Evidence of meeting #34 for Health in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was study.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Conservative
Matt Strauss Conservative Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
I think I explained how this is directly relevant.
Once complete, the drug information system will be a comprehensive system, helping to improve the safe use of prescription drugs for Canadians.
I'd like to move the following motion with the Honourable Jane Philpott's words in mind. I'm sorry; I'd like to move to amend Dr. Eyolfson's motion at the end. This is just coming to me through the debate that's been ongoing, so I don't have it in writing: “Whereas e-prescription services held the promise of improving prescribing practices as pertains to HIV medicines, that Michael Green, the former president and chief executive officer of Canada Health Infoway, appear before the committee during the study for no less than two hours to testify on his role in the implementation and oversight of the Liberal government's failed $300-million PrescribeIT program.”
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Right now, what I'm going to do is this. It's already close to six o'clock, and I don't see that there will be consent to pass this motion—you can send that in both official languages—so I will suspend the meeting.
[The meeting was suspended at 5:58 p.m., Tuesday, May 26]
[The meeting resumed at 3:34 p.m., Thursday, May 28]
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
I will call this meeting to order.
Welcome. We are resuming meeting number 34 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health.
Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the Standing Orders.
I would like to remind participants of the following points.
Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. For those participating by video conference, please click on the microphone icon to activate your mic, and please mute yourself when you are not speaking. At the bottom of the screen, you can select the appropriate channel for interpretation: floor, English or French. I remind you that all comments should be addressed through the chair. For members in the room, if you wish to speak, please raise your hand. For members on Zoom, please use the “raise hand” function. The clerk and I will manage the speaking order as best we can, and we appreciate your patience and understanding in this regard.
Before we begin, I would like to quote section 20.110 of House of Commons Procedure and Practice, which states:
In the event of disorder, the Chair may suspend the meeting until order can be restored or, if the situation is considered to be so serious as to prevent the committee from continuing with its work, the meeting may be adjourned. In addition, the Chair may, at their discretion, interrupt a member whose observations and questions are repetitive or are unrelated to the matter before the committee. If the member in question persists in making repetitive or off-topic comments, the Chair can give the floor to another member. If the member refuses to yield the floor and continues talking, the Chair may suspend or adjourn the meeting.
I would like to thank the clerk, the analysts and the interpreters for being of assistance in difficult circumstances at this committee.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, the committee shall resume its study of Canada's pharmaceutical sovereignty.
The committee suspended its meeting on Tuesday, May 26, during the debate. Therefore, we are resuming this meeting and debate on the motion by Dr. Eyolfson, with the amendment moved by Dr. Strauss, which is as follows: “That the motion be amended by adding the following: Whereas e-prescription services held the promise of improving prescribed practices as pertains to HIV medicines, that Michael Green, the former chief executive officer of Canada Health Infoway, appear before the committee during the study for no less than two hours to testify on his role in the implementation and oversight of the Liberal government's failed $300-million PrescribeIT program.”
Did all honourable members get the motion circulated in both official languages? If not, please raise your hand now.
I see that everyone got it.
I have reviewed the text of this amendment, and I have deemed it to be out of scope. Therefore, I rule this amendment to be inadmissible.
We will now go back to the motion.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Next on the speaking list, we have MP Blanchette-Joncas, followed by MP Mazier.
Please go ahead, Mr. Blanchette-Joncas.
Is there a point of order?
Conservative
Matt Strauss Conservative Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
Yes, Chair.
Are you going to give your reasons for finding it out of scope?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Yes.
According to section 12.11, “An amendment must be relevant to the motion it seeks to amend.”
If we look at this motion, not just the preamble but the main text of the motion, the intent of the motion is not related to the topic. That is why I call this motion inadmissible.
Conservative
Matt Strauss Conservative Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
I have a point of order, Chair.
I'd like to challenge your ruling.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
The ruling of the chair has been challenged.
We will have a vote on whether to sustain the ruling of the chair. Members who want to sustain the ruling will be voting yes. Members who do not want to sustain the ruling will vote no.
Clerk, please take the vote.
(Ruling of the chair sustained: yeas 6; nays 5)
We will now move back to the main motion.
Next on the speaking list is MP Blanchette-Joncas, followed by MP Mazier.
Please, go ahead, MP Blanchette-Joncas.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
Everything is fine, Mr. Chair. It's no longer relevant.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Thank you.
We will go to MP Mazier, and then we will go to Dr. Strauss.
Mr. Mazier, please go ahead.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you for the clarification of those rules. It's great to get everything clarified when we start a meeting.
I would like to move the following amendment. I move, “That the motion be amended by adding, after the words "Public Health Agency of Canada', the following: 'the Minister of Health'."
I think that's pretty straightforward.
Conservative
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
It's after the words “Public Health Agency of Canada”. In other words, it asks the Minister of Health to attend the meeting.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Okay. We will give Mr. Mazier the floor.
Mr. Strauss, you are next on the speaking list.
Conservative
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
This all comes down to needing the Minister of Health to come and explain what is going on.
I really appreciate this motion. I think it's very important that any time we have a health crisis in any province in Canada, the federal health minister has an opinion on that and weighs in on what she's seeing. A lot of times, they don't really get a chance to explain themselves. Federal ministers have a tendency.... They get accused of being removed from it and being out of touch. I think this is a really easy way for the minister to build some good faith and trust in our government and our health care system. I don't think anybody could deny that. This is really just a chance for her to set this table straight.
I would encourage the members to vote in favour of this amendment.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Good. Everybody seems to be in favour.
Dr. Strauss, you have the floor.
Conservative
Matt Strauss Conservative Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
I thank Mr. Mazier for this important amendment. I'm not sure I support it yet, so I don't think we can move immediately to adopting it by unanimous consent.
We have to think about all the other times we've invited the minister here. In fact, we spent a whole meeting debating whether the minister would come on PrescribeIT, and our motion was not allowed to go on unanimous consent at that time.
The Liberals said they wanted to remove the two-week timeline to have her appear, but they adjourned the meeting without even taking yes for an answer and waiting for our agreement on that point. When the Conservative House leader alerted the Canadian public that this had happened, that the Liberals had abruptly adjourned the meeting to protect their health minister from having to come to testify at this committee, a member of this committee took to Twitter to call it misinformation and said we had agreed to summon Minister Michel, but she's never come.
I'll ask the clerk to correct me if I'm wrong, but there is no motion on file to have the minister come.
I would put that to Dr. Eyolfson. Is it indeed, in his view, misinformation that they summoned the minister? I don't recall seeing the minister all this time. That, of course, was regarding PrescribeIT.
If they're now planning on having the minister come to talk about HIV but not PrescribeIT, Dr. Eyolfson said they agreed to have her come on PrescribeIT, so when is she coming to talk about PrescribeIT? I think that's an important thing to flesh out, and I invite Dr. Eyolfson to address it.