Thank you very much.
Evidence of meeting #42 for Health in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pharmac.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #42 for Health in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pharmac.
A recording is available from Parliament.
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Len Webber
Thank you. Mr. Oliver, your time is up.
We are past the time available for our session here today. We need to move on and get back to other meetings. However, we do want to thank you sincerely, Mr. Jarvis, Ms. Roy, and Mr. Brougham, for being here today and presenting to us. Your insight was very valuable, so thank you very much.
I just have one very quick question for Ms. Roy, and I'm sure everybody around the table is curious about this. You served in Parliament in New Zealand. Where are you on that political spectrum? What party did you represent?
1 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
1 p.m.
Chair of Board, Head Office, Medicines New Zealand
I hate describing things in terms of left and right. I belonged to a very small party called the ACT Party, which still has a presence in Parliament. It's an economically and socially liberal party.
1 p.m.
Chair of Board, Head Office, Medicines New Zealand
Some would say it's far right.
1 p.m.
Conservative
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Len Webber
Okay. Yes, sure, we'll take it up in committee business.
We thank you all very much for being here. We'll move now into committee business.
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Len Webber
We'll move quickly to committee business.
Go ahead, Mr. Ayoub.
1 p.m.
Liberal
Ramez Ayoub Liberal Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
I'd simply like to raise a technical question, Mr. Chair.
You might want to use your earpieces, because the issue is about translation.
While I was listening to the interpretation channel, there were several moments where there was no interpretation at all. Our interpreters are not the problem. There are some technical issues. We have witnesses from New Zealand, and we've had all sorts of technical difficulties today during the entire question period. Personally, I don't always need the interpretation, but today because of the witnesses' accent, among other things, I wanted to listen to the interpretation. And in doing so, I lost a good part of the content of the discussion.
This is in fact an argument in favour of travelling. Things are different when people are on site. This is the type of technical difficulty that arises when we put questions to people who are at the other ends of the earth, and I find this unfortunate. These people are far away, and when we call them, we should take Canada's two official languages into account as we usually do. That is fundamental.
What would have happened if I'd asked a question in French? I don't even know if they have an interpreter on their side. I saw no earphones nor any other such preparation to answer questions. I don't have the impression that they were equipped to do interpretation on their side.
I would like us to take that into consideration for the next time.
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Len Webber
Absolutely, Mr. Ayoub. Thank you for that.
We will have our clerk follow up with translation services to see what we can do for this in the future.
Thank you.
The meeting is adjourned.