Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Very briefly, in response to the questions posed by the honourable member, this is the brief history of why we are doing this. As the head of this program in Health Canada, I felt that I was running or steering this ship without a rudder. I put a challenge to the staff to figure out how we could do this, how we could get some biomonitoring program up and running, so we would have a baseline that we could use as a starting point.
By no means, in no way, do we consider 5,000 to be sufficient. This is a one-time study. We've got to start somewhere. Let's figure out how we start. I'd like to congratulate Statistics Canada, which was here the last time with us and is partnering with us. Part of the reason it's 5,000 and part of the reason it's a limited number of things is that's what we could put together. We need to look at how we make this a more systemic program that is ongoing that will help us.
That, I think, is a very brief history as to how that came about and the limitations we see. We do recognize it's a needed start and I would just like to underscore that.
The other thing is that with respect to whether we are starting too late, one of the other things we're interested in is looking at maternal core blood samples, and we do have some work under way with a number of hospitals and universities so we can determine for pregnant mothers what's in their unborn child, etc. That will also be a very informative baseline. We are trying to work as early as possible into this.
I would like, Mr. Chair, to come back to some of the other issues raised, but in specific response to those questions, that's my answer.