Evidence of meeting #12 for Health in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was situation.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Steven Fletcher Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB
If there's not time, the meeting is over.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
Thank you, Mr. Fletcher.
We have to deal with this today in a timely fashion. Please write out the motion, Dr. Bennett, and we will deal with it at the next meeting, if it is the will of the committee.
Bloc
Christiane Gagnon Bloc Québec, QC
Madam Chair, we often ask witnesses to give us information first and then answer our questions. Why not proceed that way? There is no need to make an exception for the minister. He only needs to say he will send us what we want, just as the other witnesses do. It has been done before. This is getting all blown up because it is the minister.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
Thank you, Ms. Gagnon. Yes, we could do that. We could do it that way, so we will.
We now have a short time for Ms. Davidson. Do you have a question for the minister?
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister, for appearing, and my thanks to the department staff.
I think we all know that we faced a very unusual situation. I hope it will remain so. Parliament pulled together and mounted an all-party response to get this resolved.
Today we want to look at how we're going to move forward. We heard a presentation earlier from the gentleman from MDS Nordion. These were his is words:
Clearly it is imperative that government, industry, and the nuclear medicine community collectively find a long-term solution for the reliable supply of isotopes from Canada.
Minister, other countries have started looking at ways to reduce their reliance on isotopes being produced by the NRU reactor. Is Health Canada looking into this? Are there other types of isotopes in your approval queue? Will approvals be accelerated because of this, if there are others in the queue? Those are just a couple of brief questions. If I have more time, I'll ask you a couple more.
Conservative
Tony Clement Conservative Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON
In answer to the second question, I'm not aware of any. If there were, I would certainly support expediting....
The expert advisory panel is formed to provide advice on contingency plans and to look at alternatives within the radioisotope world and beyond. You can't stockpile radioisotopes. That's the essence of the problem we face. That's why it was a crisis rather than a shortage. Some of our alternatives in this area are not great.
That being said, the advisory panel is going to give us some advice. Certainly it would be my advice that if it's responsible and doable, we should do it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
Thank you.
Mrs. Davidson, our time is up.
I want to thank Minister Clement for making himself available to the committee. We will make sure the document is tabled.
Thank you.
The meeting is adjourned.