Health Committee on Nov. 3rd, 2022

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Stephen Ellis]

Thank you, Ms. Sidhu.

Go ahead, Ms. Goodridge.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

I appreciate the support I've received from my colleagues on this issue. It's critically important.

One anecdote I'd like to share, because I think it's important, is the number of young moms, particularly, who have reached out to me since yesterday when this was brought up in question period. This isn't about politicizing this issue. They wrote to me and said, “Thank you. I thought that I was crazy. I have felt like I was alone in this. I have been struggling. I didn't realize that this was more than just my problem or my community's problem.” It really made them feel heard.

Frankly, inviting the minister was not an attempt to further embarrass. It was simply to try to see what other political mechanisms we possibly have. It is not about bringing politics into this. Frankly, I don't want to see politics in this issue. I want to see this issue fixed. I brought this to the committee more than a month ago and, arguably, it's worse than it was when I brought it to the committee a month ago.

I, personally, haven't seen any children's pain medication on the shelves in my northern Alberta community since early this summer. This is something that's hugely concerning. We're five hours from a children's hospital.

I really think this is something that needs to be studied. I believe that the amendment coming from my colleague Mr. Vidal was not an attempt to bring this in to further politicize the issue, but to further get to the bottom of this problem to see what has happened, what will continue happening and what other mechanisms we have. I think we have been able to show that we have pretty much cross-party support on this.

Canadian families expect and deserve to see forward movement on this. I understand that many believe this is bringing politics in. This wasn't the intention and this isn't the space where it is. I would urge everyone to consider the idea of bringing the minister in, because I think parents would love to hear some of what he's done to hopefully make things better.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Stephen Ellis]

Thank you, Ms. Goodridge.

At the current time, our speakers list has collapsed. That would make it an appropriate time to vote on the proposed amendment put forward by Mr. Vidal that in the first hour, the Minister of Health appear as a witness.

(Amendment negatived)

We'll return to debate on the motion as proposed.

Mr. Davies, you have the floor.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

I think it's an appropriate moment to make one observation. This is an opportunity to think of young parents. Ms. Goodridge has been very passionate, effective and brave in sharing her own experience with her child, who had pain from teething and couldn't get pain medication, and bringing up young parents across this country who can't get pain medication for their children.

It's appropriate to point out the policy symmetry between this issue and lack of dental care, because there are millions of children and parents in this country who go to bed every night with pain because they can't get access to dental care. Whether you're a parent who has a teething child and you can't get pain medication, or you're a parent with an adolescent child who's going to bed at night with the same pain because he can't get dental care, it's the same parental pain. It's the same frustration. I think it's the same health need.

It's an opportunity to remind all of us, as parliamentarians, about consistency. I'm hoping that this can serve as a good example for all of us around this table, from all parties, to work constructively to address this problem, not only for the temporary issue of pain medication, but also for the structural opportunity to fix the problem of ensuring that all children get access to oral health care in this country.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Stephen Ellis]

Thank you, Mr. Davies.

I see no more speakers.

Certainly I believe that on the original motion as distributed, there seems to be concurrence around the table that members would support that. Is that the will of the room as I see it?

(Motion agreed to)

Excellent. The motion is that the committee hold a meeting on Tuesday November 15, to discuss the ongoing shortage of children's pain medication to include an hour of officials from the Department of Health and a second hour to include one witness from each political party represented on the committee.

I've been informed by the clerk that we'll have to have those witnesses' names in by end of day tomorrow.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Why don't you specify the time? Is that 4 p.m., eastern standard time?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Stephen Ellis]

That is 4 p.m. eastern time.

Mr. Davies.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Having disposed of that, as I mentioned to the chair earlier with respect to our report on health care human resources we're working on, could I suggest that the analysts produce for us sometime by the end of next week a clean copy of the report with the changes that we've agreed to? We've gone through the text of the report and we've agreed to it. Even to have those changes highlighted would be helpful.

Then also could we maybe have in different highlighting the portions of the report that we've parked? One thing that comes to my mind is the jurisdictional section at the beginning in paragraphs 3 to 7, which we said we'd come back to. Maybe that could be done in a different colour, so that we're working from an updated copy of the report. That would be helpful, I think, for all of us.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Stephen Ellis]

Thank you for that, Mr. Davies.

I did have the opportunity to speak to our analyst on that.

Please provide your comments to the committee.

[Sarah Dodsworth, Committee Researcher]

I suppose our comments are that we will try our very best. There are other resources to consider, including translation capacity, which is something that we'll have to check in with our colleagues on.

My sense, from having discussions prior to this, is that the end of next week is unlikely to be an achievable target date, but we can work with them to provide it as soon as possible in advance of future discussions.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Stephen Ellis]

Thank you very much.

Mrs. Goodridge.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I believe the suggestion by Mr. Davies is going to be productive and fruitful for us going forward.

I would put forward a suggestion to the committee that we perhaps not return to reviewing this until such a time that the analysts are able to provide it, understanding that they have a busy workload and a lot of other things on their plate. Perhaps if that ends up taking a couple of weeks, I think that is a very reasonable suggestion. This is a study that's gone on in this committee for a long time, and I think that's a reasonable way to make sure that we're going through this expeditiously.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Stephen Ellis]

Thank you very much.

Mr. van Koeverden.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would just say that if we're going to get into a conversation about the report, we would usually be in camera doing that. I don't think we're at that point yet, but we usually go in camera when we're talking about these types of things. Usually we're comfortable talking about that in that context.

I would also just urge that I think we should get, collectively, that report out before Christmas. Now we have three, maybe four, maybe five or who knows how many weeks before Christmas, and we have a new day, which is important, to talk about this. We have a child health study. We have all of these concurrent things and if we don't....

Maybe it's just me and the way I organize my time. I want to finish one thing before I move on to another. I think we ought to get that committee report tabled. I'm not suggesting there aren't competing interests here; it's just a matter of time.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Stephen Ellis]

Thank you very much.

I'll make sure that the actual chair understands your comments and how this should go forward.

Mr. Davies.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you.

In terms of the point about being in camera, we're not actually talking about the content of the report. We're just talking about its structure, so I think we're okay.

The thing is that we have all been keeping notes as we've gone through the report, so I have my own—as I'm sure all of us do—annotated copy of the report. It doesn't mean that we need to hold up continued assessment of the report. Frankly, we're on the recommendations and we have to continue to pile through the recommendations anyway. I'm just saying that it would be helpful to have that copy so that when we do finish the recommendations and come back to the parts of the text that are parked, we know where they are.

I hear the analyst. As soon as reasonably practicable is fine. That's good, but I don't think it should hold up our continued work on this report because, again, like the pain medication issue, the HR or human resources issue has been called a crisis as well. It also has urgency to it.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Stephen Ellis]

Thank you very much for that, Mr. Davies. Certainly, good old common sense may prevail in the end.

I think that our discussions have been fruitful and that we've heard the will of the committee that, as soon as it's possible, we'd like to have that updated copy with the multiple highlights, as per Mr. Davies' suggestion, if we could.

Mr. Davies.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

I move to adjourn.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Stephen Ellis]

Is it the will of the committee to adjourn?

Dr. Hanley.

[Brendan Hanley, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Before we adjourn, as much as I've missed the voice of Dr. Ellis around the table, I'd like to congratulate his chairmanship today—easily one of the top two chairs I've worked with on this committee. Thank you.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Stephen Ellis]

On that note, the meeting is adjourned.