Health Committee on Nov. 20th, 2012

[Glenda Yeates]

Again, we don't discuss individual cases for privacy reasons, but I think the minister has offered to brief technical—

[Dany Morin, NDP, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you.

We'll now go to Mr. Brown. You have three minutes, Mr. Brown.

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I have a question, and Colin Carrie may have one too. I'll be brief.

This is for the CIHR. One thing this committee has taken an interest in is neurological disorders. What allocations are in the main estimates or the supplementary estimates for the government's efforts on neurological disorders? I remember there was a project of interest, which we were working on with the U.K. and France, for a greater study on Alzheimer's. I know there is interesting work being done on MS.

Maybe you could shed some light on how these supplementary estimates contribute to our ongoing focus on neurological disorders.

[James Roberge]

Thank you for the question.

There are no additional funds specifically in those domains in the supplementary estimates, but there are ongoing programs funded under what was provided through the main estimates. There is in fact funding with respect to Alzheimer's roughly of the order of $30 million per annum, including an international component, which you referred to. There are arrangements with international consortia looking at Alzheimer's disease in Europe, the United States, and now in Asia, a number of countries. With respect to SPOR as well, there is a component.

Again, until these research networks are selected, it is quite possibly components that would be involved. I mentioned the mental health research network funded with the Graham Boeckh Foundation. It's looking at youth and areas such as suicide, as an example. There is ongoing funding, but there are no additional moneys through supplementary estimates, other than for SPOR, as was mentioned.

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

Colin, do you have a quick question?

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Yes, thank you, Patrick.

Madam Yeates, there has been talk in the news about narcotic abuse, specifically of OxyContin. It appears that the provinces have the tools to deal with prescription drug abuse in their jurisdiction. I know our government took a leadership role with first nations.

Could you outline more clearly what we have done at that level to work with the issue of prescription drug abuse?

[Glenda Yeates]

Yes. Thank you very much for the question.

Madam Chair, as the minister mentioned, the issue of prescription drug abuse is one for which there's a heightened awareness of its challenge for communities, including but certainly not limited to first nations communities.

Because we run the non-insured health benefits program, which provides financial assistance for first nations to access the drugs, the needed medications on our formulary program, we've been doing a number of things to try to find the balance, which I think all jurisdictions are trying to do, in order to make sure that needed pain medication is available but that we are putting appropriate checks and balances in place.

The kinds of checks and balances we've done in conjunction with our expert advisory committee include our working with them to understand what is appropriate. We have, for example, daily or monthly limits, so that there is some sense of how much pain medication of a certain type is appropriate. There are in some cases circumstances in which we will have flags that go up for the pharmacist, and therefore they can't fill the prescription until there's a check.

Particularly with regard to OxyContin, we've put it on what is called exception drug status. That means it's not on an open formulary basis; you have to have the approval of the program very specifically. That's the mechanism that we see has significantly impacted the use of OxyContin.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you very much, Ms. Yeates, and thank you, Dr. Carrie.

I want to thank all of our guests for coming today.

Before we go any further, I would like unanimous consent to call all the votes on the estimates together. I'll call them out. There are seven votes. If you want to do them one by one, we can do that too, but I don't think that's really necessary.

Do I have unanimous consent to call all the votes together?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

I'm going to go through all of this in a block.

Shall votes 1b, 5b, 10b, 25b, 50b, 55b, and 60b under Health carry?

HEALTH

Department

Vote 1b—Operating expenditures..........$194,938,496

Vote 5b—Capital expenditures..........$1

Vote 10b—The grants listed in the Estimates and contributions, in the form of monetary payments or the provision of goods or services..........$42,150,191

Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Vote 25b—The grants listed in the Estimates..........$2,287,600

Public Health Agency of Canada

Vote 50b—Operating expenditures..........$1

Vote 55b—Capital expenditures..........$1

Vote 60b—The grants listed in the Estimates and contributions..........$1

(Votes lb, 5b, 10b, 25b, 50b, 55b, and 60b agreed to)

Thank you.

Shall I report the supplementary estimates (B) to the House at the earliest possible time, which would be tomorrow afternoon?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you.

With that, I want to thank our guests. We really appreciate all you do.

The meeting is adjourned.