Health Committee on June 6th, 2006

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thanks, Mr. Chairman.

Thanks, Mr. Minister, for taking the time today to answer our questions, and thanks to the other members from your department as well.

I have a couple of questions. The first one is in regard to chemicals in our environment. We've seen a lot of reports over the past while on contaminants and the effects of those on our residents.

Is there anything Health Canada is doing to protect people from particularly chemicals in air and water?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

The short answer is yes. Certainly that's a program activity of our department. I'm sure Dr. Butler-Jones can elaborate a little bit on that.

Let me say that there is going to be a comprehensive review of the Environmental Protection Act. It is going to be jointly launched by Health Canada and Environment Canada. That will be a real opportunity for us to review the science on this.

There's a lot of evidence that we do have individual traces of chemicals in our bodies, but I'd like to know what the cumulative impact of that is. It's one thing to have 0.01% of chemical A, 0.05% of chemical B, and a trace of chemical C. We might know what A, B, and C do individually, but I think it's incumbent upon us to also worry about what they do collectively in our bodies. That's something that I worry about, and I would like to get some answers on that front.

Dr. Butler-Jones, is there anything else you'd like to add?

[Dr. David Butler-Jones, Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada]

Just quickly, it is a multi-department, multi-disciplinary approach to healthy environments. In Health Canada, we from the epidemiological or research side, as well as CIHR, support that work. I think the kind of questions that the minister alluded to--what do the numbers actually translate to in terms of health--is really key in some of our big research and understanding challenges into the future.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thank you very much.

I certainly will be watching as this unfolds. It's of great interest. Three members of my riding were tested in this last round, in the report that was just released, from the Aamjiwnaang First Nation. Certainly it will be of great interest to see how this unfolds, with the contaminants and the chemicals and so on.

Do I still have some time?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

You have a little, yes.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Okay.

The other question I had was regarding the tobacco control strategy of the federal government. It seems to me that we have come a long way with our tobacco strategy and that our smoking prevalence rates are among the lowest in the world. Because of all the successes we've had so far, is this something that we're going to be able to decrease our activity in, and maybe focus on something else? What is the future of this federal program?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Thank you for the question.

I don't think we should contemplate decreasing our activity at present. I think we're dealing with international corporations that spend their time thinking about ways to get more people hooked on tobacco, especially young people. I think it's criminal. It's an assault on individuals throughout the world.

My own personal view is that if we let up for a nanosecond, we will face a renewed marketing attempt by international tobacco. As long as big tobacco exists, I think we've got to be there working with Canadians to protect against big tobacco and some of the insidious activities that they're involved with.

I don't think this is in any briefing note that I've seen, but that's what I think.

This is the number one preventable illness affecting Canadians; 37,000 Canadians will die prematurely from smoking, with a $17 billion cost to society, let alone human cost. No, I'm not going to give an inch. I think there's more that we can do, as individuals and also collectively, through out governments.

I'm no friend of big tobacco. You're not going to find me defending big tobacco for one nanosecond.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you very much, Mr. Minister. Just as a little point of interest, you're much better when you leave your talking points.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Madam Gagnon.

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I'd like to go back to the hepatitis C and tainted blood problem.

I've heard that the government wanted to reach a lower settlement in negotiations on the subject. Is that one of the reasons why the file has been dragging on? Does the government want to try to cut its costs and are the lawyers trying to make additional gains for the victims?

Why are the negotiations taking so long? I hope you'll be able to reassure me and to reassure the victims by saying that's not the road you want to go.

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

When it was announced that I was the new Minister of Health, I said that it was important to review the policy on hepatitis C. I then asked that we restart the negotiations. They're currently under way, and I hope there will be an agreement soon.

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

I'd like to address another topic.

An article appeared in the Journal de Québec on June 2. I don't know whether you read it. It concerned stricter rules imposed on scientific laboratories in Europe. Here they're talking about the effects of certain products on children. Apparently they're giving the same drugs to children as to adults, and that seems to have an effect on the survival of certain children. It states here:

[...] more than 50% of drugs currently used to treat children in Europe have not been tested or authorized for that specific use.

