Health Committee on May 16th, 2006

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

I'm in agreement that both the prescription drug issue...and if we incorporate a couple of the shorter-term into that longer-term overall strategy. I'm not sure how that relates to the wait times.

How are you tying those two together?

[Bonnie Brown, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

What I am saying is we've already agreed to have one meeting on wait times. But one meeting will really just give you a snapshot and a little bit of information, which might entice us to want to do a study in the fall that lasts, say, September to December or something.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Yes, they're separate days, I think is what she's saying.

[Bonnie Brown, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Yes, they're two separate days.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

The same strategy but different case.

[Bonnie Brown, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

What I'm saying is why not have one meeting on prescription drugs to see if that entices us more as an issue we'd want to investigate. But I'm pointing out to the chair that there's a third subject for a possible long-term study that we're not having a meeting on. Maybe if there's a meeting left, if we don't rise too early, we could get a few people in to talk to us about why that's such an important subject.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

I see what you're saying. That's a lot clearer. Thank you.

You're talking about drugs, not child obesity.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Yes.

Ms. Priddy.

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Thank you, and thank you for allowing me to join you late.

You can just say to me “somebody already said that”, and I will cease immediately--well, occasionally I will cease immediately.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Now you're challenging the chair.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Well, today I will.

In regard to the briefing on wait times, I'm wondering if there's an overlap or.... It's not quite cognitive dissonance, but because it's one of the “key five” platform, what is this a briefing on? I assume there's some other broader plan yet to be unveiled on wait times, so what would this part actually do?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

I think what we're looking at are some examples of success on reducing wait times, particularly the Alberta model on hips and knees, I believe it was. Further to that, there are some other examples in other provinces--

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Oh, there are lots.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

--so we're starting to look at combing some examples, raising awareness of some of these successes.

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

So you mean looking at models of excellence. There probably should be a database of models of excellence that people can access.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

I think that's what we're trying to do in a one-meeting snapshot, and then see if further study might be needed or not.

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Thank you.

[Dave Batters, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

And then, Ms. Priddy, the idea was to see where we'd want to go with future study. We're certainly not going to encapsulate the entire health care wait times issue in one meeting. My understanding is we're going to see where to take that issue, and I think that's the intention of members opposite.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Ms. Fry.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

I think wait times are very important, and I would put that on the table as a number one issue.

I would like to make a plea for rolling childhood obesity and juvenile diabetes being into one and getting a taste of that. There is evidence to tell us that this next generation of children will not live as long as we did. Now, for a parent, that is the most devastating thing to hear, because we thought we were on our way as a nation that was going to come up with outcomes, and longevity was one that we were terribly pleased with.

Now, if we're finding that there's such a high incidence of child obesity and juvenile diabetes, which are actually linked in some cases--even in the thirties, there's a high incidence of type 2 diabetes--I think we need to roll that into one and look at it as a crisis. If we wait too long we won't be able to roll back some of this harm that is being done.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Yes. I think I'd actually see childhood obesity.... Those are some very good things, as long as we pare it down so that.... I would encourage the committee to look at it this way: What is it that we can accomplish as a committee coming through a study like this? All of them are very valid; none of them is more valid than the other. How can we best use our time to move an agenda along? I think our challenge is to consider that when we determine what our best one would be, because I think you're absolutely right on that.

Mr. Batters.

[Dave Batters, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

I agree with some of the things that Ms. Fry has just said. I do see these as important topics, both of them. I would like to see them studied separately, though. As she is very much aware, you can certainly have juvenile type 1 diabetes and not be obese. I think both issues are very important. I think the issue of childhood obesity should be studied, and I think the comment that it can lead to type 2 diabetes and that this is reaching epidemic proportions, particularly among our first nations people, is a good study in itself.

The juvenile diabetes topic is one that I have put forward. I'm sure other members have mentioned that as well. We could perhaps have one meeting on that and discuss how we could get some more research dollars into type 1 diabetes, as it's often overlooked. The focus is generally on type 2 diabetes, because it's 90% of the patients. It seems to be where the bulk of the research dollars go. I think type 1 is sometimes lost in the shuffle.

Without disagreeing with Dr. Fry, I just wanted to make the point that I see those as two distinct topics.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Okay. I encourage us not to get too wound up on lobbying for our issues, because I think it's premature. When we try to get the witnesses in, I think we'll have a better understanding of what we can accomplish and what we need to do.

Mr. Fletcher.

[Steven Fletcher, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB]

I wanted to support Ms. Brown's suggestion of making sure that we do have an opportunity to look into childhood obesity, along with our window into wait times. Childhood obesity goes into prevention, which has a long-term impact on wait times. Diabetes is really connected. Trans fats was something we dealt with last time at committee, and we saw some interesting cross-party support to try to deal with that issue. We still need to get a report on that. Also, part of the government's campaign promise was 1% of health funding going toward active living and sport strategies. That may be--