Health Committee on May 30th, 2007

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

All right.

We had some questions last week, which I think Ms. Brown raised, around what relation our discussion had to the SPP. I also wonder a bit about what relation this has to SPP. I am concerned that witnesses we really need to talk to are not available to come and talk with us. That gives me not enough information sometimes to make the kind of informed decision that I think I should make.

Having said that, I want to ask both witnesses, Dr. Kendall and Dr. Douville-Fradet, a question. This wording, “land conveyances”, has been removed. I've heard Dr. Kendall say that you wouldn't be on a plane long enough. Fair enough, but if you get on a bus in Florida and decide you're going to visit Vancouver, I'll bet you're on a bus long enough for something to display itself. Or if you get on a train in Arizona and you're going to northern Ontario, I'll bet you.... If you go to northern Ontario from southern Ontario you could be on a train long enough for disease symptoms to display themselves. Given that we are also seeing an increase--although we hoped we never would--in the incidence of tuberculosis, certainly in Canada, and I assume in the United States, I want to know if you think that removing or not removing “land conveyances” is a sound public health decision--in your opinion, yes or no.

[Dr. Perry Kendall]

Yes.

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

You think it is a sound public health decision to not have “land conveyances” included.

[Dr. Perry Kendall]

Yes. I could spell my rationale out very simply. I don't think it adds any additional protection to what we currently have, and it has the downside risk of diverting public health resources to an activity that wouldn't have any additional benefit.

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

I'm not talking about having quarantine officers at every crossing. I'm just talking about having some kind of notification for the border that somebody on a bus or a train is extremely ill.

[Dr. Perry Kendall]

I'm thinking that if anybody is extremely ill on a bus or a train, they ought to be taken off the train or the bus whenever they go through a city with a health facility before they get to the border; or rather than stopping them at the border, as Dr. Douville-Fradet suggested, make sure they get some care immediately upon arrival at their final destination.

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

That's why it would be interesting to have motorways and so on here to know what their legal authority is to do something like that.

Dr. Douville-Fradet, would you agree that it is sound public policy to remove this wording from the Quarantine Act?

[Dr. Monique Douville-Fradet]

Our opinion was that--

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

I just need a yes or a no.

[Dr. Monique Douville-Fradet]

No.

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Thank you.

Have you ever seen any infectious disease cross the border--either one or both of you--by a land conveyance, in your medical experience? Perry?

[Dr. Perry Kendall]

I haven't seen--

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

All right. Have you heard of it, read about it--whatever?

[Dr. Perry Kendall]

I'm sure it must have happened, because people travelling backwards and forwards across the border would be carrying or incubating influenza, potentially measles, and perhaps even mumps. Across the border by a land conveyance, it's entirely possible that it could happen. People travelling from Nova Scotia to the rest of Canada have carried mumps with them. We've had Japanese tourists flying in recently developing measles when they got here, and we've quarantined 120 people in the party. So it's entirely conceivable that somebody who is incubating a disease could use a land conveyance to cross either an international border or a provincial or territorial border.

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

But you still think it's sound public health. Okay.

Dr. Douville-Fradet, have you seen any infectious disease cross a border?

[Dr. Monique Douville-Fradet]

I think if you're talking about any infectious disease, probably. I have exactly the same answer as Dr. Kendall. But if I may expand a little bit, what is happening here is that whenever there is mumps or measles, or TB right now, or meningitis or whatever, public health gets into the loop. And from that we can assure good control.

What I was saying just a little bit earlier was that if it's possible to have advance notice of a person really not doing well, it's okay, but as you can see with TB--

it is not necessary.

When a person is really sick, the person will go to the hospital and we will catch it there.

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

If they're taken off.

Am I out of time this time?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Yes, and I gave you an extra minute and a half when you only needed 30 seconds. But that's okay.

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

The goddess will bless you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Patrick Brown, you're next.

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I have two questions. My first question is for Mr. Kendall.

In terms of British Columbia, do public health officials there have established relationships with other international countries? Being close to the Pacific, obviously you'd imagine there'd be some relationships with some Asian countries.

And I have a general question for both witnesses. In your professional opinion as public health experts, what are the greatest communicable disease threats facing Canada?

[Dr. Perry Kendall]

To the first question, official linkages between British Columbia health officials and health officials of governments outside of Canada would be through PHAC. But in fact, our public health officials at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control do have ongoing relationships with other public health officials and scientists in other institutes of infectious disease in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Taiwan, and other countries. So there is, in addition, a global public health surveillance network and unofficial networks of disease reporting. So there's a very active global communicable disease surveillance network.

What is the most serious infectious disease not currently in existence facing Canada? It is probably the emergence of a pandemic strain of influenza.

[Dr. Monique Douville-Fradet]

I have to agree with that. This is why SRI surveillance has been very much strengthened in Canada and in the U.S.

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

Okay, thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you very much.

We'll move on now to Ms. Kadis.