Finance committee  It's not being done in a mandated way federally, or in most provinces, except in Quebec. It actually is mandated in Quebec that all cabinet decisions go through this particular policy, and I think it's been quite effective in that way.

Finance committee  Certainly, as you probably know, in Canada much of health care is actually privately delivered but publicly funded. In this way we're no different from most European countries, and the United States, for that matter. That's not anything different. This is something that the Canad

Finance committee  I believe the decrease in spending is due to the cuts rather than to efficiencies. Generally, when we find efficiencies in the health care system, there are so many other areas in need that we actually end up using the money there to improve services in another area. That is how

Finance committee  As I talked about earlier, I think one of the best things we can do is to use our health impact assessment tool, which we've suggested. Actually, Canada is a leader in having developed this tool, and the Public Health Agency of Canada would actually be very well placed to be the

Finance committee  We know we are the only one of the G-7 countries that does not have a national dementia strategy. We see that we need a pan-Canadian strategy. As I said before, it is suggested that by the year 2047 we're going to have 800,000 people in long-term care beds. That is the dimension

Finance committee  We are starting to get places. We're not as far ahead as we'd like to be. There are areas around the country where a lot of innovation is going on. For example, in the Northwest Territories, where I live, we're leaders in the country in electronic medical records. We've managed t

Finance committee  We know that actually health outcomes are determined only 25% by the health care system itself, 15% by genetics and biology, and 10% by the physical environment. A full 50% is actually determined by what we call the socio-economic determinants of health. Knowing this, we feel str

Finance committee  I forget the name of the author, if you can excuse me for that. We can get that for you afterwards, if you like. It has been shown that if we put money into a health impact assessment tool, we actually save money for the economy downstream.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to thank the committee for having the CMA present before you as you prepare for next year's federal budget. Canada's doctors focus every day on finding innovative ways to provide better care for our patients. Above all else, physicians want to pr