Thank you.
I have some brief questions.
The audit found that the national surveillance remained weak, that you lacked timely, accurate, and complete information on infectious disease, and that in 2004, since the Public Health Agency has been established, the agency has only signed one agreement--in 2007, with Ontario--to a nationally standardized approach to disease reporting.
You gave an example of what happened in northern Ontario and how you were able to capture the problem, a person. Could you tell me if this was goodwill, luck, or were there systems in place? Basically the audit did mention that you relied on the provincial information you were gathering, which was based on good will.
How much of a national strategy do we have? What systems are actually in place? I guess everybody is playing with that notion, but we do not seem to see something tangible. You've been able to address issues, but after SARS we still do not have a national strategy or standardized approach to collecting and disseminating information, trying to get immediate information to every player of what the problem might be.