Health Committee on Dec. 2nd, 2010

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

I simply didn't hear, so I was concerned there may be something I didn't know about.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Ms. Leslie, you have one minute.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Thank you very much.

Do you have plans to create a national suicide prevention strategy?

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

In terms of the suicide piece, that's part of the work that's being reviewed through the Mental Health Commission. We're taking a broader approach to mental health and suicide is part of that initiative. So yes, we're working through the Mental Health Commission to address the issue of suicide.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thanks so much.

Dr. Carrie.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'd like to split my time with Mr. Uppal, so if you would let me know at five minutes, I'd really appreciate it.

Minister, I want to thank you for being here again today. I know you've had a really busy week. I've been following what you've been doing as far as safety, particularly for kids. You had a great announcement with cradles and cribs and bassinets, and you had another really good announcement about radon. But I want to ask you a little bit more about the announcement you made on Monday about lead. There has been a lot of talk in the media about lead, particularly in kids' toys and things like that, and I want you to know that everyone around the table here is extremely committed to product safety.

I wonder if you could provide a little bit more information on the lead regulations that you announced on Monday, and also how the proposed consumer products safety legislation will help improve safety for Canadians.

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Thank you, and thank you again to the committee for the hard work on Bill C-36. I'd like to also thank the member for the question on the very important issue of lead.

I announced this week the regulations on consumer products containing lead, and these regulations will limit the lead content in certain products, including surface paints on children's toys, mouthpieces or musical instruments, and many other products that children may come into contact with, put in their mouths.

These challenges are another step in our government's implementation of the lead risk reduction strategy for consumer products to establish allowable lead limits in a variety of consumer products, particularly those that are used for children, but not exclusively. One example that we use all the time is pencils. We chew on pencils even as adults. So that's one of the areas we've targeted.

As the member is well aware, our government also proposed the Canada consumer product safety act, which is currently before the Senate, and I hope it will pass without further delay. Once it is passed into law, the act will modernize the government's approach to consumer product safety and include new measures such as the ability of Health Canada to order mandatory recalls of consumer products that represent an unreasonable danger to human health or safety and/or mandatory reporting of incidents or deaths from any consumer products. So we have initiatives like the consumer product safety legislation, Bill C-36, which would really give us the authority to respond and remove unsafe products from the marketplace.

Thank you for the question.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you very much, Minister. I want to thank you as well because last year this committee had the opportunity to travel up north. I think it was the first time ever that a health committee actually got to visit our north. We're doing a study on healthy foods and healthy living, and I noticed that $1.53 million has been allocated to Health Canada for nutrition education initiatives. We saw this hugely up north, but I was wondering what the focus of the funding is going to be, that $1.5 million.

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Thank you to the committee for travelling up north. Sometimes by travelling in the north it's easier to get a sense of what some of the challenges are that we face. One of the challenges we do face in remote northern communities, not just in Nunavut but across Canada, is access to nutritious food.

So as part of the new Nutrition North Canada program, Health Canada received funding of $1.53 million to focus on culturally appropriate retail and community-based nutrition education initiatives. Those initiatives will promote healthy eating by developing knowledge and the skills for the selection and preparation of healthy foods bought within the stores, as well as including traditional food, what we call country food, within that education piece. As well, the new funding will stabilize existing efforts at the community level to strengthen education levels in communities and to focus on the retailers for establishing community partnerships to lead in community-wide engagements and promotion through the stores on nutritious food.

I'll just use a couple of examples. We have a plan to develop education plans for each community in the aboriginal languages, for example, working with local stores to promote displays of products and provide in-store nutrition education materials in the local languages to the population we are serving. Health Canada's allocation of $1.53 million is for this year, and next year it will be $2.9 million. We will continue to deliver nutrition education programs through those investments.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Dr. Carrie, you wanted to know when your five minutes are up. Well, it's up. Do you still want to share your time with Mr. Uppal?

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Please, yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Mr. Uppal.

[Tim Uppal, Conservative, Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for taking time again to appear before this committee.

Minister, as you know, neurological conditions are a concern to many Canadians. And as you are aware and as my colleague has mentioned, this committee does have a subcommittee examining neurological issues, including MS, ALS, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and autism. Can you please comment on what the government is doing to address neurological conditions in Canada?

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Thank you.

Our government recognizes the burden neurological conditions place on individuals, families, and caregivers. This will, I think, increase as our population ages.

Our government has committed $15 million to conduct a four-year study of persons with neurological conditions. The study will fill gaps in information about the state of neurological conditions among Canadians. It will also increase our understanding of the number of people affected by neurological conditions; the impact on individuals, their families, and their caregivers; the health services used and required; and the factors that increase the risk of developing neurological conditions.

