Evidence of meeting #3 for Health in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Tim Uppal Conservative Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB
Thank you.
I'm going to go back to health human resources. I know the minister addressed issues in the north, but I'd like to touch on rural communities. It's important for those people who live in rural communities that they should have access to the health care they need and to health care providers. What is the department doing specifically for those living in rural communities?
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
5:05 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
I'll take that. First of all, just generally, we do recognize that in parts of the country, and often more exacerbated in rural communities, there are shortages of doctors and nurses, and there's a need to take concrete steps to address that problem. Just to provide a general backdrop, the government will transfer, as the minister mentioned, $22.6 billion this year as part of the health transfer, and that grows by 6% a year. There's also an investment of $38 million a year through the health human resource strategy and the internationally educated health professionals initiative—$20 million for the health human resources strategy and $18 million for the internationally educated health professionals initiative to support efforts to ensure an adequate supply of doctors and nurses.
We're working with provincial and territorial governments to develop a common national assessment for internationally educated doctors, a common national assessment that would streamline the process for getting foreign doctors licensed to practice medicine in Canada. We think this would make a big difference in rural and remote communities that are eager to attract those doctors.
An interesting thing we did with the Government of Alberta and the nursing regulator in Alberta was to develop an assessment process that can be used overseas to evaluate the credentials of nurses who want to come to Canada. That will reduce the long delays many nurses face waiting to be licensed to practice their profession.
I think all those things apply generally, in some cases with planning. I think it is important that there be a concerted table that would involve all the players—the provinces, the regional health authorities in the provinces, Canada through Health Canada and also through Immigration Canada—because there has to be coordination. We have to be able to prioritize and focus on identifying specific provincial needs and bringing health professionals in to meet those needs, and hopefully be able to get people and give incentive to settle where the needs are greatest.
One of the other things that is happening is that we've had discussions—though I can't give you the outcome today—with the medical schools about who gets places. I think it's fair to say that people who come from rural areas may be somewhat more likely to go back home. I think the issue of the distribution of seats in medical schools is an important issue that has to be looked at. The rural parts of provinces should have fair access to some of those seats as well.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Tim Uppal Conservative Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB
Here's a quick question. Talking about the coordination between departments is very important, but tell me a little bit about further cooperation between the federal level and provincial level of government in terms of health care.
5:10 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd be happy to answer that question.
There is coordination that goes on at multiple levels. I'll name a few things, but it will not be an exhaustive list. A good example of coordination is CIHR, which will be here on Thursday. A key federal role is the research role. CIHR research contributes hugely to both medical research—finding cures and better treatments for diseases—and research with respect to better management of the health systems. CIHR was instrumental in doing research, for example, on wait times benchmarks. That would be one example of cooperation.
Another example of cooperation would be the work we do with provinces with respect to drug approvals. The committee, some months ago, did a review of the drug approval process under CADTH. That's something we work on closely with the provinces.
Also, through our Health Products and Food Branch, we have an important role in approving drugs for their safety and efficacy. Obviously that's an important factor in terms of getting drugs onto the market. There are other programs, like the special access program, that Health Canada runs that enable physicians to get access to off-market drugs.
There are also programs we're working with, and David can speak a little bit more about initiatives under public health. The public health network, for example, coordinated work we do with respect to health promotion and national strategies on disease prevention. Of course, I spoke at some length about the mental health strategy.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
I'm sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Rosenberg, but I think Dr. Butler-Jones wants to make a comment, and we're almost at 5:15 and we need to go in camera at that time.
5:15 p.m.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
Could I ask, since I think we went over a few of the exchanges, to have the committee extended by five minutes so I could get one chance at raising a few questions.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
We'd have to take that to the committee.
Is it the will of the committee to...? I think some other people have some obligations. In fact, I know they have obligations right at 5:30. I'm one of them.
Dr. Bennett.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal St. Paul's, ON
I think we should extend. I don't think any of us knew about the 5:15 meeting, so--
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal St. Paul's, ON
At the beginning, but we didn't choose to do that. That wasn't the decision of the committee; that was the decision of the chair. So I would prefer that Judy get a question.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
Any other comments on that?
Then we will not get to our business today, but if that's the way the committee chooses to do it.... Would you rather just continue with the questions and we'll do our business another day?
All right, let's do that,then.
Dr. Butler-Jones.
5:15 p.m.
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
Thanks.
I think Morris largely covered it. Because public health issues cross jurisdictions, collaboration really is essential.
I would like to clarify my answer to Mr. Dufour's question.
What I need to be very clear about is that the federal government's commitment to funding of HIV/AIDS continues into the next year at greater than $84 million. The amount that's for local community groups increased this current fiscal year by $2 million, and that will continue into the next year, so that's the total contribution.
5:15 p.m.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
Thank you, Madam Chairperson.
Just on that, I still haven't got a clear answer on whether or not there's going to be any further reductions of moneys to the AIDS community action program, which already experienced a $26 million cut last year.
5:15 p.m.
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
I'm not aware of any $26 million cut. The total federal commitment is, as I've said, to the community groups--
5:15 p.m.
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
There are no plans for any additional--
5:15 p.m.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
Okay, good.
Could I ask specifically about the $72 million in cutbacks listed in this year's budget over the next two years, cutbacks that affect both the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada? Could I get a breakdown of those cuts?
5:15 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
We don't have that here today, but we'd be happy to provide it later.
5:15 p.m.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
Could I ask if it could be provided as soon as this committee is done, or by tomorrow?