Health Committee on May 14th, 2009

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Joyce Murray]

A brief answer, please, because the time is almost up for this line of questioning.

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Thank you.

I think Dr. Butler-Jones responded to that. We have plans to develop a vaccine and to stockpile it with the provincial jurisdictions as well. But at the same time we are--

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

Minister--

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

--moving forward with developing the vaccines for H1N1. As I said in my opening remarks, I would expect that internationally it's going to take about six months to produce that, but we are starting that process now, and I look--

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

Minister--

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

--forward to keeping members updated on that process as--

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

Minister, there's a difference between antivirals and vaccines.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Joyce Murray]

Thank you very much, Minister, for your remarks.

Dr. Bennett, your time is over.

Mr. Malo, it's your 10 minutes.

[Luc Malo, Bloc, Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Madam Minister, good day and welcome.

Gentlemen, good day and welcome to you.

One of the budget items for your department refers to the regulation of pesticides. As you undoubtedly know, the Government of Quebec is currently being sued by American pesticide producers, on the basis of NAFTA-related arguments, because of that government's policy prohibiting pesticides on its territory.

Using funds from this budget item or another, can you support the Government of Quebec in its defence of its law?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Joyce Murray]

Minister, your response, please.

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Thank you.

Thank you for the question.

The government has always been very clear that the health and safety of Canadians is a priority. When it comes to involving provincial legislation around pesticide bans and so on, it's the provincial responsibility to implement that legislation, as far as I understand it.

Thank you.

[Luc Malo, Bloc, Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC]

Thank you.

Moreover in the budgets allocated to your department, there is a heading entitled “Sustainable Environmental Health”. Activities under this heading also involve new technologies such as nanotechnologies.

Currently, Madam Minister, we have very little information on the quantity of nanometric materials that are being marketed and the potential risks associated with them. Because we have little information, this may raise a certain number of concerns, in particular as regards the impact nanoparticles may have on human health, animal health, or even the environment. We have very few research results on the effects of nanoparticles.

As you know, pursuant to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, your colleague from the Department of the Environment and yourself are bound to conduct environmental and health risk assessments, and to manage risks related to the arrival of chemical substances on the market in an appropriate manner.

And so, with the budgets allocated to you under this item or any other, will you be launching, quickly, a complete consultation process which will lead to a review of the existing legislation to ensure that it truly meets the challenges posed by nanoparticles? Will you also put in place a mandatory data collection system for all of the new nanomaterials which have entered the market and are continuing to arrive?

[Morris Rosenberg, Deputy Minister, Department of Health]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I am going to try to answer that question. I can say that we are of course working on this new technology, nanotechnology, which does present advantages, but also risks which we do not completely understand at this time. This has led us to be very prudent.

We have an inventory of the materials or products that are used in this technology. We work in close cooperation with our international partners and we are continuing to develop our policy in this regard. We can continue to inform the committee as to the progress of that work.

[Luc Malo, Bloc, Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC]

Will there be consultations on this?

[Morris Rosenberg]

Of course. When we introduce new regulations—and especially regulations as important as this one—it is always the practice of Health Canada and the Government of Canada to undertake consultations with the public before the regulations become official either in the form of a working document or a draft regulation published in Part 1 of the Canada Gazette. That is the regulatory policy.

[Luc Malo, Bloc, Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC]

When do you expect this to happen?

[Morris Rosenberg]

I don't know the exact date, but I can find out and let you know.

[Luc Malo, Bloc, Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC]

Will it happen sooner, or later?

[Morris Rosenberg]

A report was published in July 2008 on nanotechnology. This report was prepared by the Council of Canadian Academies.

As to whether Health Canada will be undertaking consultations on this matter, I will find out, but I don't know the date as such. Before the end of this hearing, I hope to have information for you.

[Luc Malo, Bloc, Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Minister.

Madam Minister, in your conclusion, you said: “As we take further action to sharpen the focus on the federal role in health, I look forward to your ideas.”

I would like to know how you would sharpen the focus of the federal government in the health arena, when the provision of health care and the management of health care systems are matters that fall under Quebec and the provinces' jurisdiction. Do you intend to increase your presence or the implementation of strategies, of pan-Canadian programs, to attempt to find solutions to the various problems of the health care system?

All of the members of this committee from other political parties have expressed the wish to go forward with a study on human resources in the health area. Do you also believe, as do a certain number of witnesses from Canadian organizations, that the federal government should play a leadership role with respect to the training of health personnel, and with respect to how things should be done on the ground?

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Thank you for your question.

I think it's very clear that we have to deal with health care in partnership with provinces and jurisdictions. Our government is committed to continuing to provide financial support to provinces and territories for the delivery of health care under the Canada Health Act. In the last few years we've been transferring funding, and increasingly transferring funding to the provinces and jurisdictions to allow them to deliver health care.

This year's budget, which we transferred on April 1, was $24 billion. Next year that will grow by 6%. It's up to each province and territory in terms of how they allocate that funding to meet their needs. Our role is to ensure that we support the Canada Health Act and provide the financial support to provinces as agreed to.

In addition to that, the federal government has a role in the delivery of health care to first nations--Health Canada does. My job here is to ensure that we continue to try to address the health indicators in this country for first nations people. That's one of the increases in the budget. If you look at the population health of first nations people, as opposed to the rest of Canada, there's a huge gap. We need to start addressing that. It is equally important to address the delivery of health care in provinces and jurisdictions. The funding we have provided here will support this and try to address some of those health disparities.

The other part I'd like to talk about is this. We do a lot of work in this country in partnership with provinces and territories, whether it be in the area of mental heath, whether it be in the area of health human resources--we've been working with provinces on that--whether it be in addressing patient wait-times, whether it be the issue around developing the pandemic plan—we never had a pandemic plan in this country until 2006—or whether it be the investments and partnerships of provinces to address a national plan. We'll continue to work with provinces on that, but we need to also respect that provinces and territories deliver front-line health care and we provide the funding. There's that relationship that we continue to build on as a federal government.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Joyce Murray]

Thank you, Mr. Malo and Madam Minister.

It's now the turn of the NDP member, Madam Wasylycia-Leis...and Mrs. Wasylycia-Leis has a point of order.

[Judy Wasylycia-Leis, NDP, Winnipeg North, MB]

Before I start, I just want to ask you for some direction, Madam Chair. When we met with the minister and the department on February 10 and we were discussing the budget, I asked specifically for details of the cuts listed under Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, which totalled $167.8 million over the next few years. A commitment was made at that time to table with us, as soon as possible, a list of the cuts.

We received nothing. So I contacted the clerk, who contacted the department, and he was told they would be tabled today. I just don't know why we don't have a document by now. How do we do our estimates when these requests are not taken seriously? I'm wondering how we proceed on the basis of that kind of--

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Joyce Murray]

Thank you for the question. The minister has a chance to respond to that.

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Our plan is to go through that information with the committee today, and I have both the deputy and Dr. Butler-Jones to go through the details with the committee, with you. And if you want--