Human Resources Committee on Nov. 7th, 2017

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

No, sir. We have Ms. Blaney to speak, but to give you an opportunity.... Obviously, you can table it whenever you wish, but we will have to ask folks to leave at this point if that's the case, or we can do this in committee business.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

I would prefer to do it now, Mr. Chair, because it gives us a couple of minutes. Everybody can speak to this issue, but I'm concerned that it was two years ago that I started advocating for a national seniors strategy. It was two years ago that we started calling for a minister for seniors. It 's been two years that we've been discussing and calling for a discussion on this. And the discussion—

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Chair, I would really love my time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Sorry, we'll come to you. Mark still has the floor.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

It's really important that we not shelve what we're doing, do a report and then move on and go on to a different topic. We have the ball in our hand. This is the opportunity. This is the timing. It's critical. We've heard about the grey tsunami. I've also heard it called a tide. The tide is up to here on us. We have to take action on this now. We've heard a number of examples from different witnesses of effective ways of doing this: there's low-hanging fruit and there's changing the paradigm of how we provide health care.

If we do not do it now, Chair, if we do not continue on this study, then I think we've lost a very important opportunity on a critical issue. We're already hearing that seniors are not having their needs met, and it's only going to get worse. In my life, I think I have a moral obligation to advocate for this. This is the time. That's why we have this motion before us.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I just want to let you know that if we are willing to continue this discussion, we would be more than happy to let Ms. Blaney ask her questions, as long as we are keeping this motion on the floor.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Fantastic. We're good?

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I want Madam Blaney to have the opportunity—

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

She's being given the opportunity. Thank you.

Ms. Blaney, go ahead for three minutes, please.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you so much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Actually, sorry. I just want to backtrack, and I'll give you your full time, I promise. I just want to correct the record. I want to make sure that we have accurate information. I think I witnessed a bit of a misunderstanding in the question. I just want to give you the opportunity to correct the record.

Your facility—yes or no—has the capacity to provide medical assistance in dying, or is that something you do in your facility? That was the question.

[Michèle Osborne]

No.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

That's what I got from that exchange, but I just wanted to make sure it got on the record that, no, that wasn't the case. Thank you.

Ms. Blaney.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you so much.

Mr. McDonald, your association encouraged Health Canada to study the impact that technology can have on supporting and enabling carers, as well as ways to accelerate the use of technology. Can you tell us a bit about the kind of technology and how the technology can better the lives of carers, and how that will also impact small and remote rural communities?

[Leighton McDonald]

There are a number of opportunities. For example, I know one would be remote patient monitoring. That would actually just be for, as an example, a senior with a cardiac condition. You could take their blood pressure regularly during the day. There are a number of devices that would be able to take that reading very easily and put the information up into the cloud. That information is then accessible to the provider by remote login, as well as by the caregiver and the family, who can go in just to check that their parent is taking their blood pressure, and to see what their blood pressure is.

Those monitors can send notifications so that if a blood pressure reading is high, they will send an SMS to a designated person. There are a number of technologies that can actually facilitate monitoring. Those technologies also have the capacity to do two-way video conferencing, for example, so if there is an issue if a notification comes through, that person can then speak to either their caregiver, if their caregiver is remote, or their health care professional to address the issue.

That would address some of the resource issues, because at the moment we would send someone out there to see them, whereas it might actually be easier just to speak to them. Home monitoring is critical.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

I'm just curious; have you seen any challenges for remote communities that don't have the Internet connection that will make this work?

[Leighton McDonald]

It is a challenge where there isn't a signal. There are ways around it, in that you can actually do the remote monitoring and then the information can be transferred when it is in range of a signal. Communication can be an issue where there isn't any wireless signal. It can be a challenge.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Perfect.

For better home care in Canada, the national action plan includes short-term, one-year, medium-term, and long-term recommended actions. Where are we in terms of those recommendations? Can you quantify the progress for us?

[Leighton McDonald]

We are working and doing bits of it. It's in the milieu of the lack of a long-term plan, as I mentioned. We need a long-term plan in order to tie those two together. There are a number of initiatives taking place, and I think they're all valuable. There's great work being done, but it's not all being done in a streamlined fashion that's pointing in the right direction.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Okay.

This is my last question. How do we support integrated community-based models of care?

[Leighton McDonald]

It's complicated. It's a matter of partnerships. It's a matter of actually developing these plans at the federal, provincial, municipal, and neighbourhood levels and having that cascade in place. It's identifying all the resources and putting those plans in place with all the stakeholders to make sure we have an integrated plan that doesn't have gaps and doesn't have duplication.

It's a process. I think the chair mentioned earlier that it's not going to happen in a day. We need to make sure that we're actually going in the right direction. Essentially, the way to look at it is as a continuum of care. If you have well seniors on this side, and seniors needing palliative care on that side, what are all the services required across the board, and how do we make sure we have that infrastructure in place? It's a 20-year plan.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you very much.

Before we get back to committee business, I just want to take the opportunity to thank all of you here today for participating and contributing to this very important study. Thank you very much.

We're going to suspend for just a moment.

[Proceedings continue in camera]