Health Committee on April 11th, 2016

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, panel, for being here with us.

This government has committed to eliminating the stigmatizing donor-screening policies preventing healthy men from donating blood just because they have been sexually active with other men. Can you please update the committee on this commitment?

[Simon Kennedy]

Mr. Chair, with regard to the blood system, I'm sure the various members of the committee know that Health Canada is the regulator and reviews applications from the blood operators when there's a desire to make a change. This was the system set up following the Krever commission. It's up to Héma-Québec and Canadian Blood Services to come forward with a proposal.

They have come forward actually within the last week with a proposal to reduce the deferral period involving the issue of MSM from five years to one year. We are now in the process of actually reviewing the submission. There's a lot of detailed statistical data, a review of the international experience of other jurisdictions, and so on. Obviously, we want to give it a careful review. The objective will be to ensure that any changes to the blood system maintain the same level of safety. We anticipate that review will be finished over the summer and that we will be in a position to provide a regulatory authorization by no later than September.

That's the current status. If that's successful, it would reduce the deferral period significantly to one year.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

My next question is on food labelling. According to the mandate of the Minister of Health, improvements need to take place so that food labels contain more information on the sugar and artificial colour added to processed food. What are the objectives that the Department of Health hopes to achieve with such regulations? What progress has been made in this regard?

[Simon Kennedy]

Members may know that Health Canada had put out a regulatory proposal—I don't remember exactly the date, but it was eight months ago, a year ago or so—and were out consulting on that proposal. That proposal laid out a series of proposed changes to food labelling, including providing more detail on sugar. For example requiring that sugars be grouped on the list of ingredients because some products might have various kinds of sugar, but they're not necessarily all labelled as sugar. They're all over the place in the ingredient listing, so the proposal was to group them all so you would see much more clearly the amount of sugar in the product. That proposal would have required more information on dyes and so on.

We consulted on that. Obviously we now have the comments from all the stakeholders. The government has made a series of new promises, commitments, for example, on added sugars and so on. The ministry is looking at the original labelling proposal that we consulted on and at the comments we've received, at the new commitments the government has made, and our aim would be, once the government has made some decisions, to go out with details on those proposals.

In terms of what we would be aiming to achieve—my colleagues I'm sure could talk about this as well—there's certainly lots of evidence that Canadians are consuming too much in the way of sugars. We obviously have concerns about issues such as obesity. Many Canadians are concerned about dyes and colourings, and whether those can produce reactions in sensitive individuals. The proposal is to provide more information to consumers about these features of their food so they're able to make more informed and better decisions.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you.

What steps are going to be taken to promote a national strategy around concussions?

[Dr. Gregory Taylor]

Perhaps I can talk a bit about concussions. Some of the work on concussions is toward research, so I'll let Alain talk about that in a second. We have some resources that came with the current budget, and we'll be focusing on standards so people can understand treatment and how to recognize a concussion, basically best practices that we're going to disseminate to various groups, Sport Canada, etc. I think part of the way forward on that is ensuring that people are kept off long enough so they have a chance to recover. We're working toward that.

From a research perspective, Alain, did you have anything?

[Dr. Alain Beaudet]

The research evidence will inform the development of a national strategy on concussions. CIHR is investing heavily in research that aims at improving the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of Canadians who suffer from traumatic brain injuries, including concussions. Since 2011, we've invested close to $20 million in research on traumatic brain injuries. We certainly are now supporting a number of high-level research teams investigating the underlying causes and approaches to treatment, which I believe will be very useful in developing proper policies, programs, and products related to this issue.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Your time is up.

Mr. Webber, welcome back.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to read some quotes from the minister's mandate letter from the Prime Minister. It says, “We have promised Canadians a government that will bring real change”, “We committed to a responsible, transparent fiscal plan for challenging economic times. I expect Canadians to hold us accountable”, and “We have also committed to set a higher bar for openness and transparency in government. It is time to shine more light on government”.

Those are some quotes from the Prime Minister. It seems that he has set a pretty clear expectation to the minister, and to all ministers, but this just does not square with what we have seen so far. The parliamentary budget officer says, “The Government has made changes to the presentation of its fiscal plan that have made it more difficult for parliamentarians to scrutinize public finances.”