I don't think Health Canada conducts those kinds of tests. In many cases, lower doses are administered to children. Whatever the case may be, they talk about potentially serious consequences for the health, or improvement of the health, of children. Some die for lack of adequate medication or because the medication administered to them is not necessarily made for children.

In Europe, new regulations have been implemented. Do you think those kinds of measures could prove necessary here? What's your reaction to this observation? Have specific tests been conducted on certain drugs administered to children?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

We're right to be afraid when hearing the description of that study. I have announced the establishment of a new scientific advisory committee. It will focus on these issues and look at pediatrics as a whole. It will study the use of drugs for pediatric purposes. I'm not an expert in the field, but I hope that this committee will conclude with us that the essential thing is to protect children. Like you, that's what I hope.

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

You said in your speech that you wanted to draw on what's being done...

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Excuse me, Madam Gagnon, your time has gone.

Mr. Batters for five minutes.

[Dave Batters, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.

Minister, I'll try to be brief in order to give you ample opportunity to respond. I have two quick questions. The first may require a lengthier answer.

What is being done, Minister, to retain nurses in Canada? We've talked about recognition of credentials of foreign-trained physicians, but a key component of the government's commitment to shorten wait lists and provide a health care guarantee for patients will be the retention of nurses. I'm just wondering what the government is doing to retain nurses in Canada.

Hopefully you'll have time to answer this question as well. I'm just curious as to what the government is doing to fund research in the area of juvenile diabetes. An awful lot of research is done on type 2 diabetes. Probably greater than 90% of the patients have type 2 diabetes, and for that reason far more than 90% of the research dollars go into type 2. Type 1, or juvenile diabetes, is often neglected.

So two quick questions: what is the government doing to retain nurses, and what is the government doing to fund juvenile diabetes research?

Thank you.

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Thank you for those questions.

On the nursing front, I guess the good news is that, from about 2003 to the present, there has been a 1.8% increase in individuals who are in the nursing profession in this country. At least it's going in the right direction. We know that we have a challenge,. As the average age of our population increases, the average age of our nursing population increases. We're getting closer to retirement age for a huge cohort of nurses.

We are working with Human Resources and Social Development Canada to really drill down on some of these strategic issues a little bit. I believe I'm going to get some recommendations later on this month that will provide a strategy. We've been working with the provinces and territories on a fulsome health human resource strategy as well. I believe that report should be out fairly soon, if it isn't out already.

I would just remind you as well about the $75 million in the 10-year accord, part of our working with the provinces and territories for new strategies.

On juvenile diabetes, I believe in the main estimates there is funding for $18 million to the Canadian diabetes strategy. That will partially address juvenile diabetes. We have to do a little bit more surveillance and get our knowledge base up in that area. The CIHR also has also invested close to $6 million since 2000.... Since 2000, rather, $25 million has been invested specifically for juvenile diabetes.

So it looks like a lot of research has been done and is being done. We're obviously not there yet in better solutions, but I'm confident that we have the best scientists in Canada working on this.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you, Mr. Batters.

Ms. Dhalla has asked for one short question, no preamble. I've never seen that before, so I'm going to ask if that would take place.

[Ruby Dhalla, Liberal, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

I have to live up to my commitment to the chair.

The easy question, probably, for the end: what do you see as your role, as the Minister of Health, in terms of enforcing the Canada Health Act?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Our campaign commitment was to support the Canada Health Act. I believe--and I will state this again, for the record--that there is much, much, much that can be reformed and innovated in the Canadian health care system that is utterly consistent with the Canada Health Act.

In our government's view, we support innovation. We support the wait times guarantees that will allow for the patients to come first in our innovations. We look forward to working with the provinces within the context of the Canada Health Act to get that done.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Minister and your team, for coming in and sharing these two hours with us. They've been very informative. I appreciate that, on behalf of the committee.

We'll adjourn this part of the meeting. We'll break for five minutes, grab a bite to eat, clear the room, and go in camera for the fetal alcohol spectrum disorder report.