Bill C-72

Connected Care For Canadians Act

An Act respecting the interoperability of health information technology and to prohibit data blocking by health information technology vendors

This enactment aims, among other things, to ensure that health information technology that is licensed, sold or supplied as a service by a vendor is interoperable and to prohibit data blocking by the vendor in order to promote a connected, secure and person-centered health system.

Health

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, we have signed agreements with every province and every territory. We saw in the CIHI baseline data last year that nearly every jurisdiction in the country saw more doctors and more nurses. It is not enough. Provinces have to do their part and have to be responsible for this health transformation. However, there is something huge this Parliament can do, and that is pass Bill C-72, which is connected care legislation. Just one example is that allowing AI scribes to be used in our system would create the equivalent of 1,000 new doctors in a very short period of time. Connected care can open up new avenues of care, and that is something this Parliament can do.

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Ajax, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Naqvi. I think that you're absolutely right: It was unfortunate that it was voted against.

The support for brain research is absolutely critical for a wide array of neurological conditions. When you meet patients, one of the hardest things.... Meeting patients who know that research is so close to giving them the answers to get back their lives and to be lifted out of the pain they're in or the condition they may have are the types of things that stay with you afterwards, long into the night, and they so desperately want us to make these investments. I would suggest that it's an area where we really could put down the partisan swords.

I think I mentioned another one, which is Bill C-72, on the interoperability of data. Again, I'm not aware of any opposition to these things, and yet they're not supported because there seems to be a view that being against everything is the job of an official opposition. I just don't agree with that.

I did spend two terms in opposition, where you try to advocate in favour of solutions and ideas, and I think that Parliament, in this minority government, got a ton done, and yes, on research. We are in a time of miracles, and we need to press just a little further so that the people who are afflicted with diseases and conditions can be elevated and live their best lives.

It's a roll of the dice. It could happen to any one of us. I think all of us would hope that if one of the people we loved or we ourselves had a condition visited upon us, we had a country that was doing everything it could to find solutions and invest in the science, the data and the evidence to find answers.

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Ajax, ON]

I think that at the beginning, I enumerated my priorities very clearly. They are pharmacare, dental care and data transformation.

Where do you stand on Bill C-72? Where do you stand on dental care? Where do you stand on pharmacare? What is your position? How are you going to fix—

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Ajax, ON]

The first CIHI data, the baseline report last year, shows every province and every jurisdiction, almost without exception, ahead in doctors and nurses. When you take a look at the investments that we're making.... I just talked about Bill C-72, our health data. I can't say it fast enough because I have so much to say on it. It's great news.

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Ajax, ON]

That's a great question.

If you look at Europe right now, you see that Europe is working collaboratively to eliminate any barriers for interoperability in its system and to have data that flows as freely as rivers. With the advent of AI and new technology, if we have a fragmented data system with data that's locked up in places where we can't get hold of it, we're going to be running around in circles. We'll miss an opportunity for prevention that's absolutely outstanding.

I'll talk about our good friend and former colleague, Arnold Chan. Arnold was very close to all of us. He was somebody who reached across the aisle and loved this Parliament very deeply. He had a genetic form of cancer. It didn't get caught early enough, but he was able to then tell his brother to get screened. His brother found out that he had the same cancer. It saved his brother's life.

In an interconnected data system, once we can sequence the human genome in the next couple of years and have that available to people, being able to tell patients that they're genetically at risk for particular diseases is absolutely so powerful. This is what Bill C-72 can unlock. It would be a wonderful legacy to think of Arnold and what this portends by passing that legislation. I hope that we do it.

It also means incredible things for reducing administrative burden. Maybe I'll talk about that for a second.

You know how frustrating it is to send the same form three or four times, to have information get lost in paper and to not have the ability to send a prescription digitally. We have tools like AI scribes, which can do some of the most menial work around taking notes and take it off a doctor's shoulders. If we can apply that across the system and if we could put that in place, that's equivalent to 1,000 doctors overnight. We can't do that if we don't pass Bill C-72.

A lot of times, data doesn't sound sexy, but the power of data to transform our health system is outstanding. Europe is doing it. We shouldn't waste a second. We have to do it as well. I hope that we can pass it in this Parliament.

