Health Committee on Jan. 29th, 2008

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

I will call the meeting to order, please.

Welcome, everybody. I hope you had a nice break. It's nice to see everybody back and ready to start, and to catch up on all the news.

We have a fairly concise agenda. Pursuant to the order of reference on Wednesday, December 5, 2007, the committee will now proceed with the study of Bill S-220, An Act respecting a National Blood Donor Week.

I want to welcome Hon. Navdeep Bains, the sponsor of the bill. Mr. Bains has put a lot of thought into Bill S-220.

We will be going through the clause-by-clause motions of this bill today.

Mr. Bains, I welcome you to add your comments to the committee.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Brampton South, ON]

Thank you very much, Chair. I appreciate the opportunity to come before committee.

I think you've had the opportunity to read Bill S-220, An Act respecting a National Blood Donor Week. This bill designates the week in which June 14 occurs in each and every year as national blood donor week. There are numerous benefits to passing this legislation. It has a tremendous amount of support in the House and from other organizations and Canadians who have written to me about this.

First and foremost, the purpose of this bill is to create an awareness of the importance of blood donation within Canadian society. I think it also helps reinforce that blood donation is completely safe, that people should not be concerned about giving blood, and that we have a very safe system.

We are fortunate, as a nation, but there could be circumstances where a crisis could occur and we'd need to build up some additional blood supply for peak demand periods.

It's also very important to celebrate the contribution of various blood donors and volunteers in each and every community.

The purpose is fairly straightforward. It's a very concise bill. If you have any questions, I'd be more than glad to answer them now. Otherwise, I think we can proceed to clause-by-clause.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you, Mr. Bains, for your comments, and thank you for the work you've put into Bill S-220.

Are there any questions or comments before proceeding to clause-by-clause?

If not, then pursuant to Standing Order 75(1), consideration of the preamble and clause 1 is postponed. We will call for clause 2.

(Clause 2 agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Shall the preamble carry?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Shall the title carry?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Shall the bill be carried?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Shall I report the bill to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

I intend to do this on Wednesday afternoon. That's the way it's set up. Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you very much.

Congratulations, Mr. Bains.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Brampton South, ON]

I'd just like to thank the committee members and the chair for your cooperation in this. I appreciate the fact that it went fairly seamlessly. Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you.

We're just going to pause for one moment. We're going to go in camera.

I'm sorry, before we do that, Mrs. Davidson.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Before we do that, I'd like to add my congratulations to the Hon. Mr. Bains. I think it is wonderful that he has brought forth a motion and a bill that we can support in this fashion. I think it's very important, and I'm glad we were able to do that.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Brampton South, ON]

Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Yes, thank you so much, Mr. Bains. The committee appreciates your work very much.

We will suspend for one minute. We're going to go in camera for committee business.

[Proceedings continue in camera]