Evidence of meeting #40 for Health in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
Yes, we have specifics here. If we're going to go into this $15.8 million, I might ask my ADM Paul Glover to join me at the table to give us some of the details there.
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
I don't really want too many details. I simply want to know where you are generally spending the $15.8 million.
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
The breakdown of the $15.8 million includes moneys that we used to support cessation activities. So we have a number of grants and contributions that we use to support local community groups. We've most recently talked to the provinces and territories about making some of the grants and contributions available to them as well, to support their initiatives.
We also have other components in compliance and enforcement, for example.
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
Can you give us the details in writing rather than wasting the time here for everyone?
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
I don't want to take up time with those details. Thank you.
On my next and last question, in the supplementary estimates document there is funding to support the defence of Canada against third-party claims in tobacco litigation. It talks about document discovery as well as litigation, preparation, and proceedings in the federal government's legal defence against third-party claims.
Can you give us some details about the third-party claims? I'm assuming these are current claims and not potential claims that you might face.
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
That is the case. The Government of Canada has been named by tobacco companies as a third party in five cases. Tobacco companies that are being sued directly are in turn claiming that Canada should be held liable, so they are third-partying the Government of Canada.
We are vigorously defending ourselves against the claims being made by the tobacco companies. There's a great deal of tobacco documentation that needs to be gathered. Most of it is in Health Canada, with some of it in Agriculture Canada. So many of these dollars are for the document discovery process.
We are currently being third-partied in the cases of health recovery costs for which individual provincial jurisdictions are suing the tobacco companies.
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
Can you give us some details in writing, without disclosing solicitor-client issues?
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
On my last question, if I may, there has been a lot of publicity surrounding the abandonment of the expanded warnings on cigarette packages, after doing six or seven years of research and work. My understanding is that the provinces were all expecting the federal government to do this, and suddenly in tobacco control it's only about contraband. They don't have to be mutually exclusive. Contraband is obviously very important to deal with.
Why was this abandoned at this late stage, when everybody was expecting it?
Conservative
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
This is not a product that has been abandoned. We are continuing to examine the question of the renewal of health warning messages, so it is still ongoing.
Conservative
Bloc
Luc Malo Bloc Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Before turning to the witnesses, I would just like to point out that we also asked whether the minister could appear to help us with these votes. She can have until December 7 to be here.
So I am a little surprised to find out that, between now and December 7, the minister does not have even an hour when she can come to see us. I find that strange, to say the least.
So, I will just—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
Monsieur Malo, just to ease your mind and make the rest of the week better for you, I have to tell you that she's coming on December 2.
Bloc
Luc Malo Bloc Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC
So I will keep all my political questions for December 2, and I will just ask you some questions of a technical nature this morning.
In the past, as you know, I have had questions because we have seen votes added to the health portfolio in order to deal with some backlogs, with natural health products specifically.
The backlog is still there and a new vote has not yet been passed. Some users and producers are worried that the regulations on natural health products will go into effect in their entirety in March 2011.
Is it in fact the Department of Health's intention to put the regulations in effect in their entirety in March 2011? Can you just give us some figures on the applications that still have to be processed?
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
Thank you for your question. I think I will answer in English because there are a lot of figures and I want to make sure I get the figures right.
As you mentioned, we have had a backlog in the natural health products area, and we have been working diligently on that.
Maybe I'll start by outlining that we have currently issued over 25,000 natural health product licences, which means there are now over 33,000 products on the market. This is more than the number for over-the-counter drugs.
On how we are addressing the backlog, there has been something of a change in how we're dealing with it, partly because of consultations with stakeholders. We have a new set of regulations that are altering how we deal with this. So we're dealing with the backlog in a different way now, but it's a way that I think stakeholders, including NAPRA, the pharmaceutical association, have found to be quite useful.
Under this regime we have mechanisms that we call the UPLAR--“unprocessed product licence application regulations”. They came into force on August 4. These regulations give us the mechanism to temporarily authorize the sale of certain unlicensed NHPs. So once we've been able to assure ourselves that these natural health products meet key safety criteria--and we can at the same time, if we need to, put conditions on their sale--we can allow them into the market. This gives us the ability to move them forward.
We have currently completed 87% of what would have been considered the backlog under the previous regime. We are on target to continue to move these forward, but we now have a slightly different mechanism of counting because we've changed our mechanism. We think the new regulations give us the ability to move things through and deal more expeditiously with natural health products.
Bloc
Luc Malo Bloc Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC
Is the deadline set at March 2011, or are you working on the 30-month rule, as set out in the regulations, as the last date by which all product testing will be complete?
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
Yes.
Yes, we are on track for that deadline as per the UPLA regulations.
Bloc
Luc Malo Bloc Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC
Great. Thank you.
I would like to talk to you about another backlog. Let me read the warning posted on the Health Canada website. This is what it says:
Health Canada is currently experiencing a temporary delay in processing applications for an authorization to possess and/or a licence to produce marihuana for medical purposes, due to a sharp rise in the number of applications received in recent months. To address the situation, Health Canada has implemented a strategy that is improving the efficiency of its review and authorization process and will restore standard processing times of 8 to 10 weeks. As part of our strategy, our officials have reviewed all operational policies and procedures and implemented several key process changes in order to improve efficiencies and speed up these processes. We anticipate that the number of applications being processed will increase as we progress with the implementation of our strategy. The Department is making efforts to restore normal processing times by the end of this year.
Now, I see no additional funds to implement or support that strategy. So I gather that you do not need additional funds.
I have two questions. Why was there a sharp rise in the number of applications in recent months?
But you must be aware that, for marihuana, if people do not have their authorization, they can be prosecuted. So, the issue of health aside, there is another problem. What is the strategy you have put in place?