Health committee  With respect to pricing and purchasing strategies, work has focused on non-regulated business management approaches such as price negotiations, and some provinces are exploring opportunities for multilateral buying groups. Also, the federal Competition Bureau undertook a study to examine the potential causes for the relatively high prices of generic drugs and how to make the markets work better.

Health committee  All provinces and territories have implemented initiatives to meet those commitments. Indeed, in all jurisdictions, multidisciplinary teams have been set up. Almost all jurisdictions have set up 24/7 health information lines that are staffed by nurses and other health professionals who offer health advice.

Health committee  I'm sorry, that's really more of a regulatory question, and I don't have the answers here. We'll get you an answer.

Health committee  There has been federal-provincial-territorial work specifically on the national pharmaceutical strategy. One of the ways in which the federal government supports it--and this committee has looked at the common drug review process--is to provide funding directly to the Canadian agency for assessment of health care technologies, which includes drugs and aspects of the common drug review.

Health committee  No.

Health committee  The FPT committee on the national pharmaceutical strategy issued a report in 2006.

Health committee  I don't know whether the committee has met. We can give you information on meetings if you'd like. We continue to work with the provinces on forward-looking aspects of the national pharmaceutical strategy.

Health committee  As I noted, that would be the work that's done now under CADTH on the common drug review. It still remains that each province decides whether or not to take the recommendations from the common drug review.

Health committee  One of your first questions was about work on health human resources and the internationally educated health professionals initiative. That initiative is under way. It has been established to accelerate and expand the assessment and integration of internationally educated health professionals into the health care system.

Health committee  On the specific areas of wait times, for hip replacements it's a B; for knee replacements it's a C; for cancer care it's an A; for sight restoration it's a B; and for cardiac care it's an A. So some of those results are definitely on the plus side.

Health committee  Mr. Fletcher asked a question about the funds allocated to the provinces and territories. Each province received $10 million and each territory received $4 million.

Health committee  The $38 million per year that the government has invested is ongoing, so there will continue to be improvements and there will continue to be changes seen in the provision of health human resources. On the access question, information from the Health Council indicates that 96% of Canadians do have access to primary health care.

Health committee  Again, on health human resources, I'll reinforce that those dollars--$38 million per year--are ongoing and that we continue to work with our provincial partners on that. On home care, the provinces are implementing their commitments on home care.

Health committee  Reducing wait times remains a priority for all governments. The new report card shows that in some areas Canadians are seeing improvements each year. The report also shows that the provinces and territories are meeting their commitment to provide Canadians with meaningful information on wait times.

Health committee  It's clear that we're all anxious to see further progress. The government is supporting further progress through dollars to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, which is doing work on providing benchmarks and information.