The role is somewhat of a combination of the role of the Surgeon General, in terms of its public role, and the head of the Centers for Disease Control.
In terms of the role of the agency itself, there are many players. In public health, it isn't any one. Going back to tobacco control—because I've been around this for a long time—it was the municipalities and local health units. It was provincial, federal, and NGOs and others that actually came together to take different pieces of it to move that agenda forward. But it took 20, 30 years. I'm not sure we have 20 or 30 years in terms of fetal alcohol, so we need to find strategies. But again, we need to respect the jurisdictions, respect the different roles that the players, even within the federal system, play.
The issue of having different points in the system that have different pieces of it does not mean there's no coordination. Your concern is absolutely right that we need to actually come at it as a federal family with a coherent voice, but also with our partners across the voluntary sector and the provinces and territories. So in that sense, I think there really is a desire. Clearly, this committee has expressed its very strong.... “Desire” is too mild a word in terms of forward movement on this. We look forward to continuing in that direction.
Thank you.