Larry Bagnell

[Supply, November 23rd, 2004]

Mr. Chair, that would be very much appreciated. It has been a serious issue for some time.

Addictions are a very serious health issue in the north. Could the minister mention some of the steps that the department is taking to help us? These accentuate the health care costs dramatically. If that could be prevented through some of the prevention and promotion funds from the 2003 agreement or from the aboriginal prevention and promotion funds in this agreement, that would be very helpful.

I would like to know what we are doing about addictions in the north.

[Supply, November 23rd, 2004]

Mr. Chair, a number of my constituents feel very strongly about labelling genetically modified foods.

I mentioned to the minister that we have been having some problems with the approval of certain dental procedures through the uninsured health benefits program. These problems on occasion mean that first nations people either had to pay in advance for procedures or make a lengthy trip home and back to the dentist again.

I understand this problem is being worked on, but I would like assurances from the minister that it is being dealt with.

[Supply, November 23rd, 2004]

Mr. Chair, I want to make some opening remarks on health care in the north and our appreciation for our treatment. If I have any time left at the end I will ask some questions.

First I want to thank the Minister of Health for the tremendous job he has done since he has come in. Almost the first day I got here I approached him with a problem and he responded very openly and agreed to work on the problem right away. I am delighted, as a constituency MP, to have that kind of treatment.

I would also like to congratulate the Minister of State for Public Health who has done an equally great job. She came to my riding, had a long consultation with all the people and all the stakeholders and then, at the end of a long day, she had a long meeting with the nurses who are so important to our health care system.

I also want to thank the Prime Minister and the Government of Canada for the tremendous emphasis they put on the north recently. We have had a complete northern strategy that included $90 million for economic development programs, sustainability proposals, a huge northern environmental cleanup, northern sovereignty and, of course, northern health care. I thank the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance for understanding the uniqueness of the health care problems in the north and the extra costs those add.

For instance, if people in a big city have a serious accident they can go in their family car or in an ambulance a few blocks or a kilometre to a hospital at relatively low cost. In the northern territories it costs $5,000, $10,000 or $20,000 just to get to the hospital through Medivac. We have a very small tax base and obviously we cannot cover all that. We have a very harsh northern climate and it increases the cost of everything, transportation of materials, et cetera.

Another issue is the lack of guaranteed access to specialists and hospitals. Our hospitals, of course, do not tend to all the major surgeries. There is one major hospital in each of the territories. We also do not have the numbers to warrant having all the specialists there permanently. A problem that is a challenge for the future is how to have guaranteed access to those systems in various provinces so that our doctors could be guaranteed they will get their patients in at the time they need?

The last challenge I want to mention right now is the fact that there is only one hospital in each of the territories. We should think back to the SARS crisis. When there was a problem with one hospital in Toronto it was closed and the patients went to another hospital. In the north there is only one hospital in each of the territories. The others are hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometres away, so if we close a hospital for a similar infectious disease, people would die. There is no other place for them to go, not for SARS, but for all the other accidents and life-threatening conditions that people might have.

My thanks go out for the understanding of that and the tremendous amount of transfers the north has had for health care in recent years. In the transfer payment for the territorial budgets were very significant moneys for health. On top of that, as we know, we came to that historic agreement in 2003 that added $20 million to the territories. I was very excited about the money for prevention and health promotion because I think everyone in the House would agree that if we can prevent disease and promote health, it certainly reduces the costs in the long run.

Over and above those funds, we also have the first nations and Inuit programs. The figures I will be using are as of March 31, 2004. We have the Canadian prenatal nutrition program, $26,000; home and community care, more than $2,159,000; the environmental health program, $20,000; and the tobacco control strategy, over $117,000.

I appreciate that all the parties support reduction of tobacco and the minister's work in that area. In fact I talked to both ministers only yesterday about how we might reduce investment in the tobacco industry.

The next figures are: the aboriginal diabetes strategy, $155,000; the national native alcohol and drug addictions program, $18,000; the fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, $62,000; the AIDS office, $105,000; health services program management, $45,000; consultation Indian and Inuit, $16,000; health careers, $47,000.

I want to talk about health careers for a moment. We need to get more aboriginal people into health careers. I support the Canadian Medical Association's effort in partnering with the government in that goal.

The next figures are: the health programs transfer, $894,000; integrated community services, $1,656,000. Then we go on to the Canada Health Agency and the funds it provides to the north: community action program for children, $760,000; the Canada prenatal nutrition program, $632,000. That is a tremendous program. When I was president of the Skookum Jim First Nation Friendship Centre it was a wonderful program to reduce illness in babies.

