Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First, I'd like to welcome Monsieur Ménard to committee today. It's like old times, when he was health critic for the Bloc.
Colleagues, I want to inform you--the chair is unable to be with us today, unfortunately, so it's up to me to do this--that there is a statutory obligation for Parliament to undertake a review of the 2004 first ministers accord on health, entitled A 10-Year Plan to Strengthen Health Care. The Minister of Health has asked that the committee fulfill this mandate.
I'll give you the key paragraph here:
Given that the Standing Committee on Health is authorized to study and report on all matters relating to the mandate, management and operation of Health Canada, in my view it would be appropriate for the Standing Committee on Health to undertake the review as referenced in the aforementioned legislation.
The letter goes on--I'm sure the clerk will table it or pass it on--but the gist of it is that we need to review this legislation before the end of March.
So when we talk about our agenda, maybe on Thursday, we can talk about how we're going to fit this in. It's probably going to have to be next week. I know that Health Canada officials will be ready to come in and deal with that.