I'm wondering if you and the minister will provide detailed spending plans for her department over a five-year horizon, as was done by the previous Conservative government, instead of the short two years that has been done. Does the minister not think that it would be more in line with what the Prime Minister has asked you guys to do?

[Simon Kennedy]

Mr. Chair, I think that probably at least a portion of the question is better directed to the minister. As officials, we work within the fiscal framework established by the government, and obviously as senior officials we will provide whatever information is required.

I think the broader question about whether or not the government may change its budgeting process or present the information differently is probably better directed to the finance minister or maybe to the minister herself.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Thank you. I appreciate that.

With that comment, then, will the minister then provide the committee her department's information within seven days? Can we get a fixed time for the answer to that question and to all the other questions?

Mr. Chair, there have been numerous questions where she has to get back to the committee. I hope we can get that within a certain time period—let's say seven days.

[Simon Kennedy]

Certainly, where the minister has committed to provide information in her previous remarks, we can work to get that to the committee as quickly as possible.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

That's great. Thank you.

I also would like to bring up the issue of a private member's bill that is coming up this week in Parliament and is calling for an organ donor registry. You may be aware that this issue is very important to me, to many people here in this room, and to many people in my Conservative caucus as well.

Of course, I'm sure that organ donation is widely supported by all of us, but sadly, when it comes to improving organ donation systems in Canada, there is often a lot of talk and little action. Insofar as national organ donor registries go, we lag behind all other developed nations and many of the world's poorest nations as well. It is really quite sad.

About a year ago, we opened and implemented an organ donor registry in Alberta. The Library of Parliament just got back to me with some stats. The donor registry is now up by over 227,000 people as of today, with 336 people in Alberta currently on the waiting list for an organ transplant. These transplants are up because of this registry. They're up by 20%, which is fantastic, so obviously this registry is working.

My question is for you or the minister. Will the minister and the department support an organ donor registry in this country?

[Simon Kennedy]

Mr. Chair, maybe to clarify Health Canada's role, or at least the institution I have administrative responsibilities for, it is responsible for regulating the safety of organs and tissues for transplantation. We have provided funding over the last number of years to Canadian Blood Services to work on this issue.

I would readily acknowledge that this is a very important issue and we need to do more, but the principal work on organ and tissue donation has been through CBS and our work with the provinces and territories. Our principal role as Health Canada has actually been to regulate these activities.

In terms of the government's position on the bill and its approach, I don't want to pre-empt what the government's decision might be on a matter before Parliament. Again, I think this is probably one matter that the minister or the government might want to respond to.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

All right. Thank you.

I'd like to share some time with my colleague, who would like to ask a question as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

You have 13 seconds.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Then let's just pass it on.

Again, it would be nice to know where the minister stands on this. It's my hope that she would support the creation of a donor registry. Even though you say that it's more of a jurisdictional issue, in order to have a national umbrella when it comes to organ registries and to build shared information amongst the different silos around this country, I think this is a bill that needs to be passed.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Thanks very much.

Mr. Oliver, you have five minutes.

[John Oliver, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

In the 2016-17 main estimates, PHAC is requesting $14 million “to acquire medical countermeasures for smallpox and anthrax preparedness”.

I was curious about that. What are the vaccination rates for smallpox? How are they changing over time? What is the status of smallpox vaccination?

[Dr. Gregory Taylor]

I can speak to that.

Smallpox is not vaccinated for at all. Smallpox, as you may know, has been eliminated from the globe.

There are certainly some stores of smallpox in some labs; I believe the U.S. has it. There's a potential for smallpox to be used as a bioweapon. What we're using and keeping in our stockpile is vaccines against smallpox. Hopefully, smallpox will not emerge in the world at all and we'll never have to vaccinate against smallpox again.

[John Oliver, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

What's leading to the additional medical countermeasures that you've requested in the estimates?

[Dr. Gregory Taylor]

It's to keep our supply up.

Smallpox is interesting. There's a first-generation smallpox vaccine, which is good for everybody; about 3% of the population is not able to take that. We also have a smallpox immunoglobulin for folks who get exposed, and then a third-generation vaccine. We were just talking about it. They don't last forever, so they have to be turned over, and the old supply has to be replaced.

[John Oliver, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

So it's the renewal of that inventory, then?

[Dr. Gregory Taylor]

Yes, it is.