The aboriginal head start program was given $529,000. I would like to tell the minister that is a tremendous program. It is absolutely remarkable how popular and successful it is. I implore the minister, any way he can in future budgets, to try to find more money for that program, whether it comes from human resources development, early childhood learning or wherever. It is very successful and we would like to expand it. Communities like Carmacks, Ross River and Pelly Crossing would like to expand it. The ones we have already are successful but we need funds for new centres.

We have more money for the AIDS program ACAP, $125,000; the population health fund, $75,000; diabetes, $104,000; FASD, another $65,000; hepatitis C, $70,000.

In Yukon the 10 self-governing first nations have assumed responsibility for all eligible community based first nations and Inuit health programming. The other four first nations communities have entered into integrated agreements with Health Canada. Health Canada also supports the work of the health and social development department, which is part of the Council of Yukon First Nations, to promote health promotion and illness prevention in first nations.

Those were not all the funds provided because, as everyone will remember, after the first ministers' conference from September 13 to 15 the Prime Minister, the finance minister and the health minister provided $41.3 billion over the next 10 years. My riding's portion of that was another $3 million for the Canadian health transfer, $34 million for the Canada health transfer base and $0.5 million for medical equipment. That is more than $37 million. On top of that there will be Yukon's share of the wait times reduction fund because that has not been calculated yet. Of course, the other two territories, if the people from the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are listening, we have been treated equally generously.

However, that is not all because in this new deal there is money for aboriginal people, which I certainly appreciate as being about 23% of my population. If all the programs I mentioned so far cannot cover it, then starting next year for the next five years there is $200 million for the aboriginal health transition fund and $100 million for the aboriginal health human resources initiative. Of course, those are very important human resources in health care. I think everyone agrees with that.

I certainly agree with the Canadian Medical Association that we have to increase residency spaces not only for our new doctors but so they can have better choices, so that aboriginal doctors can come through the system and overseas doctors will have spaces.

Finally, for aboriginal people there will be $400 million over the next five years for health promotion and disease prevention, which I talked about earlier.

However that is not all. Out of the new deal from last September, over and above the $37 million my riding received, as all ridings in Canada will get a share, the Prime Minister, finance minister and health minister recognized all the things I said at the beginning of my speech of the extra costs in the north. For that they provided $150 million over five years for the territories, $65 million for the territorial health access fund, $10 million for the federal-territorial working group and $75 million for medical transportation. Those funds can be used for things like recruitment and retention, which are so important in the north, and for advanced technology, such as Telehealth, where I hope we can be leaders in the world. We have already saved lives with equipment that has been provided with some of the funds I have talked about.

Of course everything is not perfect so I have some questions and challenges. First, I would like to ask a question that a number of my constituents have asked me. What is the minister doing about the labelling of genetically modified foods?

[Supply, November 23rd, 2004]

Mr. Chair, I would like to ask the minister about the new public health officer, which is a great addition to the whole health care system. Could he or someone else elaborate on the benefits of that?

[Human Resources and Skills Development Act, November 22nd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I have three quick questions. I congratulate the member for his excellent work as the chair on the work that we do in post-secondary education. It is an excellent initiative of the government. He has done a fine job over the years. He gets a tremendous number of people from Canadian society involved in that initiative.

First, why do we have to split two departments and send people to two different departments for those issues?

Second, this is rightfully a machinery of government question. Where the Prime Minister and governor in council can decide structures of government, why do we have to come back to Parliament and have a debate about this?

Third, in view of his vast experience related to community colleges, if this department is going to be the spokesperson or the key or champion government department for education, I have an issue related to the research councils. They have been doing a good job in the last year of getting more research money into community colleges, but the way they are structured now is that the research money has to go to universities. There is no university north of 60° in the northern half of our nation, which limits the amount of research money that is going there. Would the new department as the focus of education help us in championing that task, which I have to say the granting councils are moving on right now?

[Assistance to Hepatitis C Victims, November 2nd, 2004]

Mr. Chair, issue was taken earlier with regard the method of providing the administration of the 1986 to 1990 victims fund. Could the member outline for us the process that was used to administer those funds?

[Assistance to Hepatitis C Victims, November 2nd, 2004]

Mr. Chair, I accept my hon. colleague's apologies about our not being in the House.

