Thank you, Madam Chair.
I apologize if there was any misunderstanding. I have some notes here in English. We can have them ready in French very quickly, but not today. I will take you through what we have. Dr. Butler-Jones and I are prepared to table our notes.
Health Canada's strategic review helped identify areas where we can better focus the federal government's core role in health; where we can improve how we work with partners inside and outside the federal government; and where we can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of how we do business within the department.
Health Canada exercises the federal role in three main areas: consumer and environmental safety, working with provinces and national health systems, and first nations and Inuit health. On the latter role, as the result of the Province of Alberta's decision to eliminate health care premiums for its residents, $11 million of payments that Health Canada previously made to Alberta to cover the cost of health premiums for first nations living in that province are no longer required. These savings contributed toward the 2009 budget's reinvestment of $440 million over two years to ensure the department's ability to continue to deliver and improve health services for first nations and Inuit clients.
As a department with a very broad mandate, engaging in partnerships with third parties, other federal departments, and other levels of government, this is critical to our ability to deliver on our objective to help Canadians maintain and improve their health. To that end, we are exploring a few small changes.
First, current laboratory facilities for environmental health science at Health Canada are housed in an aging building. We are looking at opportunities to co-locate these laboratories with compatible laboratory facilities at academic institutions so we can avoid repair costs for our current facilities estimated at around $700,000.
In working with international partners and stakeholders over the next few years, we'll be looking to update and improve the efficiency of the process for how we review and approve low-risk veterinary drugs for companion animals and how we undertake supportive corporate activities in the health products and food branch. Further steps are needed before we're ready to implement changes in 2011-12. Once implemented, approximately $2.8 million in program costs and related supporting activities could be saved.
Since the funding of educational institutions is a provincial responsibility, rather than acting as the sole funder of the National School of Dental Therapy, Health Canada will be limiting its support to providing $600,000 in financial assistance directly to aboriginal students pursuing careers in dental studies. To ensure that the national school will be able to continue operations, we will work with the school's administration to help find alternative sources of funding. Net savings are approximately $1.4 million.
Some discretionary project funding related to Health Canada's international affairs will be reduced, and we will further centralize the coordination of international activities and policy advice within the department. In total, our spending on international affairs will be reduced by approximately $2.6 million by 2011-12.
We also looked at realigning resources where objectives have already been achieved, and we sought efficiencies by proposing new ways of organizing functions within Health Canada. A departmental emphasis on continuous improvement has identified several areas where we're able to produce savings without compromising the quality of services being provided.
Over the past four years of providing training and advice to other federal departments, we're managing the cleanup of contaminated sites. We've gained considerable experience and have found ways to operate at a much lower cost. As a result, a one-time savings of approximately $2.6 million has been identified that we will not need to spend.
