Health Committee on Nov. 29th, 2022

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thanks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Dr. Lucas, I don't know whether you finished your answer, but—

[Dr. Stephen Lucas]

It was just that the process for the certification of the facility and the specific vaccine batches being produced are working towards completion.

For information on further steps towards production, the National Research Council would be the best—

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Okay, we'll ask them then.

Recently in the news, there's been some confirmation that alcohol is a carcinogen. It is linked to at least seven types of cancer. I'm wondering if there's any concern in the department about this, and any move to make alcohol containers carry warning labels in Canada like tobacco products do.

[Dr. Stephen Lucas]

I'll turn to Heather Jeffrey to respond.

[Heather Jeffrey, Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Health]

We have been working with the Canadian Centre on Substance Use on the low-risk drinking guidelines that were put out for consultation.

In addition, we've been supporting research and community approaches. We know that certain populations most frequently experiencing harms from alcohol include women, indigenous peoples as well as youth.

We're focusing on awareness in advertising, both from Health Canada and also with our provincial partners. We're continuing to fund the low-risk drinking guidelines for awareness and risk.

CIHR, as well—

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

With respect, it was about labelling on products.

[Heather Jeffrey]

Part of our consultations included funding a study with Yukon on labelling of alcohol to see the evidence on what labelling can assist with, as well as funding through SUAP managed alcohol programs and clinical management. This is part of the consultations and what we're working on for next steps.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Ms. Jeffrey.

Thank you, Mr. Davies.

Next is Ms. Goodridge, please, for five minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm going to get right into it. We've been bringing up the issue of Children's Tylenol for quite some time in this committee, as you are well aware. Yesterday you released that in the last two week period, 1.1 million units of children's pain medication have come into the country and are now being distributed to hospitals and pharmacies across the country.

My question is, can we expect to see 1.1 million units arriving every two weeks?

[Dr. Stephen Lucas]

I'll start responding and then I'll turn to Dr. Sharma to contribute.

As we discussed last with the committee, and as Minister Duclos noted, efforts have been made to work with manufacturers to increase domestic production. Indeed, it's up a hundred per cent, as noted in the information pertaining to the 1.1 million units of Advil in November.

The additional 1.1 million noted in a report to the committee today pertains to the special importation of foreign-labelled medicine, including Tylenol.

We are continuing to engage with manufacturers to increase that domestic production on an ongoing basis, and—

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

We have a very limited amount of time.

Is the answer yes, we expect to be bringing this in at about that rate every two weeks, or no, we don't think we'll need it? What's the answer?

[Dr. Supriya Sharma]

The short answer is yes. We'll continue to be working with all the manufacturers, the larger ones and the smaller ones, to increase supply.

There are a number of proposals already on the table that are in the magnitude of millions of units coming in. It's difficult to know exactly when those might come in.

We know that there's still a demand out there. We know that the demand is still outstripping supply. We're working to get millions of doses, in addition to the ones that are already in the country.

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

My next question is super simple. I'm a parent, not a doctor. What the heck is a unit? I agreed to it thinking that this was better than nothing, but this makes no sense. Is this a case? Is it a bottle? What size is the bottle? This makes zero sense.

[Dr. Supriya Sharma]

They are generally bottles. The bottles come in different sizes. They can be anything from.... For example, when we're looking at retail acetaminophen, the bottles are actually a slightly larger size than the bottles we would normally have: 120 milligrams versus 100 milligrams. The hospital bottles are a little bit bigger than that.

The units do vary, but they are basically bottles.

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

To shift gears and go back to questions around the Canada mental health transfer, are there plans in place to get the $4.5 billion that's been promised by the Liberals to be allocated, or is this still just a pipe dream?

[Heather Jeffrey]

As Minister Bennett outlined, the $5 million over 10 years is still only halfway through to completion. That money is continuing to flow right now in real time to provinces and territories. In last year's budget, the government undertook to continue its work in consulting with provinces, territories and community organizations to build the underpinnings for additional investments in mental health.

We have been engaging in consultations across provinces and territories, and also in thematic round tables, on a variety of areas, including perinatal mental health, integrated youth services and other areas of required investment in mental health and substance use.

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

All right.

To shift gears yet again, do you believe addiction is a health condition?

[Heather Jeffrey]

I think we've been really clear in our position in government, and also Minister Bennett, that we view addiction as a public health issue.

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

But do you see it as an illness?

[Heather Jeffrey]

I will defer to Dr. Sharma to talk about the medical diagnosis.

[Dr. Supriya Sharma]

Basically, there are criteria, called DSM criteria, for mental health conditions that are considered conditions. There are conditions in that diagnostic area that refer to dependence. It's usually called “substance use disorder”, but there are different variations.

Yes, it's considered an illness.

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

What is the treatment for substance use disorder?

[Dr. Supriya Sharma]

The treatment really varies by person. It's very similar to other issues that are related to mental health in that it's not one size fits all. Depending on the individual, depending on their circumstances and depending on their illness, they may respond to one type of treatment differently than another type of treatment.

In general, it's making sure that they're getting care and getting wraparound health care in terms of being able to deal with other illnesses they may have and then basically working with them to figure out which ones are the best option for them.

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

Really quickly, do you believe recovery is possible?