Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and I want to thank Dr. Kendall for joining us today.
I realize, Dr. Kendall, your job is quite sensitive at times. You're doing quite the juggling act ,and I want to commend you for the good work you're doing in regard to all these federal-provincial-territorial jurisdictional issues. My colleague from the Bloc brought up a very important point with schools, to make sure that we have an evidence-based response to these different scenarios that we're going to be presented with.
Our colleagues from the municipalities brought up some good points too. I think everyone's aware that PHAC is responsible for the H1N1, but for critical infrastructure, what the municipalities are dealing with at the grassroots is public safety. So I see there such a huge coordination.
One of the points brought up was that it doesn't appear that we have a federal plan. That's exactly what we do have. We do have a federal plan and we're working through that plan, and you are a very key player for that.
I was wondering, number one, with the concerns of the municipalities here...they said that there really isn't a plan for those front-line workers. Could you elaborate on a plan that you have been working on?
We had some comments from the Canadian College of Physicians, but also Dr. Butler-Jones, about improving the communications. I think this is what this is all about. We have certain stakeholders who don't feel that we have a plan. Apparently we do have a plan, but it's not being communicated.
Would you be able to comment on what we can do, perhaps what the federal government can do, to work with the provinces? Municipalities are creations of the provinces, so how can we work with the provinces to better communicate and get those lines of communication out to the municipalities that have very valid concerns with the overall plan that we have with the government?
I know that's a long question, but please do the best you can.