Mr. Chair, thank you for the opportunity to be here.
I will first use a few minutes to talk about our organization. I will then give the floor to my colleague, Dr. Margaret Fearon, who will go into more detail about the dossier we are presenting.
Canadian Blood Services is an arm's-length organization within the larger health care system. We're there, really, to manage the blood system for Canadians, with the exception of the province of Quebec. That mandate was given to Héma-Québec.
We are regulated by Health Canada, and we are funded by the provinces and territories. The ministers of health of the provinces and territories are actually our members, our shareholders, and they appoint our board of directors.
We manage blood reserves, blood products and stem cell reserves, as well as related services for all of the provinces and territories except for Quebec, as I explained earlier.
We also manage the National Public Cord Blood Bank, and we are the only authority responsible for the supply, contract manufacturing, and distribution of plasma protein in Canada.
In addition to those responsibilities, we lead an integrated interprovincial system for organ donation and transplantation for all of Canada. As part of this work, we operate the groundbreaking Canadian transplant registry and related programs.
We take many actions to protect the blood supply and ensure a safe and effective system for all Canadians. Educating donors, assessing risks via our donor questionnaire, and testing donated blood are at the heart of our multi-layered approach. Comprehensive and timely surveillance of infectious diseases also helps us to monitor the blood supply and ensure it is as safe as possible. This means we test blood donations for transmissible diseases, investigate possible transfusion-transmitted infections in blood recipients, and scan the horizon for potential or emerging threats.
We also stay current with the activities of blood operators around the world. By learning from our peers, we collect even more knowledge, data, and evidence to support appropriate policies and processes for our country.
Now I'll ask my colleague, Dr. Margaret Fearon, our director of medical microbiology, to speak to the specifics of how we approach the issue of Lyme disease for Canadians.