I agree with him on the openness of the health minister to use that fund. I am confident the health minister will use that as soon as he can, and as appropriately as he can. I also agree with the comment, and I am sure a number of colleagues have said it but the most recent was by my colleague from the NDP, that the debate is not about the technicalities of the fund. The debate should be about doing what is right, doing it as quickly as possible and helping people as reasonably and effectively as we can. Anything we can appropriately do to support victims, I will certainly be supportive of.

[Assistance to Hepatitis C Victims, November 2nd, 2004]

Mr. Chair, I am not as well versed on this as some members of the House. I rise primarily just to put on the record information from a person in my riding who has approached me recently related to this, so that people can understand the situation this person is in and any help that we might be able to provide.

I will read parts of this person's letter to me. It states:

I am a third-generation Yukoner. My deceased husband...was not a Yukoner but came here in the forties and was a member of the Yukon Order of Pioneers. ... He enjoyed his job and especially sports coverage.

He had to have a heart operation in 1995, which occurred at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver. From a blood transfusion he contacted Hepatitis C. He died on June 6, 1993, at the age of 61.

Needless to say that losing my husband of 23 years was devastating not only for me but for his four children (from a previous marriage) and my two children (also from a previous marriage). He has grandchildren who never got to know him.

Our plans to retire on our property near Champagne will never be seen. It is very hard for me to this day trying to understand how something like this could have happened when the proper testing should have been done. After Terry had his operation both his daughter and myself commented that he had a yellowish tinge, and when Terry questioned the nurses he was told it was from the operation. No tests were done for Hepatitis.

My life is very different today.

She goes on to say how she is living on pensions. And she goes on:

As you well know, the cost of living in the Yukon is very high. I live at Champagne in my son's house to be near my 92-year-old mother and stepfather. My daughter and both my grandchildren live in Whitehorse, and with the gas prices soaring it becomes quite expensive to visit them and attend school functions.

This is only one of many tragedies in the hepatitis C story. I would certainly applaud anything that can be done to help my constituent in these difficult circumstances under any provisions of government.

I would like to add some information for the record with respect to hepatitis C on some of the elements that the government has pursued.

We certainly want a strong blood supply system that can respond to all existing and future threats. That is why a plan was put in place to address the unique needs of people living with hepatitis C as well as those of the blood system as a whole.

I will talk a little about the undertaking initiative and provide some context and background for that.

The Government of Canada, along with its provincial and territorial partners, announced financial assistance for people who contacted hepatitis C between January 1, 1986, and January 1, 1990, and for infected persons with hemophilia who received blood products during that period.

This was the period during which the United States was using tests that might have screened out some units of blood contaminated with hepatitis C, had we used them here in Canada.

This $1.1 billion compensation package included $875 million in federal funding and is providing financial relief to thousands of Canadians. In fact, since for most payments under the settlement there is no income tax, the total value is approximately $1.5 billion.

There are also Canadians who contracted this disease both before and after those dates who do not fall within the terms of the negotiated settlement.

In September 1998 the Government of Canada announced a comprehensive $525 million hepatitis C strategy to meet their needs. Our goal is to help people with hepatitis C while better protecting all Canadians from threats to the safety of our blood supply.

The biggest share of that investment was earmarked for the undertaking initiative. This agreement committed the Government of Canada to transfer $300 million to the provinces and territories over 20 years to ensure that infected individuals would have reasonable access to hepatitis C health care services.

I would like to examine the impact and status of that agreement, which is now administered by the new Public Health Agency of Canada. The undertaking agreement states that the provinces and territories must earmark transfer payments for health care services related to the treatment of hepatitis C infection and related medical conditions, such as immunization, nursing care, new and emerging antiviral drug therapies, and other relevant drug therapies.

Under the terms of the agreement, provinces and territories determine the mix of services that best suits the needs of their citizens. This kind of flexibility was considered crucial to reflect the needs of different jurisdictions.

In the case of Ontario, which bears nearly half of the hepatitis C burden in Canada, doctors in that province perform about 90 liver transplants related to hepatitis C every year. Over the 20 years of the undertaking agreement these transplants will cost about $217 million, with the Government of Canada paying well over half of that, $132.6 million.

As we learned a few weeks ago, the undertaking initiative allows Ontario to use its transfer payments under the agreement as it sees fit for health care services related to hepatitis C.

Other jurisdictions may have different priorities. Some may use the funding to provide specialized hepatitis nursing support, extensive state-of-the-art laboratory testing, or to buy medication.

