Madam Speaker, we are proceeding with the centre of excellence for women's health as outlined in the red book.
Right now we are in the process of outlining specific criteria and an application process. We expect to issue the call for application by June and to select a successful applicant in the fall. We would like the first centre to commence its work early in 1995.
One of the centre's initial tasks will be to determine the most important health issues for women and then to undertake further work on these issues. The ultimate objective of the centre is to increase the responsiveness of the Canadian health system to the health needs of women.
It is a known fact that only a small percentage of medical research funding in Canada has been directed toward women's health research. While the centre will address this problem, we also want to work more closely with other research funding bodies in order to encourage them to send money in the direction of research as well in women's health.