Mr. Chair, I am pleased to participate tonight in this dialogue with the Minister of Health on the estimates and thereby on a broad range of matters.
I specifically want to address an issue relating to fetal alcohol syndrome. In the middle of 2000 a national advisory committee on fetal alcohol syndrome was struck. There is a little bit of background to it and I hope the minister will be able to enlighten the House as to where we have been and where we are right now.
Fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol effects are probably one of the least known impacts on children. In fact when I became a member of Parliament I had never heard of fetal alcohol syndrome. I am an educated person and have spent nine years on the board of a hospital and I have three children. I thought that we would have had every opportunity in a vibrant community to have been apprised of this, but I was not. When I came here one of the first things I asked was that I be put on the health committee, because I wanted to know more about the very critical area of sustaining Canada's health care system.
When I joined the committee I looked at some of the past reports of the health committee. One of them was “Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: A Preventable Tragedy”. When I read it, it just sold me. It just took my heart. I have been working on this issue for some time and I continue to work on it.
Fetal alcohol syndrome has been talked about by many of the NGOs and by Health Canada. The line they have been using for so long in their documents is that fetal alcohol syndrome is the leading known cause of mental retardation in children. FAS is the leading known cause. It struck me one day that fetal alcohol syndrome is not the cause of anything; it is in fact the result of drinking during pregnancy. However we do not want to say that as it is not politically correct. It would stigmatize women who drink during pregnancy and who have an FAS child, so we say that fetal alcohol syndrome is the problem.
I did some research and I wrote a little monograph. I made some suggestions. At one point real progress was being made. The suggestion was made that we have a national advisory committee on fetal alcohol syndrome. The then minister of health asked for my review of the specifications for this national advisory committee. It was the traditional one person from every province and territory with a balance of gender, aboriginals and people who knew about FAS, et cetera. I had seen this time and time again. I was so alarmed that I wrote a letter on April 13, 2000 to the special assistant to the Minister of Health saying “I have to let you know that I have a big problem with this. We need people who can deliver solutions”.
I laid out a three point program. The first aspect was to develop an information package on fetal alcohol syndrome so that everybody across Canada would be singing from the same song sheet.
The second aspect was to establish within the group those who were problem solvers, those who would develop a comprehensive strategy directed at the prevention of fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol effects.
The third aspect was to determine how to handle those who had the problem already. After someone has the problem, what do we do in our social program system, our criminal justice system, our health system and throughout all of society, because people with FAS and FAE are an integral part of our community.
The minister went ahead to establish the national advisory committee on fetal alcohol syndrome. I said in the letter that we needed targets and we needed to have deliverables, otherwise we would have another false start. My fear is that we have had another false start.
I suggest to the minister that this is an issue where we cannot allow any more false starts. We have to pick up the ball and recognize the significant impact this has on all Canadians, not just those who have children who suffer from FAS. All of us can be part of the solution. I hope that in the remaining time the minister will have some words of wisdom for the House.