Health committee  I guess what was being referred to is the most recent Wait Time Alliance report, where it basically said that there was progress across the board, but differentially from one province to another. All you need to do is look at that—I could give it to you. It basically gives a scor

Health committee  I have a number of comments to make. In my opinion, as I look at the provinces that have performed well and those that haven't, it has to do with leadership and it has to do with assignment of responsibility. In Ontario you have Dr. Alan Hudson as the wait time czar. In Manitoba

Health committee  Perhaps I can answer that question. We bottomed out at an intake of about 1,500 new graduates a year in the mid-1990s, and we're now up to about 2,700 enrollees in medical school today. So there has been a genuine concerted effort to increase physician supply. We estimate tha

Health committee  I'd like to comment with respect to labelling and how you tell juice from sugar. This is not something the CMA has done, but it's from my old job at the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. You'll note that when you go into a grocery store now, you see the health check symbol.

Finance committee  No, we were not consulted on the cuts that were announced yesterday. We would be interested in hearing the rationale behind some of the cuts and what could be done to address some serious issues in alternative ways, if in fact the ways that were being announced weren't exactly th

Finance committee  I'm not sure.

Human Resources committee  Through you, Mr. Chair, there are at least two ways to respond to that. One is deregulate in the sense of taking regulations off that regulate the quality of training. I think that's a non-starter. So maintaining...and maintaining a universal quality standard across the country.

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are two points. One is what we're asking for is that we do no more and no less for people than we do for technologies. Since 1989 we've had a Canadian Coordinating Office for Health Technology Assessment. All we're asking is to start to look at what w

Human Resources committee  To give one example, it took a commission of inquiry to determine that in Winnipeg, pediatric cardiac surgical cases weren't going as well as expected, and that kids were dying unnecessarily because there wasn't the critical mass of cases to support a good quality pediatric cardi

Human Resources committee  Right.

Human Resources committee  There are two points. One is just to observe. There are only three professions where tuition fees, at least in Ontario, were not capped, and those were dentistry, the legal profession, and medicine. So that's one of the reasons it's not $9,000; it's now $14,000 or $15,000.

Human Resources committee  They were deregulated. The top was blown off. What can governments do? I've already indicated the two things I would suggest the federal government do in terms of its responsibilities. Fee setting is not the federal government's responsibility. I can tell you what we're doing

Human Resources committee  A higher percentage, at any rate. And, Mr. Chair, if I may, coercive measures, return-of-service measures, have proven not to be effective. All you need to do is look at DND and the challenges it currently is having in terms of recruiting and retaining physicians in the military

Human Resources committee  Through you, Mr. Chair, yes, there are two very specific things. One is to look at forgiving Canada student loans until such time as doctors have finished their clinical training, i.e. their residency training. Right now they have to start repaying their loans. Two, open up the t

Human Resources committee  Mr. Chair, through you, ideally what we'd want to see is the creation of a health sector table much like what exists in other areas, like engineering, forestry, and mining. We've generally run into a brick wall with respect to applications for that, largely having to do with fede