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Yes, I was hoping...we had made a request to come here before the supplementary estimates. Nonetheless, it's a very important conversation to have. I thank you, Mr. Chair, for having us here today.

You referenced a number of officials. I want to take a moment to thank them for their extraordinary work on behalf of the country. It is my very deep and great privilege to have an opportunity to work with them as they work to serve Canadians.

I'm going to talk at a high level, if I can. We're in a moment of incredible consequence for health care in Canada, and it is wonderful. I've had an opportunity over the last couple of months, as I do all the time, really, to go and talk with stakeholders, particularly about the optimism within the health sector about the transformation that's possible.

I just came back from Alberta on Friday, where I had a conversation with Adriana LaGrange about the possibility of working together, finding solutions and being able to talk about common language. We have a lot of differences, but one of the things, when you look at the transformation that must occur in our health system, is that there are a lot of areas of commonality that are really worth focusing on.

About 70% of chronic diseases and illnesses can be prevented. Most of what fills our hospital rooms and hospital beds doesn't need to be there. Having an effective response to prevention not only makes sense as a matter of health outcomes, but fundamentally makes sense economically. It's something that can unite us, whether or not we are thinking about social justice and health outcomes or we're thinking about productivity.

I have to say that around the federal-provincial table, the positivity and the efforts to set aside partisanship and find common ground have been deeply heartening. I had a conversation with Jeremy Cockrill, who's the new health minister in Saskatchewan, about that, which was very positive. A conversation with Michelle Thompson was very positive.

I look forward to talking to the committee in that spirit and to take your questions in that spirit, because we've been able to do some really important things.

Let me start with dental. At the most recent update, 93% of providers are participating. Now, you might recall that some folks said we weren't going to have anybody sign up, so 93% is pretty fantastic. Manitoba is leading the pack now, with nearly 100%. In fact, we have to redefine 100%, because people who we didn't even know were providers have come forward.

In terms of the number of people who have received care, we're at 1.25 million, and that's in just over seven months. In a year, three million registered, so I'm very excited for these next cohorts.

I mentioned dental to start because it's such an important area of both primary care and prevention. It's also an example of Parliament working together in the spirit of collaboration. I see Peter Julian, and I want to recognize Don Davies in the work that was done. It's difficult to find common ground and ask constructive questions about how we can help Canadians, but that's what they expect us to do in a minority Parliament.

Now we're moving forward on the pharmacare agreements, which are also the product of co-operation in this chamber. Those agreements are going to apply to diabetes medication and devices, as well as contraceptives.

It was wonderful to stand at a podium on drugs for rare diseases with Adriana LaGrange as she made the commitment that Alberta is ready to move toward signing it. I very much believe that all of these agreements can be signed over the coming time.

One of the areas I'm really hoping we can focus on today, Mr. Chair, is Bill C-72. I'm not aware of anybody who's against the connected care legislation. This is legislation that will absolutely save lives.

If you talk to Teri Price about the experience of her brother Greg and the problem with fax machines and data not being transferred and a system that doesn't have interoperability, you'll hear that these problems place lives at risk, block pathways to care and are some of the greatest frustrations for physicians.

I understand that there are a lot of things going on and there are a lot of concerns, but here's an example of how we can come together. There are lots of things we can disagree on, but on this one, I'm aware of no province and no territory that's opposed and I'm aware of no political party that's opposed, so I would ask for parliamentarians' assistance to pass this bill. It will save lives and improve our health system. I'm not aware of anybody who's opposed to it, so hopefully, we can spend some time on that.

I would say in closing, Mr. Chair, that I appreciate these conversations. I hope I'm afforded 20 seconds of context. I love playing Jeopardy!, but this is an important conversation that we need to have on the future of health care in this country, and it is certainly deserving of more than staccato two-second questions.

I look forward to the opportunity to illuminate, and to have a conversation on, the ways we can work together to the betterment of our health system.

Connected Care for Canadians Act

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Minister of Health]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-72, An Act respecting the interoperability of health information technology and to prohibit data blocking by health information technology vendors.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)