Thank you very much, Madam Chairperson.
I'd like to begin by giving notice of the following motion:
That the Committee may meet in camera only for the purpose of discussing:
(a) wages, salaries and other employee benefits;
(b) contracts and contract negotiations;
(c) labour relations and personnel matters;
(d) a draft report;
(e) briefings concerning national security; and
That all votes taken in camera be recorded in the Minutes of Proceedings, including how each member voted when recorded votes are requested.
Madam Chair, I'd now like to address my remarks to the witnesses and ask a couple of questions.
First of all, thank you to all the officials for being here today.
Mr. Ianiro, thank you for your remarks. I want to begin by picking up on what you said in your presentation. You said at the beginning that there is little national-level data on prescription drug abuse presently available in Canada, and that there is growing evidence of the nature and scope of the problem.
I wonder whether you're aware of the parliamentary Special Committee on Non-Medical Use of Drugs which issued its report in 2002. In that report there were a number of recommendations that pertain to this issue, because it dealt with prescription and illicit drugs.
I want to find out what has been done with those recommendations and whether you're even aware of them. It was an all-party committee. These recommendations were unanimously adopted.
For example, recommendation 26 said:
The Committee recommends that a renewed Canada’s Drug Strategy include in its priorities the development of a strategy relating specifically to the misuse of over-the-counter and prescription drugs in Canada.
Recommendation 27 said:
The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada assist and encourage the provinces and territories in the development and maintenance of comparable real-time databases so as to track better the prescribing and dispensing of commonly misused prescription drugs.
There was another recommendation—I'm just pulling out a few—that “consideration be given to integrating questions on licit and illicit substances in every cycle of the Canadian Community Health Survey, every two years.”
These are not new issues. These were identified more than a decade ago. I realize that the current government wasn't the government then, because this is from 2002. Nevertheless, it seems to me that it's a place to begin and it's a place to have some accountability as to whether or not there has ever really been follow through on the good work of a committee of that day. It's a bit surprising to hear you say today that it was only now, in October, that the provinces and territories are saying that they're willing to work on this issue. This report is more than a decade old.
What has been done in that time period specifically on the recommendations I just referenced?