Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate all of you being here--and Mr. Brown by video conference.
As a new member of the health committee, I'm going to start by making a few observations from 35,000 feet, and then I'll ask representatives from Health Canada to comment, perhaps Dr. Zuckerman as well, on this first observation.
First of all, this is obviously a heated debate and there are some very passionate viewpoints on both sides. Being a new member of the committee, I think everybody could gain by dialling it back a little bit and looking at what's truly in the best interests of patients, and going from that perspective.
I'd say to Health Canada, looking at this issue and doing the reading, the entire process seems very arduous and awkward. Health Canada asked that these implants be pulled from sale in 1992--that's 14 years ago--and we're talking about 19,000-plus requests per year under the special access program. This looks like an absolute nightmare.
You've conducted multiple studies, and you've had more than one expert group look at this issue. There are studies on the issue. I'm anxious to hear Dr. Zuckerman's take on the experience in the United States. At what point do you make a decision and make some recommendations to the minister?
I tend to agree with Dr. Brown in that enough is enough. When you believe you have enough information...perhaps you're not at that point, maybe that's your argument, but we've gone 14 years. At what point do you say, “Here's the information, Minister, make the decision”?
Minister Clement is a very busy man, I'm sure he doesn't have time.... Maybe you can explain the process for this apparent minister's permit for the special access program. There are thousands of requests for this. Maybe you can tell me what I'm missing here. Multiple studies conducted, at what point do we make a decision and put this before the minister?