Evidence of meeting #144 for Finance in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was health.
A video is available from Parliament.
1:55 p.m.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
I want to turn to health now, because this is the economic thing. Can you outline what impact providing free prescription contraception will have on the health outcomes of women?
1:55 p.m.
Professor, CART Contraception Research Lab, University of British Columbia, Public Health Agency of Canada
It's women and their children. The ability to time and space pregnancies has a phenomenal impact on a woman's personal health. In situations where women have no control over their fertility, typically they are pregnant at least once a year, and sometimes more than once. This wears down their nutrition. Anemia becomes common. Their immune systems are depleted. They're more open to disease. We see this in low- and middle-income settings, where people do not have access to contraception and controlling their fertility.
When a person has an unintended pregnancy, those pregnancies are less likely to have adequate prenatal care. They're more likely to be exposed to toxins through smoking exposure or substances during pregnancy. Those pregnancies are more likely to be preterm and to require neonatal ICU. Those children start behind the eight ball, as their chance for adequate health, nutrition and education throughout childhood is impaired. These things are all addressed to improve an equal standing for people in health and to avoid the risks of pregnancy, which still carries a maternal mortality across Canada of 40 to 100 people each year. They're dying simply because they became pregnant.
By reducing the 40% of pregnancies that are unintended through making access to contraception universal, we are saving lives and improving the chances for children to have the best start in life.
1:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you, MP Davies.
Members, these are phenomenal witnesses, but I know that we'll be bumping up against question period pretty soon. We'll do a quick round with one question per party before we conclude.
MP Morantz.
1:55 p.m.
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Ms. Oliver, I can't let you come all the way down here and not have you answer at least one question. Thank you for being here.
In the time we have, which is roughly 60 seconds, can you explain to the committee why consumers would be better off if Canada brought in a system of open banking and real-time rail?
1:55 p.m.
Head, Government and Regulatory Relations, Wealthsimple Investment Inc.
Sure. Thanks for the question.
I think you need to look at other jurisdictions. No jurisdiction that has introduced open banking has ever pulled it back or withdrawn it. All they've done is expand it. If you look at consumer switching rates, comparison shopping and changing the financial service provider that can tailor to your specific and unique circumstances, in every other jurisdiction they increase through open banking.
I think it's really important that folks understand the enhanced security that can come from a formalized consent model where the consumer is in control of their own information. They decide if and when their information is shared for their benefit.
That would be my short answer.
2 p.m.
Liberal
2 p.m.
Liberal
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Jessica, we know how powerful and popular the tax-free savings account is with Canadians, but the first home savings account combines the best of both worlds of the TFSA and the RRSP. I was so happy to see it introduced by our government. How revolutionary is it, and how is the uptake on it with your customers?
2 p.m.
Head, Government and Regulatory Relations, Wealthsimple Investment Inc.
All registered accounts are really popular. When you look at the decrease in pension coverage in the workplace, when you look at the delay of home ownership and when you look at these wonderful but very distinct new products and the burden of both retirement saving and home ownership saving shifting to the individual, we're empowering folks to understand how to maximize benefits and increase the choice they have between service providers. We certainly saw a huge uptake. We're thrilled that more than one-third of Canadians who opened a first home savings account chose to do so with Wealthsimple.
2 p.m.
Liberal
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
It's probably nearing a million Canadians for the FHSA.
2 p.m.
Head, Government and Regulatory Relations, Wealthsimple Investment Inc.
That's right.
2 p.m.
Bloc
Gabriel Ste-Marie Bloc Joliette, QC
Mr. Lambert, we know that the excise duty goes up every year based on inflation.
Recently, the government said that for now, it was going to limit the duty to 2% per year for all alcohol producers. I imagine you welcome that measure, but could you comment on the impact for your industry of limiting inflation to 2% rather than applying a sliding scale duty as it does for microbreweries or as is done in the United States for microdistilleries?
2 p.m.
General Secretary, Union québécoise des microdistilleries
The 2% cap that was announced for the next two years was greeted with much relief, because an increase of about 6% had actually been expected. If it goes up by 6%, then after a certain number of years it is going to look like compound interest and the costs to the industry become enormous.
So it was greeted with much relief, but I also have to acknowledge that after we submitted our brief and our proposal, we thought that it would have been even more beneficial to adopt what is being done by the United States and other countries, where excise duties have been greatly reduced with the advent of microdistilleries in their entrepreneurial landscapes.
2 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you, MP Ste-Marie.
Now we will move to MP Davies.
There is no pressure, but you'll be the final questioner and have the final question for this great panel.
2 p.m.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Thanks.
Dr. Norman, on the list of covered contraceptives, there are not only oral contraceptives but also IUDs. I'm wondering if you could share your position on the importance of including access to IUDs.
2 p.m.
Professor, CART Contraception Research Lab, University of British Columbia, Public Health Agency of Canada
Absolutely.
The difficulty with contraception is that the less you can afford, the less likely you are to avoid an unintended pregnancy. You're more likely to get pregnant with condoms.
When you go to prescription contraception, the baseline is birth control pills. Six to nine people per year using birth control pills, and twice that many if you're a teenager, will become pregnant with an unintended pregnancy. People have a reproductive lifespan of 30 to 35 years, from about age 15 to 45 or 50, and they plan to be pregnant or have a child for maybe a year or two years out of that. For over 30 years, they are using methods with a 6% to 9% failure rate. This is where our unintended pregnancies are coming from.
It's more expensive to use the more effective methods. With a copper IUD, you have a 1% chance per year of getting pregnant. With a hormone-bearing IUD, you have a 0.1% chance—one person per 1,000—per year. These and the small little matchstick devices that can be inserted underneath the arm, a subdermal implant, are the most expensive up front at $300 or $400, but they last for three to five to seven years. Some of the IUDs now last up to 10 years. These methods are more effective than female sterilization, yet they're completely reversible. The month you take it out, you can become pregnant again.
Investing in these upfront methods means a person has to choose between rent and food for the children already in the home or has to put out $300 or $400 to get a five- to seven-year method that's going to be as effective as sterilization but is reversible. That's just not accessible for people, but it's most important.
If governments were providing only IUDs, implants and the most effective contraceptive methods, this would offer the best chance for people to avoid unintended pregnancy. People need a wide range of choices because the context is different in everybody's life. People are able to adjust to different methods as different things are working in their lives. This is why it's important to have the full range.
From a health economic and health system perspective, the better you are able to support somebody to achieve their goal for pregnancy and become pregnant only when they want to and are preparing for it, the better a child will be raised and the better our health system and economy will be. IUDs and implants are what give you that chance.
2:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you, MP Davies.
We want to thank our witnesses for their testimony and for coming before the finance committee on Bill C-69. We really appreciate it.
We wish you the best with the rest of your day.
We're adjourned.