Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Dr. Lafontaine, I think around the time you were doing your residency, I was working in the health minister's office in Manitoba, under the government of Gary Doer. We were very focused on the five priority areas that had come out of the Canada health accord in 2004. I would say that really shaped a lot of the work we were doing at that time, and there were a lot of benefits, not just in terms of the funding but in terms of data collection and accountability.
Sometimes, frankly, there can be challenges with various health professionals in the system and some of the interests within the system. Having that understanding and everyone knowing that was an interprovincial understanding was also helpful when the government needed to implement certain kinds of changes.
That's why I was pleased in 2015 to hear the Liberals commit to a new Canada health accord and disappointed when they went with the bilateral model. However, I'm an optimist and I think it's still possible to do better. I'm wondering how you think we can.
Given that these bilateral deals are in place, what are the next steps to try to create that culture of accountability, but also co-operation, with respect to data and metrics on top of the bilateral deals, until we can get to a point when we can do a proper Canada health accord again?