Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Thank you to all of the witnesses for being here today, especially from Vancouver. We know you had to get up early in the morning to be ready to go at 8 a.m. Thank you for doing that.
This has been a really interesting study. We've had great presentations, and today's is no exception. I am fascinated to hear you say, Mr. Racette, that we lack a national health agenda for a $200 billion industry. Your information about what's going on in Sweden is an eye-opener. If there's any particular document that you think we should look at, I'd love to see it, as I'm sure other members of the committee would, just to see what they are doing there, especially around the question of jurisdiction. We've heard that incredible things are taking place.
I'm reminded that one witness told us that Canada is a country of pilot projects, which makes your comment, Mr. Racette, even more compelling. We have great things going on, but they're very scattered. It strikes me as a very difficult situation, because if you're a Canadian, you're a Canadian no matter where you live, and you should be able to expect the same high quality of care and access no matter where you are in this country. So thank you for everything you've told us today.
I want to focus some questions to Dr. Montaner and Dr. Kerr.
I'm familiar with your work, Dr. Montaner. You have an international reputation for the incredible work you've done out of the B.C. Centre for Excellence on HIV/AIDS.
Dr. Kerr, your work with a very high-risk urban population has been quite incredible, and I am very familiar with it.
To be quite crass about it, I'd love you to talk a little about the numbers. We're talking about innovation in health care. What you're doing is preventing infections, and the statistics you give us are quite incredible. Can you translate this into costs and describe how, if we change the focus of what we're doing by looking at the social determinants of health, in working on harm reduction, we are actually saving a huge amount of money? I know this, but I don't have all the info at my fingertips and I'd love you to put it forward.
Secondly, I read something a couple of days ago from you, Dr. Montaner, and I heard you speak about the “seek and treat” program. But I believe you are also suggesting that, based on the success in B.C., we should have a national program of free treatment—“treatment is prevention”—for AIDS medications. Could you also tell us why you are now saying that? What has compelled you to bring this forward?
Thank you. If you'd like to answer those questions....