Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to take part in the debate on Bill C-13. I will start off by stating that we are, of course, in favour of the bill.
I can clearly remember the 1993 and 1997 election campaigns. In 1993, Bloc Quebecois leader Lucien Bouchard called upon the government to make considerable investments in research in general, but in health research in particular. He based this on an OECD report to the effect that Canada was lamentably behind in this area.
I would like to focus on three major principles in my speech. I will try to explain what the Canadian Institutes of Health Research are, and why it would have been simpler, even if we are in favour of additional research in this area, for all this to have gone through the provinces. We will have the opportunity to remind hon. members of the billions cut from transfer payments to the provinces, nearly $7 billion of them to health. These $7 billion cuts were imposed unilaterally.
When the time comes to make cuts, co-operative federalism no longer applies. The Minister of Health and the Minister of Finance do not sit down with their colleagues to find out how the wealth can be divided while destabilizing the provinces' finances as little as possible. That is not how it was.
I will remind the House as well of the requirements of the Government of Quebec and the members of the Bloc Quebecois, since we will be moving amendments to Bill C-13.
Why will we have to move amendments? My colleagues know why— the members for Rosemont, Chambly and Jonquière—the role of the Bloc Quebecois is to work for an independent Quebec. It should not be too long now before that is achieved.
Second, work will have to be done to improve the government even more. There is no need my telling members that this work is exhausting, such a heavy task it is.
We support the principle of Canadian institutes of health research. Obviously, because of the environment, health research has changed. The field is increasingly complex and requires increasingly sophisticated technologies.
Some claim that, with the sophistication of the technologies, between 1950—if I am not mistaken, the year you were born or were about to be born, Mr. Speaker—and now, our life expectancy has increased by one year every four years. It is extraordinary to think that people lived to an average age of 40 at the turn of the century, and by the 1960s were living to an average age of 60.
The average age of people today, if we take men as our example, is 76 years. We are talking of men who do not smoke excessively, eat fairly well and look after their health determinants. I will come back to this.
In the case of women, the situation is even more interesting, and I am sure no one here will be upset by it. Life expectancy for women is closer to 83 years. People can hope to enjoy the company of the women in their lives, on average, for 83 years.
All this reminds us that the major health determinants, technologies and environmental and health research are increasingly complex.
We also have increasing requirements for more resources to buy equipment and to carry out health research. While a few years ago scanners and equipment for health research and development may have cost $2 to $3 million, such equipment can now easily cost $10 million, $15 million, $20 million or $25 million, not to mention the fact that the life cycles of this equipment are getting shorter and shorter.
The health sector has changed and it is a good thing that Canada and the provinces can face new challenges.
We support the establishment of Canadian institutes of health research and we also approve the four major research areas in which they will be involved. As the minister pointed out, an acting governing council has been established. It would have been a good thing to have the provinces take part in the appointment process for the acting governing council, and that this be spelled out in the bill. I will get back to this governing council, which will make extremely important decisions.
The lawmaker was right in not specifying in which areas health research institutes will be established. However, the acting governing council will become permanent and will have the power to decide in which sector these health research institutes will be set up.
There will be four major areas and I will talk about them, because hon. members are dying to find out about them.
The first area in which Canadian institutes of health research can conduct research is a very important one, namely basic research in the biomedical field. I should point out that at least 60% of all biomedical research conducted in Canada is done through companies located in Quebec. This is not surprising, since research in brand name pharmaceutical products relies on tax incentives that were devised by the Quebec government and that apply in Quebec.
On average, research helps produce about 20 new drugs every year. I could talk at length about research cycles.
I do not want to name any pharmaceutical companies because I have too many friends in that field to give preferential treatment to one over another, but between the time a molecule is isolated in research and a drug is patented for use against a disease, 10 or 20 years may well have gone by. This is a highly complex process that requires millions and millions of dollars. It can easily take close to $300 million to get a drug onto the market.
Biomedical research is one of Quebec's strengths. I am sure the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health agrees. I believe there are even some companies located in his riding in the east of Montreal, and I am sure he agrees with me that it is very important for funding to be available to ensure the continuation of research in this field.
What does this mean, concretely? I would hate to be like Professor Calculus in Tintin, talking around in circles, without giving our viewers any concrete examples. What exactly does it mean to get a drug onto the market?
I will give the example of AIDS. As hon. members know, AIDS came on the scene in the early 1980s. At that time it was dubbed the gay plague, a figure of speech but a very evocative one, because it was so closely associated with a specific group.
A whole generation of people lived with the AIDS virus, for which there were then no drugs. Now, the battle has been won. AIDS has gone from a fatal disease to a chronic illness.
Generally speaking, people are no longer dying of AIDS. Triple therapy, which is a combination of drugs, came along. It is, of course, still an ordeal to be a person living with AIDS. It is an ordeal for these people personally and for their natural helpers, but nonetheless it is possible now to live with AIDS. This is in large part due to biomedical research.
