Mr. Chair, our minister has been talking every week to her provincial and territorial counterparts. We're facilitating access to these alternatives; we're working with the medical community to have these available to them as soon as they need them.
Since 2007, one of the other things that's happened is that of the two supply companies, Lantheus and Covidien, one—Lantheus—has diversified its sources, so it's no longer reliant on the NRU. For example, Lantheus has ramped up its capacity to produce thallium and is making that available right away to everybody across this country, and it's being put into use. It has also signed a deal with South Africa to get supplies. So the supply is not going from 100% to zero; it's going down.
There's no question that the NRU is going to have an impact. The prolonged shutdown and shortage will have an impact; there's no question about that. But we're much better prepared than we were in 2007—the health care community, the provinces and territories, the supply chain as well, everybody—in terms of diversifying supply.
Our current supply forecasts are that Covidien, which gets its supplies from the Netherlands, is able to supply western Canada to its normal levels, because it hasn't been impacted by the shutdown. But for the Lantheus customers, Lantheus is committed to doing its best to get to 50% supply. For example, last week it was around 50%; this week it's going down. There are partnerships between Lantheus and Covidien to increase the supply for Canadian patients. So it really varies week to week. It depends upon the provinces and territories, and even provinces and territories have diversified supply sources.
Everybody has learned from 2007, and we're much better prepared this time, but there's no question that this is serious and it is going to have an impact on the health care system as it goes on.