Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak in support of Bill C-13, an act to establish the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Members of the House have had the opportunity to hear about the important transformation CIHR will bring to health research in Canada. Increased funding will make more resources available to find Canada's best researchers in making the discoveries that will make a difference to the lives of people around the world.
The structure of the institutes will provide a mechanism for developing a strategic vision for research in thematic areas that will meet the needs and priorities of Canadians.
It will be the focal point around which all partners in the health research process will gather, including those who fund research, those who perform it and those who use its results. CIHR will provide the support that is needed to make Canada the place to be for the best and the brightest health researchers in the world. The result will be better health for Canadians, a better and a more efficient health care system, and economic growth and job creation in the burgeoning life science sector.
If my hon. colleagues will excuse what is sometimes a trite phrase, let me say that the whole of CIHR will be much greater than the sum of its parts. The reason for this is the way that CIHR will mobilize resources in every region of the country.
CIHR will make its impact felt in the regions through mobilizing increased funding for health research in research centres across Canada. It will make its impact felt through its direct effects on the efficient and cost effective operation of Canada's health care system. It will make its impact felt by building the research capacity platform in centres across Canada and it will make its impact felt through a new focus on community.
Through its focus on partnerships CIHR will take the increased federal investment in health research and make it grow even more. Partnerships will bring more research funders to the table to embark on jointly funded collaborative projects. These projects will result in an even greater level of research activity in many centres across the country.
The Medical Research Council of Canada has had tremendous success with its partnership programs, so much so that for every federal tax dollar invested in health research $1.36 was spent on health research. I have no doubt that the integrated and co-operative structure of the CIHR will continue this successful leveraging of our tax dollars to create an even better dividend for Canadians. The CIHR is designed to work in partnership with provincial and territorial health departments, with our universities, with our health science centres and with our research agencies.
As every member of the House is aware, responsibility for delivering health services is the responsibility of the provinces, but CIHR will have the potential to have a strong positive impact on provincial health care systems. Creating new knowledge is important, but CIHR is designed to facilitate the process of translating research results into application and innovation.
CIHR will establish links with provincial and territorial health service agencies and with those responsible for delivery of health information and health care in each province. Through these links CIHR will help provinces acquire the evidence they need to make important decisions about how best to deliver health services to their residents.
Bill C-13 is an extremely important piece of legislation for the people of my riding of Oak Ridges and for the residents of the city of Toronto. It is about our health. It is about innovation in our community and it is about our position in the knowledge based economy. Toronto has had a long and proud history in health research. Torontonians have a tremendous record of contributing to the health of Canadians and to people around the world through their research discoveries.
I think most obviously about Frederick Banting and Charles Best, researchers at the University of Toronto who through their investigative spirit and genius discovered insulin, a discovery which has saved millions and millions of lives in Canada and around the world. There is little doubt that it is among the greatest Canadian achievements of the past century. To this day it evokes tremendous pride among people in my riding and among people across the country. The University of Toronto has named one of its research centres the Banting and Best Institute in honour of this historic achievement.
More recently I think of Lap-Chee Tsui, a world renowned researcher at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, who discovered the gene for cystic fibrosis. His research in genetics and genomics is truly opening up a new world of knowledge about our health which promises new and effective tools to promote health and treat disease.
Toronto's research community is dynamic and vibrant. It has researchers across the full spectrum of research, from basic molecular biologists to social scientists looking at the broad determinants of health.
The University of Toronto is Canada's largest research university. Given the quality of its science and the excellence of its research, it is the most successful university in the MRC's peer review funding competitions. This past year the University of Toronto and its affiliated institutions received $55 million in research funding from the MRC.
The research infrastructure in Toronto contains some of Canada's most prized research institutions: the Hospital for Sick Children, the Mount Sinai Hospital, the Toronto General Hospital, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the Institute of Clinical Evaluative Studies, just to name a few. The health research conducted in Toronto is of the highest standards of scientific excellence.
The objective of the CIHR as set out in Bill C-13 is to excel according to internationally accepted standards of scientific excellence in the creation of new knowledge and its translation into improved health for Canadians, more effective health services and products and a strengthened health care system.
While its standards of excellence may be international, its impacts will be felt in every region of the country, whether it is in Toronto or in the maritimes. For example, in Halifax at Dalhousie University a doctor is studying stimulant use among adolescents. In Montreal Dr. Thomas Hudson of the Montreal General Hospital is examining the genetic causes of common human diseases. It is also going to flourish in Vancouver where at the University of British Columbia Dr. Janice Eng is studying balance and other problems experienced by patients with Parkinson's disease. It will flourish in centres right across the country.
I commend the bill to the House. I hope all parties will support this very important initiative of the federal government.