Evidence of meeting #34 for Health in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site.) The winning word was clause.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Philippe Méla Procedural Clerk
You aim at adding a new definition. It's called “prescribed health care institution”. In order to do that the term or the expression has to be in the bill somewhere.
Procedural Clerk
If you define a term, the term has to be somewhere in the bill, otherwise it doesn't relate to anything. The definitions, generally speaking, are to help understand the wording in the bill.
NDP
Libby Davies NDP Vancouver East, BC
The wording “prescribed health care institutions” is already in the bill, but it doesn't define what that is, so I'm suggesting we define it after line 8.
Procedural Clerk
Okay, that's fine. Would you be able to tell me where it is in the bill, because...?
NDP
Libby Davies NDP Vancouver East, BC
Yes. It's on page 5, and it's line 34. It says “a prescribed health care institution shall provide the Minister”, etc., but it doesn't spell out what a prescribed health care institution is. So, we're including in the definition what we believe a health care institution is. Is that adequate?
Conservative
Terence Young Conservative Oakville, ON
We think this would be a mistake because by providing a prescribed list you could conceivably be excluding.... The act gives the minister the power to create a list and this might limit the minister's powers. I think our goal is the same: for the minister to have a broader power to get more adverse drug reactions reported.
NDP
Libby Davies NDP Vancouver East, BC
Yes. Alternatively the minister could make it incredibly narrow and exclude community health centres or pharmacies, so I think by including it we're giving her some direction to be broad. I would worry if it's just left to the minister's discretion, which we see a lot of these days, then it could end up being very narrow. I'm sure it would include hospitals.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
I understand Mr. Young's point about leaving it broad so it can be defined under regulation. If we adopt Ms. Davies's amendment, would that somehow prevent the minister or the regulations from defining it more broadly? In other words, would the fact that you start defining it in the law specifically take away the minister's ability to add to the definition in regulation?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ben Lobb
If it's okay, Mr. Scarpaleggia, we'll defer to Mr. Lee and have him....
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
Absolutely, I was hoping he would take the question.
Director, Office of Legislative and Regulatory Modernization, Policy, Planning and International Affairs Directorate, Health Products and Food Branch, Department of Health
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The word “prescribed” next to “health care institutions” indicates that we would use a regulation to say which ones they would be, so “prescribed” just points to the fact that the regulations will tell you which ones. If the list is up at the act level in a definition, it would to that extent bind the minister in adding on. We haven't had much time to analyze this, but, for example, if we had specialized clinics for cancer they may not be community clinics nor a hospital and yet very serious events come there that you want to see. If you have a stroke you're not going to sit with your GP; you're going to get into acute care. They're not all hospitals now. Having to go with drafters and work out the technicalities of that could be quite challenging.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
So it could prevent the minister from adding, through regulation, institutions.
Director, Office of Legislative and Regulatory Modernization, Policy, Planning and International Affairs Directorate, Health Products and Food Branch, Department of Health
It would certainly make that exercise quite difficult.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
Or even adding doctors' offices, for example.
Thanks.
NDP
Libby Davies NDP Vancouver East, BC
I will actually make an amendment to my own amendment. I'm not quite sure how you do that.