While provinces and territories have the flexibility to implement the agreement, they are still accountable to their respective populations on the use of their funds, and the Government of Canada has the right to reduce, adjust, or terminate funding if evidence shows that a jurisdiction has not tried to meet the shared objective of the agreement. To that end, the Government of Canada plans to evaluate the activities of each jurisdiction in this area every five years, as the provinces and territories report to their citizens.

The Government of Canada takes its responsibility to evaluate the implementation of the agreement very seriously. We are soliciting feedback from affected individuals through Health Canada's website, a function that the new Public Health Agency of Canada will take over.

We also assess publicly available information on the access and types of services, including announcements from the provinces and territories, drug plans, eligibility requirements for existing programs, information and feedback from community groups, and complaints sent to the minister or reported through the news media.

Members may recall citizen complaints and media reports that suggested the provinces and the territories were not using the funds in accordance with the intended agreement. In response, the Government of Canada held informal discussions with all jurisdictions last February about the use of these funds. From these discussions, it appears that the provinces and territories are providing hepatitis C health care services in accordance with the terms of the agreement.

That said, we will continue to monitor implementation. Canadians living with hepatitis C, health professionals, and provincial and territorial governments will be able to help evaluate the types of services provided by all jurisdictions.

Since the agreements were signed at different times, the evaluations are staggered over the next three years. It is interesting and important to note that Ontario is not due for its evaluation until 2007, but released an interim report this year, three years ahead of schedule.

Many Canadians currently infected with hepatitis C contracted the virus between 1986 and 1990, but thousands came into contact with it before and after these dates. As a society, we want to ease the burden of affected individuals who were not part of the original settlement. This is the intent of the undertaking agreement, which provides funds to provinces and territories for health care services related to hepatitis C.

Over the next 20 years, federal transfers will help provide Canadians who have hepatitis C with access to needed hepatitis C health care services. It is a flexible, sensible, and compassionate approach to meet the needs of affected people.

In conclusion, as the previous speaker said, I hope that in the days to come we will look on this situation and on people such as the constituent I talked about at the beginning of my speech with compassion and come up with the best assistance we can to improve their lives after this devastating experience they have had and that this disease has wrought on them and their families. Anything we can do, I will certainly support.

[Criminal Code, November 1st, 2004]

I would ask the Conservatives not to heckle me or I will embarrass them about their vote on the Tlicho bill.

They ensure we are getting privacy rights to support the objectives and the intent of Parliament for all Canadians. People can read about it in their annual reports, but I can tell everyone they give the DNA data bank and its operations an A plus.

The banking of DNA evidence from the past is like a justice time machine. It can help the investigator solve a case that went cold many years ago. The newest of DNA technologies helps to focus the investigation and can even exonerate the innocent.

The DNA data bank's success is based on a simple formula. The more profiles entered into the convicted offender index and the crime scene index, the more hits generated from comparing the two to help police investigators solve serious crimes.

One such hit solved the vicious 1992 murder of a convenience store attendant in Sydney, Nova Scotia. The killer used a 30 centimetre store knife to stab the victim dozens of times. As she lay bleeding to death on the floor, he snatched $300 from the cash register and two cartons of cigarettes.

His escape on foot in a blinding snowstorm made it impossible for police dogs to follow the trail. There were other leads, several cigarette butts, and a used coffee cup, but forensic science was not far enough advanced in 1992 to extract useful samples for DNA analysis.

Local police conducted a massive investigation but the murder remained unsolved for more than a decade. By January 2001 technology had progressed far enough to allow authorities to establish a DNA profile from the items carelessly discarded at the scene of the crime. The profile was added to the DNA data bank's crime scene index.

In a totally unrelated case nine years after the murder and hundreds of kilometres away, an Ontario court convicted a 28 year old man of assault causing bodily harm. The judge ordered the offender to provide a biological sample for the purpose of forensic DNA analysis.

When the profile was entered into the DNA data bank, it generated a hit with the convenience store crime scene. This discovery led to an elaborate undercover police operation that eventually led to the confession and mandatory life sentence for the brutal killing.

The DNA data bank's contributions are not limited to Canadian cases. Through an international agreement involving Interpol, police agencies are collaborating more frequently on challenging multinational investigations.

One such case involved police officers in Ohio who used a popular television program to profile a troubling case involving sexual assault and murder. The broadcast generated several telephone tips, including one from a viewer in western Canada who thought the suspect looked familiar. The tip was called into the local RCMP detachment and the suspect was eventually found under an alias in an Alberta prison.

