Health Committee on March 16th, 2010

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you very much.

We'll now go to Mr. Bagnell. He will be splitting his time with Dr. Bennett.

Mr. Bagnell.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Thank you.

Thank you, Minister, for being here.

I just have one question. The territorial health system sustainability initiative announced in 2004 for $150 million was for five years, and as you know the northern premiers were lobbying for it to be reinstated. As you were in the Nunavut government, I'm sure you would like it reinstated for the five years. Obviously, things like medevac from the north are going to go on forever.

My question is why was it only reinstated for two years? Will the minister commit to reinstating it for the full five years, particularly because the minister comes from Nunavut? It's very important for northerners, so could she tell northerners that she's committed to continuing that program permanently, or at least for the five years that the people were asking for?

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Thank you.

This is one program the three territories have said has been very successful in addressing capacity building for training and so on. The other area is related to medical travel.

Within the sustainability initiatives for medical travel, the three territories have agreed to take measures to work towards sustaining their health care by investing in training of their own, as well as taking measures to provide care closer to home. The intent here is to reduce dependency on the travel piece of it. I'm committed to working with the territories to addressing those specific targets that would reduce the medical travel and build capacity in each of those jurisdictions. At this point in time, we've had commitment for renewal for two years, and within those two years we'll continue to address and target those specific areas we had started five years ago.

Thank you.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Carolyn.

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

Minister, yesterday the Minister of Finance suggested that more competition in the system would be the answer to the health of Canadians. I wonder if you support that idea.

Secondly, when, in the Speech from the Throne, it says there will be a program for injury prevention, I wonder why there is no money in the budget for injury prevention.

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

I would start off by saying the Minister of Finance also said that the Canadian health system is terrific, that it works very well, and that no one is left out.

We will continue to respect the Canada Health Act. We will continue to increase transfers to the provinces and territories by 6% again this year. We will not touch health care, as we saw happen in the 1990s. We have seen the results of that. I remain committed to working with the provincial and territorial health ministers.

In relation to the issue around injury prevention, we are committed to addressing injury issues, one of the leading causes of death of Canadian children. The Public Health Agency of Canada and non-governmental organizations are looking at developing a national strategy on childhood injury prevention. The work builds on 20 years of achievements in that area, including significant reduction of unintentional childhood injuries.

I will just use one example--

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

Show the money for it.

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

I will just use one example that prevents injury. It is Bill C-6. Canada consumer product safety legislation would prevent harmful products that cause injury to children from being on the market. In December I believe we had a number of reports of children having their fingers amputated, but we don't have legislation to recall, so I would encourage my colleague to encourage her colleagues to support this very important legislation.

Other work related to injury prevention--

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

There is no money.

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

--is the surveillance and monitoring through the Canadian hospital injury reporting and prevention program. The 2009 edition of “Child and Youth Injury in Review” again relates to consumer products, unsafe products, and the need to update the 40-year-old legislation. We will continue to work with the provinces and territories.

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

So there's no money. You're saying there is no new money for injury prevention. Where is the money for injury prevention?

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

One example, again, is that the current Bill C-6 is outdated. We have a division within the department that deals with unsafe products in order to prevent injuries from happening. We need to modernize it. We need to modernize it and respond quickly to protect the health and safety of Canadian children. We are also--

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

Drowning, farm injuries--all of those.

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

--seeking approval on this item, and once we have it we'll be seeking approval for that particular injury prevention item. Again, we are working with jurisdictions and non-governmental organizations to come up with a national strategy on this issue.

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

That would be without any money.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you, Minister.

Go ahead, Ms. McLeod.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'll pick up on some of the earlier comments from my colleagues. We talked about the Auditor General and the issue in terms of Health Infoway and the findings of the audit report. Of particular interest to this committee in some of the work we have done is the new money for Health Infoway support and the enhancements to the electronic health records.

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Canada has focused on first establishing the fundamentals, the foundational and overarching systems for Canadians to have electronic health records available to their health care professionals. The new funding under the economic action plan will stimulate continued implementation of electronic health records across Canada. The funding will also be used to implement electronic medical records in physicians' offices, as requested by the CMA, and in other clinical settings, and to connect points of service such as hospital information systems and patient portals with the electronic health records system. We will continue to implement that.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Thank you. We are all aware of the critical importance, so we are very appreciative to see that moving forward.

I'd like to share my time with my colleague Patrick Brown.

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

Thank you.

One issue that unites a lot of us around this committee is the issue of neurological disorders. We actually have a subcommittee on neurological disorders.

Last year we saw a report from the Alzheimer Society of Canada that said there was a great tsunami before us. That report was called “Rising Tide: The Impact of Dementia on Canadian Society”. I want to know if you can share with us some of your plans for how we're going to deal with the increasing rate at which Alzheimer's disease is going to affect Canadians over the next generation.

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Thank you.

Our government is very aware of the challenges presented by the rising rates of Alzheimer's disease. It's not just a challenge here in Canada, but it is also a global challenge. To help us meet this challenge head on we need to know more about Alzheimer's disease and some of the causes. We also need to develop tools that will allow us to diagnose the disease at the earliest stages and provide our best chance to slow or stop its progression. We need to also improve our capacity to care for people with the disease and to support the families.

Our government is also taking action in this direction. We are funding a national dementia knowledge translation network that will facilitate the sharing of important information with researchers and policy-makers, care providers, and people living with dementia. Through CIHR we are also leading an international collaboration on Alzheimer's disease with research agencies in France and the United Kingdom. In addition, we have also invested $30 million to support a Canadian study on aging. This groundbreaking study will follow 50,000 Canadians age 45 to 85 over the next 20 years. The work will provide valuable information on how we age, and on how we can live longer and lead healthier lives and protect ourselves from diseases such as Alzheimer's. Our government is very committed to this. It is a challenge, but we'll continue to work in collaboration with many sectors to address it.

Thank you.

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Mr. Brown, you have more time.

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

You mentioned that you are working with the U.K. and France. I know it's one of the things we talked about at the neurological disorders committee when we briefly started--that is, about how we can work with partners abroad more to learn from some of their research. One thing we heard was that some countries had positive studies on delaying onset. Can you tell us a little bit more about the partnership with France and the U.K. and the type of work Canada is doing with other countries? That sounds very interesting.

It's great to see that you put an emphasis on Alzheimer's. I know that in my own community, every January we have our Alzheimer's walk and every year it gets bigger and bigger because so many families are affected by it. It's a huge concern in Barrie, and I'm sure for all Canadians.

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Thank you.

CIHR has done a lot of great work in building those partnerships with the international communities to address the area of Alzheimer's. Recognizing that this is a global challenge, CIHR has worked to form partnerships with Paris and the United Kingdom to work collaboratively to address treatment, early interventions, diagnosis, and so on. It is in our interest to work in a global community because global communities are dealing with the same challenges that we're facing in Canada with our aging population. We'll continue to support CIHR in this very important research area. There is much work we can do collectively that would benefit Canadians as well. The collaboration with the international community established by CIHR and the leadership of that organization will benefit Canadians as we deal with CIHR priorities related to Alzheimer's.