Excellent. Thanks very much.
Thank you very much for coming. It is always a pleasure to be able to look at whether we're putting our money where our mouth is in terms of the most cherished program of Canadians. My questions will probably deal with three areas, more around partnerships and relationships than actually around the money. I think a laudable new goal for the Public Health Agency is around health disparities.
I'd like to just begin in terms of the rather lofty phrase at the beginning of your page 9, on “Health Canada: A Partner in an Interwoven Community of Stakeholders”. The number one bullet says:
provinces and territories--who bear primary responsibility for health care administration...and have their own roles in health protection and promotion. A strong relationship with provincial and territorial counterparts is a critical factor in achieving our mandate;
I guess I would first like to ask the minister why, then, he cancelled the meeting with the other provincial counterparts in December and has again refused to meet with them this spring at all, particularly in view of the rather damning report of the Auditor General in terms of being able to get agreements with the provinces on the reporting of particularly infectious diseases, such that you wouldn't be able to report in a timely fashion to the WHO. She has identified the fundamental weaknesses in the surveillance system and is saying that this has not made satisfactory progress on strategic direction, data quality, due to gaps. You're not--particularly at the Public Health Agency--receiving timely, accurate, and complete information. It's impossible to get a consistent national picture on infectious diseases, and therefore you are unable to obtain the information necessary to prevent and respond to a disease outbreak.
So I'm very concerned that we can't meet around a table and negotiate this important next step, particularly when the public health network has been cited as one of the most important things in 30 years in Canada.
Out of the 10-year plan, things like being able to set goals and targets for improving the health status of Canadians through a collaborative process, all of these things that require partnerships you seem not to have done.
Sadly, at the committee, as we're doing the post-market surveillance, it seems that the national pharmaceutical strategy has ground to a halt in terms of even the federal co-chair not being named.
Tell me about how you're going to have a partnership with the provinces when they think they have no partner with you.