Thank you.
Good morning, everyone.
Madam Chair and members of the committee, it's a pleasure to be here to discuss supplementary estimates (B).
Before we get into the details of today's discussion, I would like to thank you for the hard work on Bill C-36, which is now before the Senate. The piece of legislation, once it comes into force, will provide us with the tools needed to recall dangerous consumer products.
Canada's Consumer Product Safety Act will have a profound effect on the marketplace. It will give consumers greater confidence in the safety of the products they find on the shelves of stores everywhere in this country.
We know that the discovery of things like lead in toys has rightly caused parents to be concerned. They know that young children put objects in their mouths as a form of discovery. The new limits on lead content that I announced this week indicate, not only to our industry but to those around the world, that we mean business.
Bill C-36 will give us new powers to deal with those kinds of problems more effectively. The new inspector powers in Bill C-36 are both fair and consistent with those of other federal laws. They are also consistent with the Supreme Court of Canada's decisions on the acceptable scope of inspection powers.
The safety of consumer products is something from which we can all benefit. We are working with industry to enhance consumer product safety and we are developing new tools to help us take corrective actions where problems arise.
While we have given a great deal of attention to that legislation and other safety measures, Health Canada has also continued to focus on the business of funding and administering other programs that protect and improve the health of Canadians.
Health Canada's 2010-11 supplementary estimates (B) include a net increase of $48.1 million, which brings its total budget to $3.731 billion for the current fiscal year.
We recognize the important part that research plays in ensuring the continued health of Canadians. This is why we have provided ongoing support and additional investments to Canadian Institutes of Health Research to support innovative and patient-oriented research that could have an impact on the health of Canadians.
Another important funding initiative supported by our government is an international initiative on Alzheimer's, and $5 million has been added for this purpose. Our government has invested more than $88 million in research regarding Alzheimer's disease and related dementia since 2006, and we are funding a four-year national population study on neurological diseases. In addition, important international MOUs have been signed with our partners from France, Germany, and the U.K. on Alzheimer's research.
I am particularly proud of the accomplishments we have made in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The Canadian HIV vaccine initiative, led by our government, along with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, highlights Canada's world-class HIV and vaccine research expertise.
CIHR is investing approximately $40 million per year in support of HIV/AIDS research. Canadian investigators, supported by this funding, are at the forefront of discovery, improving the health of those infected, and are working toward a vaccine. CIHR continues to invest strategically in HIV research and is actively implementing the CIHR HIV/AIDS research initiative strategic plan. This will ensure continued knowledge development and research capacity-building, as well as the application of new findings in HIV/AIDS research in Canada.
The landscape for health services on population health research in HIV/AIDS is changing in Canada through the support for two centres for research development in HIV/AIDS. These centres are building research networks, addressing high-priority research questions, and building knowledge translation capacity in Canada.
The Public Health Agency's national HIV laboratories and their surveillance and risk assessment divisions are active members of the World Health Organization's advisory network of experts that support the development and implementation of the HIV drug resistance, prevention, and assessment strategy.
The lab is designed as one of the very few specialized HIV drug resistance laboratories in the world. It will also provide training and technical support to laboratory staff in resource-poor countries, and will continue to lead the way in developing new technologies that will facilitate testing worldwide.
This past summer I travelled to Vienna, where I met with international leaders, and particularly with Bill Gates. As a result, our government will help advance the science for the development of a safe and effective HIV vaccine that will benefit those who need it most, and that's all Canadians.
I would also like to take the opportunity to inform members of this committee of the announcement I made yesterday, along with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, on the appointment of Dr. Singh and Dr. Esparza as co-chairs of the advisory board that will oversee the renewed Canadian HIV vaccine initiatives and its research development alliance.
Addressing the health concerns of Canada's aboriginal people comprises a portion of the funding under the supplementary estimates. It is targeted for programs that are helping aboriginal people, especially those living on reserve. One of the commitments in the supplementary estimates is our contribution to the Indian residential school resolution health support program. The Government of Canada is committed to supporting former students of residential schools and their families throughout the implementation of the Indian residential school settlement agreement. Health Canada is responsible for the resolution health support program that is part of the agreement, and we hope this will continue to have a positive impact on the health of first nations people.
