Thank you very much for your question. As a practising pediatrician in Montreal, I spend far more time in Quebec than I do in Ottawa promoting childhood health programs. Without question, health care is a provincial, not federal, responsibility.
A number of joint federal-provincial initiatives have been carried out. The results were far more convincing that if the provinces had acted alone. The provinces have expertise that they can share. We're talking here about dialogue, about round-table meetings of provincial health ministers.
Take immunization programs, for example. Clearly, the federal initiative has had a significant impact. Each province takes a different approach and a Toronto family relocating to Montreal will have to contend with a different immunization program. A move to harmonize all immunization programs will benefit all children in Canada. That is the approach that we are advocating. We are not suggesting that the government administer the programs directly. However, all provinces can stand to benefit from certain federal initiatives.