Thank you very much, Dr. Morin.
I wanted to say that Dr. Morin used a very important word here that everyone bandies about. It's called “cooperation”. The “co-” means “between”, and therefore cooperation is not a one-sided thing. I just wanted to say that.
Dr. Carrie made a comment about standards having to be dependent on the provinces. Dr. Carrie is a health professional, and therefore he should know that there are international standards around the world for practice, for the way things should be done, for the standards that must be achieved if there is to be good practice. How that is done, where it is done, and by whom it is done is the jurisdiction of the provinces.
The setting of standards has a national and an international scope. That's how it works in the professional practice of medicine or engineering. It works this way so that around the world we don't have people doing whatever they feel like doing. I can feel comfortable going to London tomorrow and getting the care I require because there are international standards, or I can feel comfortable going to Saskatchewan tomorrow and getting the standard of care that I need based on national standards. Standards do not remove the ability of the provinces to make a flexible decision about who delivers the care, where the care is delivered, and how that care is delivered. That is a provincial jurisdiction, and I would refer Dr. Carrie to the Canada Health Act if he wants to understand the issue a little better.