At the time of conviction the offender had been ordered to provide a biological sample and his DNA profile had been entered into the DNA data bank's convicted offender index. Scientists at the DNA data bank found a match between the DNA profile from the Ohio scene and that of the convicted offender, clearly linking the offender to the murder scene. After serving out his prison term in Canada, the offender was deported to the U.S. to face murder charges.

I should point out that our international success using DNA evidence is carried out by a special international agreement. Any sharing of this kind of evidence is carried out according to the privilege of the justice system and with the privacy considerations that Canadians value and embrace.

I remind hon. members that the national DNA data bank serves as one of the most powerful enforcement tools available to Canadian police and courts. Almost 2,300 serious crimes have been solved over the past four years through the help of the evidence gathered by DNA data bank scientists.

Even more encouraging is the fact that as the data bank approaches full capacity, its impact will increase even further as a greater number of samples are processed. Enhanced automation in robotics will help scientists process even more DNA samples in a shorter period of time.

In Canada and abroad we can look forward to many more success stories as awareness increases and the legislation and technology continue to improve.

[Criminal Code, November 1st, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I have the distinct pleasure today of speaking in favour of sending Bill C-13 to committee.

The national DNA data bank is a great Canadian success story and the bill can only increase that success.

The DNA data bank brings together justice, scientific innovation and world class technology. It highlights the unique Canadian knowhow and strong Canadian leadership, reaching well beyond our borders.

The DNA data bank is about the administration of justice and the most powerful investigative tool so far discovered.

Forensic DNA analysis has revolutionized criminal investigation and proceedings. It has helped in the investigation of hundreds of serious crimes in the past few years alone. It has speeded up the investigation of some of the most difficult sexual assaults or offences involving violence that Canadian police forces have had to deal with.

More powerful than fingerprints, DNA is a silent but credible witness, helping to convict the guilty while protecting the innocent. When properly handled and profiled, it offers indisputable evidence linking a suspect with a crime.

The DNA data bank's most recent annual report, which was tabled in the House on October 21, gives us an insight into how this jewel in the Canadian criminal justice crown actually operates. The report also tells us about the history and science behind the DNA data bank. I am not going to go over all of that here today, but let me select some key highlights.

DNA is the fundamental building block for our entire genetic makeup. With the exception of identical twins, triplets and quadruplets, each person's DNA is unique. The national DNA data bank, established as a result of legislation enacted by Parliament almost six years ago, is at the forefront of forensic DNA science.

With royal assent in 1998, the RCMP committed to build a national DNA data bank and to make it operational within 18 months. The project was completed on time and under budget.

The DNA data bank is recognized worldwide for its quality of work and the professionalism of the scientists who work there. The technology that it has developed is now being snapped up by other countries.

Since it opened in June 2000, the DNA data bank has helped solve 165 murders and almost 400 sexual assault cases in communities from coast to coast to coast. It has been crucial in helping police solve over 300 armed robberies and over 1,200 break and enters. The national DNA data bank has provided critical evidence leading to convictions in nearly 2,300 serious crimes.

It is important that our legislation keep up with what we have learned from the DNA data bank's operations to date. As my colleague emphasized, this bill is a carefully crafted set of mid-course adjustments before the full parliamentary review next year. We need to ensure that the DNA data bank works as effectively as possible within the parameters set out for it in law.

In these days of biometrics and genetic cloning, any initiative that touches on personal genetic information naturally raises concerns about privacy. The nationwide consultations that contributed to the creation of the DNA data bank stressed the need to balance a suspect's right to privacy and the need to protect society by facilitating the early detection, arrest and conviction of offenders.

Indeed, Canadian parliamentarians reflected the need for this balance in the careful crafting of the legislative provisions. The legislation imposes strict procedures to govern the handling of DNA profiles and biological samples to ensure that the privacy interests are protected.

The Canadian data bank is unique in keeping strictly separate from DNA profiles any identifying information. The people working with the DNA have no way of knowing whose DNA they are dealing with or any of the background to the case. Information collected by the DNA data bank is used for law enforcement purposes only. This bill continues all of those protections.

Some members of the House will know that a national DNA data bank advisory committee oversees the operation and offers advice to the Commissioner of the RCMP. This is a unique group of experts in law, science, ethics and privacy, including a former Supreme Court of Canada judge and an assistant privacy commissioner.