Health committee  Yes. It will be a voluntary system, which means that at the clinic level, there will be a choice made by MS clinics about whether they will participate. At the patient level, there will also be a decision about whether they would want their anonymous information—so no personal identifiers—included in the national system.

Health committee  Well, it's a very good question and comment. In fact, that's precisely why we are working with Neurological Health Charities Canada to undertake the Canadian study. We need to understand whether we are seeing better reporting of neurological conditions and that's driving up the numbers, or whether there are other underlying factors that we don't know about right now that are influencing rates of neurological conditions.

Health committee  Thank you very much. I'll start by saying that, as you know, the monitoring system is for all MS patients, including those who have chosen to have the CCSVI procedure, but not exclusive to those patients. The reason it's important to have this monitoring system is that right now people with MS are going to a variety of clinics across the country for their care and treatment.

Health committee  The process to determine exactly what the monitoring system will include is under way now. We're in the developmental phase of the system. We have the country's experts involved in that. The question of exactly what the monitoring system will collect will be known in the next few months.

Health committee  As you know, the government is supporting the development of a monitoring system for all MS patients.

Health committee  I want to say this. The Canadian Institute for Health Information, our premier health information agency in Canada, is developing a monitoring system that will, over time, include all MS patients in Canada, provided that those patients and the clinics they are attending agree to be part of that monitoring system.

Health committee  The answer—

Health committee  —is yes, provided that—

Health committee  —they agree.

Health committee  I was just going to hand it over to Dr. Beaudet. Perfect timing.

Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. It's always a pleasure to appear before this committee. Madam Chair, honourable members, I am very pleased to be here today to speak to the issue of neurological diseases. I would like to take a few moments to summarize some of the important considerations related to neurological diseases.

Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. It's a really good question. Certainly the issues facing our rural communities differ in many ways from those in urban communities, as we all know. Health status there, depending on what rural community you happen to live in, may be quite different from that in urban communities.

Health committee  If you don't mind, Madam Chair, let me get back to you on that. Nothing specific is coming to mind, but it's a very interesting question, and I'd like to go back and talk to my colleagues about it.

Health committee  Maybe I'll kick off, and then others, I'm sure, will have suggestions. Of course, one of the most important things we can do is to work with parents and families and in communities to help set the conditions to encourage more physical activity, and safe physical activity. Injury prevention is an important part of that equation.

Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, it does sound like a paradox, doesn't it. When we look at chronic diseases and we think about diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, for example, we see that obesity is a driver for those. So we're concerned that although at this stage we may be seeing that Canadians are reporting that they're feeling healthy, and we are living longer, there's a canary in the coal mine, and that's obesity.