Health Committee on Feb. 5th, 2026

[Kendal Weber]

It's also important to understand that the drugs being used globally are different.

North America is experiencing a very different drug crisis than is experienced in eastern Europe. The fentanyl crisis that North America is facing is quite unique, and the types of drugs that are being used in North America are different from what we're seeing in Europe.

[Matt Strauss, Conservative, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

Why is it unique? Turkey, Israel and Japan are much closer to China than Canada is.

[Kendal Weber]

Your first question goes back to the sources. One concern that we were seeing in this space in the 2000s and the 2010s was over-prescribing. We also saw concern with pain medication, and this continues to be a concern.

In Canada and North America we have seen prescribing of opioids, and there's been an evolution in the types of opioids. As prescribing practices evolved in the 2010s, we then saw individuals move to fentanyl.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have one minute.

[Kendal Weber]

They found the source of fentanyl as illicit fentanyl.

[Matt Strauss, Conservative, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

I'm sensitive to the fact that it is multifactorial, but one factor is that your department adopted supervised consumption sites as a way of addressing this. However, we're seeing the rates get worse.

I'm wondering what it would take to acknowledge that this has not been a terrific use of resources. This has not changed the game here.

[Kendal Weber]

The earliest supervised consumption sites go back to the transmission of HIV and infectious diseases.

We saw in recent years—and we've talked about the overdose rates—supervised consumption sites for which communities come forward and request an exemption, because that's what they see is helpful for their communities.

You noted the question about resources. Health Canada does not fund supervised consumption sites. We provide an exemption from the act to enable the possession of the substance so that individuals can go into the site and have oversight of the use of the—

[Matt Strauss, Conservative, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

May I interrupt you for just one second—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you. We're nine seconds over.

I'll now go to Ms. Sidhu for five minutes, please.

Sonia.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

My question is for Health Canada.

Yesterday was World Cancer Day, and Canada has continued to approve new cancer treatments, including therapies for early-stage breast cancer and other cancers.

Can you tell us how Health Canada's approval of innovative cancer drugs, including treatments from companies that are improving outcomes, expanding options for patients or giving early detection...? Can you elaborate on what is out there?

[Pamela Aung-Thin, Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Products and Food Branch, Department of Health]

Thank you for the question.

I will just refer to a program that we have called project Orbis, in which we work with other regulators that approve these products to expedite the number of products that come to Canada specifically for cancer treatments.

Over the last year—2025—for example, 16 of these products have been approved, and over the last six years, 94 of them have been approved. These are all oncology products that have been approved for the Canadian market and eventually made available to Canadians.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you.

My colleague talked about Bill C-15. I want to talk about division 25 replacing existing schedules with a publicly accessible registry.

How would this registry improve transparency and allow Canada to respond more quickly to emerging biosecurity risks?

[Kimby Barton]

Thank you very much for the question.

Currently, when we wish to make any changes to the status of various pathogens or toxins, it requires going through a full regulatory process. There are about 6,000 pathogens that have been assessed by the Public Health Agency, and about 2,000 of them are currently regulated by us. Having a registry that is an evergreen list enables us to make much more rapid changes to the potential status of a pathogen in response to evolving scientific evidence and/or potentially to make changes to the nomenclature of the pathogen—the names of them—as they evolve through science. It's a much more rapid and effective process for us to make those changes.

We currently have ePATHogen. That is not the formal registry, but it is publicly accessible. For any changes moving forward, it becomes the official registry. It will be open and transparent to researchers, as well as to the Canadian public. They'll have real-time insight into the risk groups for the various pathogens and whether there are any changes.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Budget 2025 continues to invest in life sciences and biomanufacturing. How do clear and modern oversight rules help researchers plan long-term, high-impact and results-driven projects?

[Paul Hébert]

We have had two spectacular years of investment in research—budgets 2024 and 2025. Those investments will allow us to increase our rates of discovery in all forms of our science.

I would say that we're investing in the infrastructure programs around that. This is through the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. The last budget had $400 million. We are investing in talent—$1.7 billion—related to attracting the best and brightest to join what I consider to be the best scientists in the world, here in Canada. We continue to increase our core budgets. The government has been very generous in that regard. Because of budget 2024 increases, we'll continue to do that.

Those investments in infrastructure, in programs and in all kinds of other strategies around biosecurity and everything else will help us have a secure environment for science in Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 30 seconds, Ms. Sidhu.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you. I have one last question.

How can we secure public trust, especially in health research?

[Paul Hébert]

How can we increase public trust? Was that the question, Madam Chair?

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Yes—when we are supporting students, trainees or early career researchers.

[Paul Hébert]

I think you're answering the question for me, in a sense. What we have to do and continue to do is believe in science and evidence-informed public policy, which we support.

There are many organizations that engage our students—Support Our Science and others. I'm trying to remember the name of the organization that goes out into high schools. It's not a matter of just our agency. It's a matter of getting them young and really training them up.

What was the name?

[A voice]

Let’s Talk Science

[Paul Hébert]

Yes, that's it. There's a lot of that. We're investing in that as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thanks, Dr. Hébert.

Thanks, Ms. Sidhu.

I just wanted to ask one question. Can you tell me how many overdose deaths there have been at safe injection sites?

I was the one who started the first injection site in Vancouver when I was minister, based on work that we had seen in Europe. It was a two-year pilot project. Since then, how many overdose deaths have you seen at safe injection sites?

[Kendal Weber]

To my knowledge, there have been none—zero—unless there is reporting that I am not aware of in recent time. My understanding is that there have been none.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Safe injection sites save lives.