We are committed to offering support services that take into account the culture and heritage of aboriginal people. Community-based healing programs, such as those for mental health and addictions, will assist these communities by addressing the health and social challenges they face. These investments represent a total of $5 million.
Additional funds have also been required to help in the transition from the outdated food mail system, which had been in place for more than 40 years. It is being replaced with Nutrition North Canada, a new retail-based subsidy program that will ensure northerners benefit from improved access to healthy and nutritious food throughout the year. Health Canada is allocating $1.5 million this fiscal year and $2.9 million annually beginning in 2011-12 for nutrition and education initiatives under Nutrition North Canada.
We also recognize that the availability of nutritious food and access to it is a starting point for a nutritious diet. These education initiatives will help northern Canadians put nutritious meals on their plates. Nutrition North Canada will be more efficient, more accountable, and more transparent. It will help make sure that northerners get the maximum benefit from the government subsidy for healthy foods. It will give retailers more control over their supply chain and therefore create more competition. That means there will be more incentives for greater quality control.
Fresh foods will get to the shelves sooner, making them more attractive to consumers. Our government is particularly proud of the efforts that have been made in the health promotion. Encouraging a healthy lifestyle is instrumental in maintaining a healthy body. It also means an overall improved quality of life and a healthier Canadian population, while being less onerous on our health care system. This cannot be truer than for young Canadians. Our intention is to encourage them to lead a healthier lifestyle right from the beginning.
For example, we have recently launched a bold new education campaign aimed at 13- to 15-year-olds to teach them about the dangers of illicit drugs. The centrepiece of this campaign is a commercial called “Mirror”, which dramatizes the harmful effects of drugs. It shows a young woman looking into the mirror and seeing what her life would be like if she experimented with drugs. The commercial began running two weeks ago and will be airing until March. During that time, we expect two-thirds of all Canadian teens between the ages of 13 and 15 to see it. This campaign is designed to be a powerful deterrent. Deterrence is an essential component of the government's national anti-drug strategy.
Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Gil Kerlikowske, an important figure in the battle against illicit drugs in the United States. We discussed many issues of common interest that have a bearing on the health of young Canadians and Americans. The most effective way to help Canadians is to give them the information they need to make informed choices. In fact, we have made many announcements in the past and there are more to come in the future about sources of information for parents with regard to the health and safety of their children.
Information and education are also playing an important role in our efforts to curb childhood obesity. Obesity rates among children and youth have nearly tripled over the last 25 years. Obesity increases the risk of developing some chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.
The federal, provincial, and territorial governments recently agreed to a framework for coordinating their approaches to promoting healthy weights among children under the age of 18. We have agreed to focus on making the environment where children live, learn, and play more supportive of physical activity and healthy eating. We will also try to identify the risk factors that can lead to obesity in children and address those issues early in a child's life. We agreed to find ways to increase access to nutritious food and decrease the marketing to children of foods and drink that are high in fat, sugar, or sodium.
An equally essential part of the plan to reduce obesity is the need to promote more physical activity. All levels of government need to be involved in finding more ways for kids to be active, both indoors and outdoors throughout the season.
The campaigns we are currently leading are designed to have an impact on the long-term health of many Canadians. By helping them change their lifestyles or avoid dangerous substances, we can prevent a wide variety of health problems in the future.
Through our nutrition facts education campaign, we are helping Canadians understand more about the foods they eat.
Our children's health and safety campaign strives to help parents protect their children from many potential hazards, and our national anti-drug strategy is helping to prevent young people from experimenting with illicit drugs and becoming addicted in the first place.
In the year ahead, we will continue to develop initiatives that support our long-term vision for health care in Canada, while tending to the short-term needs of Canadians.
I will be pleased to take questions from the committee.
Thank you.
