Health Committee on Feb. 5th, 2007

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for your presentations here. I'm not a regular member of this committee, but I have followed the issue through our colleague, Paul Szabo, in his books and private members' bills on the subject, and a constituent of mine named Bonnie Buxton, who has also written on the subject. What has puzzled me over the years--and possibly the agency or the department has a position on this--is that a certain percentage of pregnant mums either can't or won't get it, won't make the linkage between their behaviour, their ingestion of alcohol, and the damage that happens to their fetus. Does the department or the agency have a position with respect to mandatory restriction of alcohol ingestion by pregnant mothers?

[Dr. Sylvie Stachenko]

By what?

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

By pregnant mothers?

[Dr. Sylvie Stachenko]

Maybe I could leave that question to Beth.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

This does sound like a lawyer's question.

[Beth Pieterson]

We don't have a position on that. I think certainly in the alcohol strategy we're trying to develop--it's called “Toward a Culture of Moderation”--through education, awareness, a range of activities, we're trying to change alcohol consumption, especially in the high-risk groups, recognizing, though, that saying they can't drink is not within the scope of Health Canada's usual policies.

Do you mean to say like putting a restriction on bars serving pregnant women?

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

That's one suggestion. It's not one I'd thought of, but I'm not sure I'd go quite as far as incarcerating, but certainly you are in effect giving a life sentence to a child because mum is either unable or unwilling to appreciate the nature and consequences of her behaviour. I wondered whether the department or the agency had arrived at a decision as to whether it would recommend that kind of restrictive behaviour. There seems to be a fair bit of buck-passing here.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

That's probably one that will be left to the courts eventually, if it were ever challenged in a court of law. It's similar to what we've seen with HIV/AIDS patients having unprotected sex being challenged in the courts, and you're suggesting a similar thing here.

I'm not sure it's fair to ask our panellists, unless somebody has an opinion. We're certainly willing to hear it.

I would like to ask a couple of quick questions, if I can, on behalf of the committee for further information. This started with a private member's bill on labelling of alcohol, and we said, no, we want a copy and some plan. This has been a two-year process, coming up with a comprehensive plan in what you've presented here today. I think we can be comforted in knowing we're seeing some progress. I have a couple of quick questions for the information of the committee. You had suggested to us that there's a national strategic project fund that is about to propose some recommendations as well as a national alcohol strategy development about to be released. Can you tell us the game plan? What are you expecting out of both of these? You make mention of them here--and some of the timelines as to when we can expect them.

[Dr. Sylvie Stachenko]

One is the national strategic projects fund.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

That's right.

[Dr. Sylvie Stachenko]

That one is ready to be released. I would say it will be within a matter of days.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

What do you expect out of it?

[Dr. Sylvie Stachenko]

We're then expecting to get the proposals on all this and to have some announcements, most likely around April or May.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Around when?

[Dr. Sylvie Stachenko]

April or May of this year. Are you talking about the alcohol strategy?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Yes, but just on this one, you're talking about a new solicitation for FASD. I have a difficult time understanding exactly what is going to be presented.

[Dr. Sylvie Stachenko]

There are two types of new solicitations. There is one that has already occurred. That one was a directed call, and it happened in December. My understanding is that we already have other proposals.

Let me have Kelly answer that one.

[Kelly Stone]

We had a directed proposal, such as the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, for part of the fund, just before Christmas. We're getting the proposals, but I couldn't say what they are at this point.

Any moment, any day, as soon as we can get it on our website, there'll be an open call for proposals related to the dissemination training tools, along with the diagnostic guidelines, in order to get some more movement on our diagnostic guidelines. We would expect it would be for funding that would commence this April.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Is that under Public Health or is it under CIHR?

[Dr. Sylvie Stachenko]

It's Public Health.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Okay. The second one is on the national alcohol strategy.

[Dr. Sylvie Stachenko]

I'll let Beth answer.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

I'd like the timeline on that as well.

[Beth Pieterson]

As I mentioned earlier, the alcohol strategy is being printed now. It should be released within the next couple of months.

We're making wide-ranging recommendations, as I said before, not only for the health portfolio but for other organizations of Canada. Once it's out, we're hoping that we will continue collaboration with all the other stakeholders involved to move forward on those recommendations. As I said, it should be released within two months.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

It will be within two months. How long has the study been going on?