Mr. Chair, members of the committee, I'd like to thank the public accounts committee for this opportunity to appear before you today.
I listened with interest to the remarks of Neil Maxwell from the Office of the Auditor General.
In 2003, our country witnessed firsthand the impact of an unknown infectious disease: severe acute respiratory syndrome, better known as SARS. The outbreak impacted both our people, claiming 44 lives, and our economy, costing billions of dollars. The outbreak led to the tabling of Dr. David Naylor's report, “Learning from SARS: Renewal of Public Health in Canada”. One of its key recommendations was to establish a public health agency at the federal level, to provide national leadership and coordination on public health issues, and the position I have the privilege to hold.
In 2004, the Government of Canada created the Public Health Agency of Canada with a mission to “promote and protect the health of Canadians through leadership, partnership, innovation and action in public health.”
The 2008 Auditor General's report identified key areas for improvement and continued improvement in the agency's surveillance activities, particularly with respect to infectious diseases. It takes us further down the path we started along four years ago. I welcome their assistance with our ongoing strengthening of surveillance.
Surveillance is simply the systematic collection and use of health data to track and forecast health trends and health events. As a result of our surveillance activities, the agency is able to guide and promote health policies and actions across Canada. As such, we have developed a surveillance strategic plan, a five-year plan that outlines the agency's surveillance priorities, goals, and objectives, which was finalized in 2007.
We have appointed a senior surveillance advisor, Dr. Gregory Taylor, who is providing me with updates and advises me on the status of surveillance activities throughout the agency including progress on implementing the Auditor General's recommendations.
I'd specifically like to address the issue of information sharing, particularly with provinces and territories. In ensuring we have a robust surveillance system, we must take into consideration the very nature of our health care system. The provinces and territories deliver health services and they own the resulting data. Furthermore, as a federal government, we encounter both legal and privacy constraints when we try to gather the most effective data in the shortest time period.
All our partners are well aware of the need for accurate and timely data to help maintain an understanding of infectious diseases in Canada, including in the event of a public health emergency. To this end, the memorandum of understanding for information sharing during a public health emergency was approved by federal, provincial, and territorial ministers of health in September 2008. The Pan-Canadian Public Health Network created an FPT task group, in which the agency is a lead member. It has begun work with the provinces and territories on the development of information sharing agreements. We are confident this will create a new path forward in federal, provincial, and territorial relations in the arena of public health surveillance and information sharing.
Also, as we get into questions, to some extent the proof is in the pudding in terms of the events we've dealt with over the last four years and the stark contrast between what occurred during SARS and our abilities as a nation to respond quickly and effectively.
I'm committed to implementing the recommendations put forth by the Auditor General, and we have made progress in many areas. I also recognize that more work needs to be done and that protecting the health and well-being of Canadians requires effective and timely surveillance as one of the actions.
Merci beaucoup.