Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I am very pleased to be here with you and with the members of the committee.
This is my first time appearing before the Standing Committee on Health. I am really happy to discuss issues that are very important for our country.
I'm very glad as well to be here with officials, whom you have recognized, Mr. Chair, and to take members' questions, which I very much look forward to. I appreciate the opportunity to be before committee.
I thought I would take a moment, if I could, to talk about where we are right now. You folks know that we made an incredibly significant, historic investment in health of about $200 billion over the next 10 years. You would have seen the first bilateral agreement in B.C., which was a phenomenal opportunity to talk about how we're going to begin to move forward in collaboration with the provinces on transforming our health system. That doesn't just mean fixing the workforce issues that are there today. It means taking important action on the deeper transformation that needs to occur in the future.
You can look at the bilateral agreement that's there in B.C. and what it does, but I would also point to the health ministers' meeting that we had in Charlottetown, which is a place, Mr. Chair, that you know a little bit about. In Charlottetown, we had the opportunity with health ministers to talk about our shared priorities.
I think the way forward in health is collaboration, and I was deeply encouraged by the conversation I was able to have with my counterparts of all political stripes, who set aside partisanship and asked how we can put the best interests of our health system first. I'm sure that the spirit of that will emanate in all of your questions today.
One of the things that folks may have missed, which I think was critically important in that meeting, was a 90-day service standard for regulatory bodies to provide certification and licensure to internationally educated health professionals. There was also a commitment to a health data charter to make sure that provinces and territories can share health data. We know that health data saves lives. I'd love to talk more about that in your questions.
There was a commitment on national licensure so that nurses and doctors can practise anywhere across the country. We also took action on a nurse retention tool kit, recognizing that keeping the folks we have is just as important as hiring new folks.
As well, we made a commitment around a centre of excellence, because we know that, within our health system, we get times of boom and bust in terms of our workforce, so this will make sure that we plan so that, in the future, we don't have these periods of time when we're in need or when we have too many people.
Of course, we're getting ready to move forward with a dental program for all Canadians, which I am extremely excited to talk more about here at committee. Already more than 370,000 children who have never, in many instances, had oral health before have been able to be helped by this program. When it eventually rolls out, we're talking about nine million Canadians, 3.5 million seniors and more than 100 disabled folks who don't have access to dental care who will.
To talk about how significant that is, Mr. Chair, if I could for a second, when we're talking about children, imagine that the number two need for surgery for kids is oral health. That's the number two cause of needing surgery. That is preventable. We could eliminate that. Imagine what that means for those families and what it means in terms of cost prevention, and then extrapolate that against the whole system. It's not just a matter of justice and making sure that everybody has a great smile. It's also a matter of prevention and good health.
I would say that we've taken really important action on pharmacare. Already the action we've taken with the provinces and territories on bulk purchasing has realized a savings of $3.5 billion for consumers. We have the first-ever strategy for rare diseases, where we're putting $1.5 billion to work with the provinces and territories to take action there.
We're moving forward with action on the Canadian drug agency. I can talk about your home province, Mr. Chair, about the P.E.I. pharmacare program and the hundreds of thousands of dollars that have been saved for the residents of Prince Edward Island.
The point, Mr. Chair—and we're getting ready for your questions, so I'll wrap up my comments—is that, together, enormously positive and exciting things are possible within our health system. They're possible because we co-operate and work together, set aside partisanship and really focus on getting the work done on behalf of Canadians in order to go from having one of the best health systems in the world to having the best health system in the world. That's our collective mission.
With that, Mr. Chair, I am ready to take your questions.
