Health Committee on April 17th, 2008

[Wajid Khan, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Yes, that's why I'm asking for your support.

How is the Government of Canada helping Canadian innovation to be brought to market?

Second, some comments were made about the general transfer of funds to provinces and territories. Specifically, what funds are being transferred, and how, to the Province of Ontario?

[Dr. Karen Dodds]

I'll start with your question about health innovation and research.

The Government of Canada has provided, since 2004, $440 million in new funding for health-specific innovation and $1.6 billion in new funding for innovation with a health component.

They have focused on four pillars of research innovation. They cover direct costs of research, mainly through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Through Budgets 2006, 2007, and 2008, the annual base budget for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research has increased by 17.5%. It's now at $820.1 million. It includes indirect costs for research through the support of post-secondary institutions across the country. There's funding that goes directly to people--to students and researchers who excel. It also goes to infrastructure, chiefly through the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, which has invested $3.75 billion in infrastructure projects across the country in the last decade.

On the specific provinces, my colleague will....

[Krista Campbell]

With respect to funding for Ontario, Ontario receives about $4.1 billion this year through the Canada health transfer. They receive funding under the recently launched HPV immunization trust. The patient wait times guarantee trust, launched in Budget 2007, as well as ongoing funding through the 2004 wait times reduction trust, establishes part of the accord.

We can leave the exact figures for those, but they're also available on the Department of Finance's website.

[Wajid Khan, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you very much.

Do I have more time?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

You have two more minutes.

[Wajid Khan, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

I've got lots of time. That's good.

If we look at this Wait Time Alliance report card—do you have that in front of you?—on page 1, if you go to Ontario, it shows A for hip, A for knee, A for cancer, and A across. Could you tell me if this is the actual grade or if this is the difference between where it was and where it is today? How would you read that chart for Ontario?

A's all across--that's perfect, top of the class.

[Dr. Karen Dodds]

The A's indicate that 80% to 100% of the population is getting treatment within the benchmark.

[Wajid Khan, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

That's a pretty good score, wouldn't you say?

Do you believe that the wait time targets that are set for 2010 and 2011 are attainable, keeping in mind the current progress?

[Dr. Karen Dodds]

Again, each province has set a specific priority area, and we do believe they will meet their commitments by 2010. For example, in Ontario, the priority area is cataract surgery, and the timeframe is 26 weeks. Quebec has four priority areas. For cancer, radiation therapy, eight weeks is the timeframe. For joint replacement and cataract surgery, it hasn't yet specified a timeframe. So again, the priority area and the timeframe are known.

[Krista Campbell]

I apologize. If I could just correct the record for the committee—too many very small numbers on my tables. Ontario's Canada health transfer is $8.6 billion.

[Wajid Khan, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you very much for the correction.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you very much, Ms. Campbell, for your correction and for your insightful comments.

We'll now go to Mr. Dhaliwal, who will be sharing his time with Ms. Bennett. You only have five minutes.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

You could give four and a half minutes to me and thirty seconds to her.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

I would be very careful to keep to that time.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Welcome to the talented members of the panel here. I'm not going to go into politics. I'm going to be very direct. Otherwise I can talk for hours, as Mr. Fletcher said earlier.

Last time the Minister of Health was here, he did not have answers to these questions that I'm going to ask you. How many millions of people in Canada do not have a doctor, a family doctor, available to them? Can you give me the numbers, please?

[Dr. Karen Dodds]

The data would indicate 4% of Canadians.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

I'm looking for how many millions. Can you tell me in terms of numbers, so people can easily understand?

[Dr. Karen Dodds]

Our colleague at Finance has done the math and says it's 1.3 million.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

It's 1.3 million people without a doctor. Can you tell me how many foreign graduates in Canada are not practising medicine?

[Dr. Karen Dodds]

We wouldn't have that number. I don't think we'd have a way of getting that number.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Are you aware that part of this wait time guarantee is the shortage of medical professionals?

[Dr. Karen Dodds]

I'm not sure I exactly understand the question.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

When we say that wait times are getting longer and longer, part of the problem is that we are short of medical professionals.

[Dr. Karen Dodds]

Well, the discussion we've had this morning and the information that a variety of parties have tabled indicate that wait times are getting shorter and shorter.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

I'm not asking you that.

This is why I wanted to be sure. Part of the problem is a shortage of medical professionals. Answer yes or no, please.