Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm sorry I'm late. I apologize to everyone. I had another meeting that I couldn't cancel.
Obviously, some of the things you've talked about are on prevention. The tobacco strategy is a big part of it, especially with regard to lung disease. I want to know what you feel about the current commitment to the tobacco strategy. Do you feel that a one-year extension is sufficient, or do you feel there should be a permanent strategy to look at smoking cessation in a real way and in a practical way?
I think it's a large part of cancers and chronic lung disease. It doesn't really matter if you can walk 30 minutes to transit if you have COPD. Those are some of the things we need to talk about.
What are the practical ways in which the federal government can play a role in preventing the chronic diseases you talked about, such as cancer and lung disease? I think you talked about Quebec best practices. What things do you think one can do to help manage people with chronic diseases so that quality of life is assured? They could actually stay out of hospital and be able to decrease medications. All of those quality-of-life issues could be attended to, of course, with the cost of hospitalization being one of them. What are the ways in which you feel the federal government can play a role in moving that agenda forward?
One thing is good management. I know the provinces are responsible for delivering health care, but the 2004 accord talked about jurisdictional flexibility and federal-provincial cooperation in moving this agenda forward. What do you feel are the practical core things that one can do as a federal government?