I want to support Tina. I think what we want to focus on is if you look at public health in the broadest sense, it's not simply dealing with infectious diseases, the avian flu, or SARS. Public health is about factors that are going to shorten longevity and increase the ability for people to become ill, even chronically so.
Generally speaking, if as a parliamentary committee we can focus on what we can prevent, that is a huge piece. A lot of what concerns transplants and so on can arguably be seen as falling under provincial jurisdictions, because that's how care is delivered.
But when it comes to looking at the overarching health of Canadians, which at the end of the day impacts the health care system--and I think Mr. Batters mentioned the word “epidemic”—some of what we're talking about under aboriginal health in terms of public health, such as childhood obesity, is an epidemic. It is shortening the lives of our children. People are not going to live as long as you and I are living, and this is something that can be prevented
Here is an opportunity for a committee to have an impact on results. I think that's where we should be focusing. What is it we can do to have an impact on people's health? I can see rolling in active living, sports, childhood obesity, and type 2 diabetes. I can see looking at infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis in aboriginal people. These are important and preventable. As a committee, we should focus on what we can actually make decisions on—act, do, implement--to improve the health of Canadians as soon as possible.