Mr. Chair, I'm pleased to answer this very important question.
The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer has been a real success story in Canada. There is often a question about whether there's a need for a pan-Canadian organization over and above the delivery that occurs in individual provinces and territories. In a sense the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer has shown us what can happen when we do that function well.
The partnership has done a number of things. It's been doing seven large-scale initiatives to combat the common risk factors of cancer and other chronic diseases. I think there's often a worry that we'll look disease by disease, but I think the cancer partnership has been very clear that it is about some of the common risk factors for cancer and other diseases.
They've taken a collaborative approach. They've offered support for some individual provinces that may not have had colorectal screening programs, for example. They've been able to be a best practices or a sharing organization in that way.
A very important thing, and I speak here from some experience with the data information collection world, is cancer stage data has always been something we've striven to have in Canada. When you're trying to analyze cancer and what works and which interventions are most effective, understanding what stage a cancer is at is critical. It isn't data we've had collected before and that's because a fair bit of work has to be done on standardizing the format, standardizing the definitions. The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer has made major strides in this area, and I think this is going to be critical for the future.
They've done some very good public reporting work on cancer system performance. We always want to understand which practices perform best and how we are doing. They've had a pan-Canadian initiative on the management of pain and other symptoms for cancer patients, some very critical and fundamental issues that affect individual Canadians. I think at this point they're looking at some work on understanding the causes of cancer.
It's been a very successful partnership thus far.