Finance Committee on June 1st, 2026

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

I'll ask the following question: Can you come to testify to the health committee before the end of the summer to clarify things on all of these questions we have about PrescribeIT?

[Marjorie Michel, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

I'm not going to commit to that.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

Oh. I might as well keep on asking here, then.

Minister, the Canada Health Infoway board voted to terminate PrescribeIT in November 2025. Your department spent another $10.2 million on the program. Why did Canadians pay $10 million to keep funding a program that was terminated?

[Marjorie Michel, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Mazier, you know very well that a program cannot be ended overnight. A dataset needs to be transferred. This is about data. That's what the program dealt with. Before the program is closed, a dataset has to be recovered. That is why the expenditure is ongoing.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

That's fair.

Minister, your senior assistant deputy minister is a federally appointed member of the Canada Health Infoway board. Was there ever a time when she voted against giving Michael Green a performance award during his time managing PrescribeIT?

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

We'll have a very brief response, please.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

Is it yes or no?

[Marjorie Michel, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

I don't know.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you, Mr. Mazier. That concludes your time.

We'll now continue with Ms. Tesser Derksen, please.

[Kristina Tesser Derksen, Liberal, Milton East—Halton Hills South, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thanks to the committee for giving me the indulgence of asking a question as a guest here today.

Minister Michel, you mentioned in your opening comments the importance of making wise investments, finding efficiencies and reducing administrative costs. I'm going to ask a question that literally affects every single person in this country directly—and in fact, every person on the planet who has ever lived or ever will live. We are all going to die.

Some of my colleagues would know that I worked as a funeral director. I'm also a board director of a non-profit foundation working to build a palliative care hospice in my riding of Milton East—Halton Hills South.

In the spirit of wise investments, I'll refer back to a study in 2012 that the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association published on the cost-effectiveness of palliative care. It found that in the current environment of rising health care costs and concerns about the sustainability of publicly funded health care, policy-makers were paying more attention to the high costs associated with the last year of life. Hospice Palliative Care Ontario in my home province offered that a hospice bed cost is about one-third of the cost of a hospital bed for a dying person. Specific funding and investment were also found by HPCO to reduce or possibly reduce system savings by $200 million a year and up to $2 billion over 10 years in Ontario alone. It's not insignificant.

I understand that health infrastructure funding is dealt with through housing and infrastructure and that health is delivered by the provinces, but we do have a national framework on palliative care in this country.

As Minister of Health, can you comment on how Health Canada sees palliative care's role in providing quality cost-effective health care to dying Canadians?

[Marjorie Michel, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Thank you for the question.

That actually falls under provincial jurisdiction. It's true that we have a strategy. It is also true that we have signed agreements with the provinces. In fact, I am currently negotiating with all the provinces, including Ontario, on “working together” bilateral agreements.

There used to be specific agreements on palliative care, but they no longer exist. However, we give other funds to the provinces. I am currently negotiating with each province. Then they will be able to choose how to spend the money based on their priorities. This is about services provided by the provinces.

As for the envelopes the federal government gives, in addition to the health transfers, we have, as I just said, the “working together” bilateral agreements, which will be renewed for seven years. They are usually renewed for three years, but I decided to go up to seven years to give the provinces more predictability. That way, they will know exactly how to plan for changes to their health care system.

[Kristina Tesser Derksen, Liberal, Milton East—Halton Hills South, ON]

Thank you.

How's my time, Madam Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

You have four minutes.

[Kristina Tesser Derksen, Liberal, Milton East—Halton Hills South, ON]

Okay.

Thank you for your answer.

I'll take two quick minutes to ask Minister MacDonald a question.

My legislative assistant used to work in the Ministry of Agriculture. He comes from a farming family, and we talk regularly about agriculture. We recently discussed the interest-free limit under the advance payments program that has been increased to $250,000 in 2026 for all non-canola advances. That was increased from a previous limit of $100,000.

Minister, could you update us on how that's impacting producers and why it's important that our government committed to this increase?

[Heath MacDonald, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Thank you for that.

Anything we can do for producers right now to meet the moment they're being faced with, whether it be on climate change or on trade or non-trade barriers, is extremely important.

Industry has been asking to increase the advance payments program for a long time. We felt that this was an opportunity to help them, so we raised it to $250,000. For canola farmers, with what they've gone through over the past few months relative to some of the trade barriers in some countries, we raised it to $350,000, and we'll continue to look at that.

[Kristina Tesser Derksen, Liberal, Milton East—Halton Hills South, ON]

Thanks so much.

I'll pass it back to you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you.

My colleague has kindly offered to share her time with me.

I would like to ask the minister two questions about Bill C‑30.

I'm going to ask both questions together and then allow you some time to answer.

The first is with regard to the Pest Control Products Act. The amendments in Bill C-30 refer to a situation in which the Governor in Council or cabinet can overturn the decision of the health minister. I'm wondering whether you could share a scenario in which the health minister would deny a pesticide use and the government would choose to overturn it, as well as at what point that would be made public.

The second question is with regard to the changes to the CFIA's mandate. Again, it's to understand this: What does it mean when the CFIA will be taking economic security and food security into account while not compromising on their mandate for human, animal and plant health?

[Marjorie Michel, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

The first thing I'll say is that I'm the Minister of Health. Health is non-negotiable, and my role is to say no very clearly to any product that scientific evidence shows has a negative impact on health.

That said, there are imperatives. Of course, some products may have been taken off the market before their expiry date, perhaps because of their effect on the environment or animals, but not on human health.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

I'm sorry, you only have 10 seconds left.

[Marjorie Michel, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Okay.

I can say that I approve a product if there's no risk to human health. If I see there's a risk to human health and I say no, that's fine. However, there are other considerations that can—

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you, Minister, the time is up.

I will now turn the floor over to Mr. Lemire for six minutes.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister MacDonald, thank you for being here to answer our questions.

How much money does the government intend to save by closing Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's research centres?

[Heath MacDonald, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

It will be approximately $27 million after a three-year period, per year.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Added to the $97 million on buildings, it comes to barely $171 million over five years.

Is it worth it?

We can agree that is a pittance at the federal level.

[Heath MacDonald, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

I think it is worth it. What we're learning, as we advance through this process, is that a revitalization of science in this country is certainly prevalent for any industry and stakeholders I've been meeting with across the country.