As well, a conference will be held at the conclusion of this study to provide information for developing policies and programs to improve the lives of those individuals living with neurological conditions.

Through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research our government has also invested $88 million in neurological research. Canada is taking a leadership role in working with other countries to accelerate research on Alzheimer's prevention and on the development of new therapies to address the public health challenges. In fact, we have signed international memoranda of understanding with France, Germany, and the United Kingdom on Alzheimer's research. They all recognize, as well, that they are facing the same challenges we are. But Canada was able to pull those important partners together to accelerate our research in that area.

Our government has also invested $30 million over five years, with the support of the Rick Hansen Foundation, to support the programs and operations of the related Rick Hansen Institute.

[Tim Uppal, Conservative, Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB]

Thank you, Minister.

In your opening remarks you mentioned the mirror commercial. I've had an opportunity to see that commercial, and I think it's very effective. Could you expand on that and tell us a little more about the recent work this government has been doing as part of the national anti-drug strategy ?

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

This is year three of the national anti-drug strategy, which targets our young people. I would to thank you for your question, because I think this is one example of an initiative our government has taken from which I see great benefits being achieved. We believe that supporting parents in their efforts to protect their families in their fight against drug use by their children is an effective focus.

The national anti-drug strategy is about prevention and treatment for those with drug dependencies. But we care about preventing people, especially young people, from becoming addicted.

I mentioned in my speech that we had launched a program, an education campaign, entitled “drugs not4me”. One element of that is called “Mirror”, in which a young woman is showing the changes in her face and what not from being addicted. We're finding that these types of investments are having a significant impact on young people through new multimedia networks.

Since the launch of this program, we've had over 21,000 youth become part of this network. We're also finding that youth are interacting with youth within the social media on prevention. It's been very effective in reaching target groups and in getting the message to target groups. We're also seeing that parents are part of the network. They are learning what young people are up against and are dealing with in Canada. That was last year's announcement, and we're seeing the results of that.

This commercial, again, is part of year three. It was designed in partnership with young people. We received their feedback that this was the most effective way to target young people in Canada in the area of prevention. In my view, it's been quite successful.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

I want to thank Minister Aglukkaq for joining us today and appearing before committee, and I want to thank our guests as well.

We will suspend for two minutes, and following that we will vote on the supplementary estimates.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

We will now continue with supplementary estimates (B).

HEALTH

Department

1b--Operating expenditures..........$13,107,832

5b--Capital expenditures..........$1

10b--The grants listed in the Estimates and contributions..........$32,495,404

Canadian Institutes of Health Research

20b--Operating expenditures..........$1,171,618

25b--The grants listed in the Estimates..........$25,896,667

Public Health Agency of Canada

40b--Operating expenditures..........$1

(Votes 1b, 5b,10b, 20b, 25b, and 40b agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Shall I report the supplementary estimates (B) to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you.

The clerk has just informed me that our witnesses for our next panel are not here yet, which is extremely unusual.

Mr. Dosanjh is wondering if maybe we could adjourn. I guess we could do that.

We're checking on our witnesses. Perhaps they didn't want to come in.

I'm suspending for one more minute again while we check on our witnesses.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

We're going to begin, so we can cover our very important topic today.

I'll inform you as soon as our teleconference is connected. They're experiencing a few technical difficulties.

As soon as our guest, Philip Groff, president and chief executive officer of SMARTRISK, is available to us, we'll certainly be able to bring him on board.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we are studying injury prevention in Canada.

From the Atlantic Collaborative on Injury Prevention, we have Jennifer Heatley, executive director. Jennifer, welcome. We're so glad you could come.

I think we might have Mr. Groff on the line. Mr. Groff, are you on the line now?

[Dr. Philip Groff, President and Chief Executive Officer, SMARTRISK]

Yes, it seems to have worked this time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

This is so nice. I'm Joy Smith, the chair of this absolutely wonderful committee. We're very, very happy to have you today on this very important topic. Welcome.

We also have, from ThinkFirst Canada, Rebecca Nesdale-Tucker, who is the executive director. Welcome. Thank you for joining us. We have Alison Macpherson, board member, and we have Tyler Lisacek, community volunteer. Tyler, I think I've seen you before, and I'm so glad that you have joined us on committee. We've very, very happy to have all of you here.

You'll each have a five-minute presentation. I think I will begin with Jennifer, from the Atlantic Collaborative on Injury Prevention.