Evidence of meeting #56 for Health in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:15 p.m.
Bloc
Luc Malo Bloc Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC
Very well. I understand what you said perfectly, Madam Minister.
But I would like to know specifically how you instructed the agency to behave in terms of its spending in the next year. Did you ask the agency to hold off on all spending until you had made your decision, which will be based on the feedback you are going to receive?
4:15 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
Thank you very much for the question.
The Supreme Court decision gave us some quite helpful clarity about the federal role versus the provincial role in this area. Essentially, the Supreme Court upheld some of the provisions of the act and struck down others. All of the activities the Assisted Human Reproduction Agency was doing were ones that in fact it will continue to do.
Some of the prohibitions of the act, such as the prohibition against cloning, for example, and others, were upheld. They are working with the patient and provider communities. Those are things they will continue to do in terms of providing up-to-date information. The board itself has passed a budget that is significantly below that level while it awaits the consultations and the final decisions of the government in terms of what role and what size of budget the agency will have going forward.
There is work the board is doing. They continue to do the work that is important and that they have been doing. That was what the Supreme Court made clear they could continue to do. Some of the proposed areas the Supreme Court said were within provincial jurisdiction. Those are areas, clearly, the agency will not be pursuing.
4:15 p.m.
Bloc
Luc Malo Bloc Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC
Are you telling me then, Ms. Yeates, that roughly $7 million a year is spent on the following activities: delivering information to the public and advising the minister? That is what the Supreme Court said in its ruling.
4:15 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
I was giving some examples, Madam Chair, of the examples that we have, but there are a number of others. The CEO, Elinor Wilson, is on the line and can perhaps speak to more of the details.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
4:20 p.m.
President, Assisted Human Reproduction Canada
Thank you, Madam Chair. Perhaps I could clarify.
The agency continues to serve as a national centre of expertise on assisted human reproduction. There are many activities the agency has been doing beyond the two that have been mentioned. We have an active program working with the professional and the patient community on preventing multiple births due to infertility treatments. We have an active program with the oncofertility community, trying to ensure that for young people who have cancer early in life, their fertility can be preserved so that they too can experience a family. We are also working with the field and with patient groups on the lifestyle factors that affect infertility. We are awaiting the results of the Statistics Canada survey that was supported by the agency to see whether or not infertility is actually staying the same, increasing, or decreasing in this country. We continue to work with the professional community, for example, to look at now alternate mechanisms for standardization of approaches in this very important field.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
Thank you, Ms. Wilson, and thank you, Mr. Malo. I appreciate your questions.
We'll now go to the NDP. I understand that Ms. Leslie and Ms. Ashton are going to be sharing their time. Who wants to begin?
Ms. Leslie.
4:20 p.m.
NDP
Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS
Thanks for the indulgence of the committee.
Welcome back, Madam Chair. It's nice to see you.
And welcome back, Madam Minister and other panellists. It's nice to see all of you again.
We have been talking about antibiotics and livestock at committee, and, Madam Minister, when you weren't here, the other panellists were answering some questions about this, which leads me to this question. In 2005, Canada was directed by the UN to create a national infectious disease strategy, and it was supposed to be created by now, by about 2008, and implemented by 2012. The Auditor General's report on public health in 2008 cited numerous problems we have with the surveillance of infectious disease. In thinking about the 2012 deadline, I don't think we're going to make it because we haven't heard anything about this strategy.
My question is, what is the status of the strategy and which department is actually responsible for it? Is it Health or the Public Health Agency?
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Leona Aglukkaq Conservative Nunavut, NU
Thank you. That's a great question.
I'll just use one example: the Sheila Weatherill report. There were a number of recommendations that came out of that to deal with foodborne illness types of issues, and the whole system that's set up under our pandemic response plan is part of that. How we would respond and the partners within that framework in the pandemic plan would be no different from any other type of infection. It's built within that system. We have a national pandemic plan that's used, for example, for H1N1 or the issues that were raised through the Weatherill report. That whole process, the machinery of how we would respond, is the same. The lead on that, from this table, would be the Public Health Agency of Canada.
4:20 p.m.
NDP
Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS
Just to clarify, you're saying that the pandemic strategy is part of the infectious disease strategy?
4:20 p.m.
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
The pandemic plan itself, while it's focused around pandemics of influenza, takes an all-hazard approach in terms of any range of infectious diseases, building the systems, whether it's surveillance or others, to be able to respond to whatever we might face, or other public health emergencies as well.
In terms of the surveillance and the AG's report, when she reviewed, as an agency we'd just got started, so we're building that. We continue to build the surveillance systems, working with the provinces and territories. As we saw with H1N1 and with other events, we actually get good data and good information from the provinces. That's continuing to improve. On the non-infectious side, for example, there's the development of the MS system, which we talked about yesterday. We do have an ongoing relationship with the provinces and we work with them through multiple committees, etc., that actually address the intent and the issues you're speaking to.
4:20 p.m.
NDP
Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS
Other than the ongoing conversation, do you have a deadline for when the strategy will be complete?
4:20 p.m.
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
We already have the pandemic plan. We are revising that. We also have the North American plan and--
4:20 p.m.
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
Basically it's the same--
4:20 p.m.
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
We cover a whole range of infectious diseases. There isn't one plan that can cover everything. We have a tuberculosis strategy, the pandemic plan, and others, all of which are interrelated. We could have 380 different strategies--for each individual infection. We don't. We have ones around antibiotic resistance, etc.
4:20 p.m.
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
They all fit together and it is a comprehensive view of the issue.
4:25 p.m.
NDP
Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS
--Mr. Butler-Jones, the last time you were here, a couple of weeks ago, you testified that the CIPARS reports having to do with the utilization of antibiotics in Canada were available publicly. In checking the website, we see that they haven't been available publicly since 2007.
This makes me quite worried that the government is actually treating these as a political document instead of a useful tool of simple surveillance reports. I'm wondering who actually vets them. Who actually makes the decision and approves them before they're released? Which department? Or is it the Prime Minister's Office?
4:25 p.m.
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
They come through the Public Health Agency.