Thank you for the question. It's a very comprehensive one. Let me answer it in a couple of different ways.
First, of course, when it comes to patient wait time guarantees, there are a number of cornerstones that have to be part of any promise.
We made a promise that said we would work with the provinces and territories toward the establishment of patient wait time guarantees in this country. That's a promise that we are keeping and that we intend to keep. Of course, some provinces are moving more quickly than others.
The Province of Quebec comes to mind, with its five guarantee areas, including cancer, cardiac, hip and knee replacement, and cataracts.
The previous minister in Manitoba indicated, at the legislative committee in Manitoba, that the wait time guarantees operate, in essence, in his words, in cardiac and cancer.
Ontario's government has announced that in eight out of nine targeted areas, the wait times have been reduced.
So things are happening out there.
What I wanted to demonstrate on Monday was that although we are of course willing to work with provinces, we're not waiting for the provinces. In areas of federal responsibility, where the federal government can be active, we are willing to show leadership. That's what Monday was all about. But there are other cornerstones, which include research.
In order to have guarantees rolled out in this country, we have to continue the research. You mentioned the benchmarks. The benchmarks are not picked out of thin air. They are based on clinicians and their decisions and approaches to these medical procedures. I did of course mention in my remarks how the CIHR continues to have increases in its funding. The Canadian Institute for Health Information continues to be supported by virtue of Budget 2006, and there are funds specified within their envelopes directed to research when it comes to wait time guarantees. That's one.
The second one is that you need IT, and through our government's continued support for Canada Health Infoway, I believe we are helping the provinces have the IT infrastructure that is going to be necessary in order to roll out the guarantees.
The third one I believe I did allude to in my remarks, which is health human resources. You can't establish a guarantee and then not have the medical professionals who are required in order to get that done.
Those are three areas. The fourth area, of course, is federal-provincial cooperation, which obviously is something we continue to work with, with our colleagues at the provincial and territorial levels.
So I would say, on balance, in answer to your question, we are moving ahead and we're showing leadership where it is required to be shown, but this is a multi-year, complex process. That is something that I and the Prime Minister indicated very early on, that this is not something where you walk into the chamber just down the hall and put a bill down. You have to work to achieve some consensus, and I believe we're doing that.