I would like to see all parliamentarians join with me in offering our most sincere congratulations to BioChem Pharma, a Quebec company responsible for a number of drugs that have contributed to our winning out over AIDS and no longer dying of it. AIDS has gone from a fatal disease to a chronic illness.
That initiative required an investment cycle of several millions of dollars. This makes it all the more important for governments to provide tax incentives.
I am not saying we should not discuss the balance to be achieved between the role of the patent drug industry and that of the generic drug industry. On the contrary, such a debate should take place.
The hon. member for Rosemont will certainly address this issue in his speech. We in Quebec feel we have achieved that balance; we do not hesitate to encourage, through real and significant tax incentives, the development of the patent drug industry, which is one of Quebec's finest industries.
Public authorities, and particularly the health department masterfully steered by Pauline Marois, one of the best health ministers we have ever had at the National Assembly, do not hesitate to put on the list of available medication generic drugs that are equivalent to brand name drugs, when these may save taxpayers some money.
So, one of the research areas to be considered for Canadian Health Research Institutes is that of biomedical research in which, as I pointed out, Quebec is a leader.
Clinical research is the second area. Applied clinical research is a very important area, since it plays a fundamental role in the discovery of new drugs.
Here, I would like to digress for a moment. I am not very proud of the government in that area. I have a natural tendency toward fair-play. I tend generally to remember the good things the government does, when they happen, but I must also recognize the bad ones.
Let us assess the entire drug licensing system. I have been interested in this since 1993, when I elected to represent the people of Hochelaga—Maisonneuve in the House of Commons with a very solid majority. Not as solid as that of the member for Chambly, but I was still proud of my majority.
I want to say that the system of licensing drugs is not up to par in Canada. Changes are necessary, since it is not uncommon for companies to choose to submit their clinical monograph in the United States in order to get their drugs approved, even though the research was done in labs here, in Quebec or in Ottawa.
I ask all parliamentarians to take note and to help me put pressure on the government so that we may soon review the drug licensing system, which has two great shortfalls.
When we look at what happens in the States, relatively speaking— we all know that the population of the States is ten times that of Canada and that the money invested in health research is not the same. In relative terms, ten times the number of people are working on drug licensing in the States as in Canada.
The system of organizing work at the health protection branch is not the most effective to ensure a reasonable time between the submission of a clinical monograph and the arrival of the drug on the market, to ensure the wellbeing of our fellow citizens.
There is as well an important third area of research, health systems services. Health systems raise questions for all levels of governments. I understand one of the roles of the Canadian health research institutes—there will be between ten and fifteen—in addition to biomedical research and applied clinical research, will also be the business of analysing health systems and services.
Politics aside, all governments, be it the government of Ralph Klein in Alberta, Lucien Bouchard in Quebec, or Mr. Tobin in Newfoundland, are wondering whether we have organized our health system for maximum efficiency and effectiveness, so that it can deliver the best possible services to the public. They are asking themselves some questions.
For instance, all governments have envisaged some sort of ambulatory care formula—virage ambulatoire in Quebec—for ensuring that the public has health services when needed, but that stays in institutions are kept to the shortest time possible. This is what the shift toward ambulatory care is all about: getting people back to their normal surroundings as quickly as possible.
Health systems are also facing a number of problems which, if managed effectively, could suggest promising solutions.
As I pointed out, for instance, people are living longer, with the result that there will obviously be tremendous demands on the system at some point, because it is inevitable that, between the ages of 60 and 90, we will in all likelihood require varying degrees of health care. Of course some are in better shape than others but the demand on health services does not generally come from people in their 20s, 30s, 40s or even 50s.
If I were to ask all hon. members here to raise their hands if they needed to call upon the health services between the ages of 30 and 50, I do not think there would be many hands to be seen, for this need generally arises in one's 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s or even 90s. In fact, the elderly no longer belong to a single group known as the third age. A new term has been coined, the fourth age, because people are living longer and longer.
The Bloc Quebecois caucus is always pleased to salute our seniors. We invest a great deal of time in our fellow citizens of mature years, whether they are in social housing, in specialized resources or in their natural surroundings. We are always pleased to salute them.
Besides biomedical research, clinical research and research into health systems, the fourth area that will be supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research is that of cultural society and population health. This is something that needs considering.
It must be admitted from the outset that people do not all start off life on an equal footing. It is an error to think that a person born in Anjou and a person born in Saint-Henri start off life the same, will age in the same way, will cope with life in the same way. It is wrong to think so, and this leads us to the whole matter of health determinators.
We are now aware that all is determined before the age of five. That is what is called early childhood, and the more stimulation a child has, the better his or her early interpersonal relationships, the stimuli in life, the better his or her personal growth will be.
I have no hesitation in paying tribute to the government, which has invested considerable sums in help in early childhood. It is of course a provincial responsibility, but I must recognize that the government has done an excellent thing, and I think all my colleagues have benefited. I refer, naturally, to the community action program for children, the CAPC.
I recognize it. I said so earlier. I can be critical, but I can also be motivated by honest fair play. The CAPC is a good program. I am sure that my colleagues will offer the government a good round of applause.