Thank you, Madam Chair.
First of all, I hope there is general acknowledgement that the testimony we heard this afternoon was extremely worthwhile and brought to light a number of issues facing the different communities.
Dr. Butler-Jones, I understand that, at this stage, we cannot focus primarily on the long term, because there is concern about the fall, which is the short term. However, as we heard, it is clear that general living conditions in these communities have to be looked at. The fact is that the circumstances in which they live weaken the communities, making them more susceptible when pandemics occur, such as the H1N1 flu pandemic.
One of the witnesses told us that it may be because Health Canada is lacking information. I hope that is not the reason why no action has been taken to deal with these issues and make improvements to general living conditions in these communities.
Earlier, Ms. Wasylycias-Leis made reference to the availability of vaccine. That could also be a problem: when they receive the vaccine, will they actually be in a position to administer it? Have you also looked at that and have you taken steps to ensure that they will be able to immunize their population once the vaccine is available to them in the communities?
I also heard the representatives of the Inuit communities say that they do not have clear understanding of the federal government's role with respect to developing a strategy or plan to deal with the H1N1 virus. I am not necessarily asking you to provide clarification now, but at the very least, you should be cognizant of the need to work with these people in order to clarify everyone's role, so that the communities will have an effective plan to deal with the H1N1 virus.
Also, will those plans be tested? I know that Dr Duncan referred to this earlier. That is another interesting point.
As well, how is it that the tool developed by the Garden River First Nation was completed forgotten for four or five years? Is that because it fell between the cracks or because you lost sight of the need to pay close attention to the development of tools for prevention?