes with regard to dealing with childhood obesity and the Olympics as a way of engaging Canadians to deal with this problem, and using the Olympics as an opportunity for that.
Your request was for $30 million. How much money does the federal government give now to the Olympics?
11:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Road to Excellence Program, Canadian Olympic Committee
To the Olympics specifically, or just enhanced excellence funding? About $143 million actually goes into sport, but that's obviously not just excellence funding.
11:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Road to Excellence Program, Canadian Olympic Committee
Excellence funding on the summer side is $12 million from Sport Canada. On the winter side it's $11 million.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
How do you leverage the money that is there to engage more Canadians and more of the private sector? I'm wondering if you've considered some tax benefit as a charitable donation that would be increased, perhaps, maybe even to political donation levels or something to that degree. I just wonder if you've thought about those things. As I look through your $30 million, it's for specific things, but not for leveraging money.
11:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Road to Excellence Program, Canadian Olympic Committee
Not for leveraging money? Yes, that's correct.
The Canadian Olympic Committee has ultimately been responsible for trying to raise funds, not only for the Olympic team but also for ensuring that we have a sustainable system in the future as well, hence the creation of the foundation philanthropy. I'm not sure how much investigation there has been in terms of tax deductibility, so that's probably something we need to investigate. I know it's been discussed, but perhaps there are some avenues to try to leverage that as well.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
That's fine. It's just that in your presentation it wasn't there. That wasn't part of it. I was just wondering if you thought--
11:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Road to Excellence Program, Canadian Olympic Committee
It's very specific on the Road to Excellence program.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Fair enough.
I have another question to Rick Culbert.
On the $33 million dollars for the vaccine, this is a vaccine that is developed by Canadians, a Canadian firm, in Canada. We do some great research in this country. Where we really fail to capitalize is in the development of that and moving it into the marketplace. This is the first time I've seen this sort of a proposal where you're actually looking upstream far enough to vaccinate an animal for human health situations. It's intriguing me, but I'm wondering if there are other countries that are looking at this technology, because this is phenomenal technology that certainly could help.
Are you aggressively pursuing other markets with this right now?
11:55 a.m.
President, Food Safety Division, Bioniche Life Sciences Inc.
Very much so. The U.S., of course, will be the next market. We've already started the regulatory process with them, and we've budgeted or planned forward to certainly go to Europe after that, and then following that, into some of the bigger cattle-producing nations such as those in South America.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
When you say you are looking at the other ones and you're planning, how far along is it? What's the timeline and what do you expect to see, or is it just in the initial stages?
11:55 a.m.
President, Food Safety Division, Bioniche Life Sciences Inc.
It's in the initial stages right now. As long as we get momentum and we start to get some payback for the innovation we've already invested in, it's realistic to expect those other things to evolve over the next five to ten years.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Okay. This is one case in which the obvious question is, if it's so good, why doesn't the agriculture community pick it up? Obviously this is something that has no necessarily direct advantage to agriculture, but does to human health.
Can you explain something? The E. coli bacteria is something that has evolved very aggressively just recently, has it not?
11:55 a.m.
President, Food Safety Division, Bioniche Life Sciences Inc.
E. coli is a normal family of bacteria that lives in the intestines of all mammals. One strain is a mutation that first appeared about 20 years ago. Part of the mutation took place, I guess, when it found a natural host in ruminants, because they're not susceptible to the toxin it produces, so it can live in their bowel without any ill effects.
Noon
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
I think it's important to get that on the record. I come from an agricultural background, and I understand fully what's going on. The damage or the problem I think Canadians need to understand is that this is a mutated E. coli that has been there only a short time but has caused massive problems on the environmental side, as well as just with the product itself. It's something that needs to be looked at in this situation.
I have no more time. I want to thank the witnesses for coming forward and for presenting.
With that, we'll call this meeting adjourned.