Thank you for being here today. I believe that the issue being raised is one we are aware of.
Bill C-5 respecting the establishment of the Public Health Agency of Canada concerns health in general and your collaboration in establishing initiatives. When we ask questions on an issue under Health Canada's responsibility, the new administrator, Mr. Butler-Jones, says he doesn't have any answers because Health Canada handles it. We don't get the impression these two entities communicate very well, which won't facilitate matters when future initiatives are introduced. Who do we talk to? The new agency or its director, or Health Canada?
Health protection and promotion appear in the preamble of the bill establishing the new agency. If I ask questions on Aboriginal health, for example, I can speak to you and you can give me answers.
Let's take the money that has been invested to fight and prevent fetal alcoholism. In 2001, you invested approximately $25 million, and we don't know what impact that investment has had. Now you want to develop a national plan because, you say, the provinces and territories have asked you to do so.
So it's hard to monitor this new agency and the role it plays in connection with Health Canada and the entire health system in Canada. I don't think Quebec called you in on this issue. For the moment, I won't list all the measures taken by the Government of Quebec to fight fetal alcoholism.
The federal government is responsible for the entire issue of Aboriginal health. And yet, we don't get the impression that a portion of the money invested for Aboriginal health — $17 million at most — was used to fight fetal alcoholism. How much money has been paid to fight this phenomenon? It's quite difficult to see how you will be able to harmonize the strategies put in place by the new agency and by Health Canada management. Who will we talk to? Who will give us the real figures and an accurate picture on changes in alcohol consumption during pregnancy?