Evidence of meeting #84 for Health in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was certainly.
A video is available from Parliament.
Executive Vice-President, Canadian Institutes of Health Research
That's correct. It's $1.1 billion annually, with a $5.5-million increase for the—
Liberal
John Oliver Liberal Oakville, ON
It's interesting. We heard from one of the researchers from McMaster who said that after he had made a discovery of a new possible antimicrobial agent in some fungus in some soil from Nova Scotia, they needed $600,000 to bring it to market. They couldn't do it because, in 2014 or so, they weren't able to secure funding. Most of his graduate students—I think he said all—are leaving for the U.S.
I'm worried that we're losing our research, but more importantly, we're losing our capacity, our next generation of researchers, because we don't have adequate funding. Do you have a sense of what's needed as an investment into CIHR to regain our leadership role in health research in Canada?
Executive Vice-President, Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Specifically to the matter that's raised, I can underscore the importance of early-career investigators and the pipeline of researchers. That is a very significant area of attention for ourselves. We've directed an additional $20 million per year specifically to ensure that those young investigators have a chance to get into the health research system and to go forward.
As members here may well know, there was a fundamental science review undertaken that was tabled with Minister Duncan, which Ministers Petitpas Taylor and Duncan commented on recently in terms of some improvements to the coordination of the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the tri-agencies comprised of CIHR, NSERC, and SSHRC.
We know that the amounts tabled in that report are very significant, and underscored by a number of fairly in-depth analyses that we know the government is examining now. We'll wait for further information as that unfolds.
Thank you.
Liberal
John Oliver Liberal Oakville, ON
I have a really quick question for Mr. Kennedy.
In the minister's new mandate letter, there is a requirement that she review the need for a national formulary. Where do you stand on the issue of the requirement of a national formulary, and how would you undertake that review?
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
We're doing work with the provinces and territories now to look at issues around a drug formulary. This is obviously a big policy question that all governments have to grapple with, so I can only speak as an official about some of the possible efficiencies. Certainly, there are a number of aspects to a formulary. One of them is what drugs are on the formulary. Almost more importantly, what are the conditions of access? What conditions are actually authorized by the province or territory for access to the drug?
In the work we've done, one of the things we discovered that's actually quite complicated, if you like, is that it's not just a matter of comparing what kinds of drugs are available in each jurisdiction, but under what circumstances the payments will be made.
If we could advance that kind of work and start to have greater harmonization of the drugs available and the manner in which they're used, the conditions of access, that would start to make it a lot easier to have joint negotiations to move forward in a common way to procure these kinds of products. There's a lot to recommend. Working with the provinces and territories to try to have a more harmonized approach, I would say, might be a way to respond.
Liberal
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
I'll try some short snappers.
I'd like quick answers, if I could.
The mandate letter mandated the minister right from the beginning of this government to reduce drug costs for Canadians. Have drug costs for Canadians come down?
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
I think what I would say to that is that there is a very ambitious agenda. We feel there is very good analytical evidence to suggest that once the measures that have been proposed are in place—and we just had draft regulations gazetted for the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board—they will lead to meaningful reductions in drug prices.
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Mr. Kennedy, I have another short snapper.
They haven't come down yet. Would that be a fair comment for me to say?
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
I think what would be fair would be to say that developing the changes to the way in which drug pricing is managed in this country, and the way in which purchasing and all the various machinery that's actually involved in the pharmaceutical system.... That's a significant undertaking. We're well under way, but it's going to take some time to see the impacts.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
I'll try a third time. Have drug costs come down today from where they were two years ago for Canadians?
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
Drug costs have certainly come down in a variety of areas. I have my own experience, for example, at Health Canada, where we manage a fairly large drug plan for first nations and Inuit. I can tell you very forthrightly that our joining the pan-Canadian pharmaceutical alliance has actually led to meaningful reductions in the prices we pay for some of the pharmaceuticals by virtue of the work we're doing with the provinces and territories.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Okay.
With regard to indigenous health, the Prime Minister has famously said that it's the most important relationship to him. The state of health among indigenous people in Canada, I think we can all agree, is greatly concerning. In response to the 2015 spring reports of the Auditor General of Canada, report 4, “Access to Health Services for Remote First Nations Communities”, Health Canada pledged to conduct a comparative analysis of access to health services in remote first nations communities and non-indigenous remote communities. Health Canada set a deadline of summer 2016, but we learned last spring at main estimates that this report was never, in fact, written.
Why wasn't that report written?
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
I'm sorry, I'll have to maybe defer that—
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
No, I think that's a question that would be better directed, actually, to the ministry of indigenous services. By order in council—
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
Yes, but by order in council, now the first nations and Inuit health branch is actually no longer the responsibility of Health Canada, and I'm no longer the deputy head responsible for the organization.
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
I'd be answering for a colleague at this point.
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
That would be a question probably better put to parliamentary officials than to bureaucratic officials. What I can say is that we're doing a lot of work to get ready for the eventual deployment of regulations once the bill passes. I would say that I could give assurance to the member, just in terms of the parliamentary process, that it's not slowing down the work in Health Canada to prepare for the eventuality of this legislation coming into place.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Is the federal government giving any direct funding to overdose prevention sites in Canada?
