Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to contribute to the debate on Bill C-5.
Starting yesterday, the parliamentary secretary addressed the House on the bill. It is quite clear that the bill has the support of the House. It is a bill that was available in the last Parliament, but was not able to get through the full legislative process before Parliament was dissolved.
The summary of the bill states:
This enactment establishes the Public Health Agency of Canada to assist the Minister of Health in exercising or performing the Minister’s powers, duties and functions in relation to public health. It also provides that the Governor in Council may make regulations respecting the collection and management of public health information and the protection of confidential information, including personal information. It also makes related and consequential amendments to certain Acts.
In a brief paragraph, that is precisely what the bill does.
Oddly enough, the debate has become one about health issues, which are really important. It is really important to understand why the bill was first developed in the last Parliament.
I can recall in 2000 or 2001 having a private member's initiative in which I proposed that the Government of Canada establish the position of physician general of Canada. Members will be aware of the surgeon general in the United States. The physician general of Canada would be a parallel position. I specifically wanted to address the issue of the evolution of the roles and responsibilities of Health Canada, which were becoming so great that Canadians were having some difficulty finding out exactly where they would get information.
To visit the website of Health Canada is a very problematic exercise even today, because there are so many aspects to Health Canada. It does not surprise me that we are trying to put some focus, particularly as it relates to some of the more critical aspects of public health.
There was the SARS outbreak in 2003. This was probably the big wake-up call that was needed for parliamentarians. The SARS outbreak was particularly focused in the greater Toronto area, actually in Scarborough. A particular member had an area which was under close scrutiny. A lot of people were scrambling around trying to figure out what to do. There was the potential for a serious viral epidemic in Canada threatening the health of a countless number, who knows, thousands, tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of people.
I can also remember looking at the websites of various departments to determine what they were doing in terms of the SARS issue. The Health Canada press releases referred to 18 different websites and 18 different departments. It was an indication that within Health Canada there were so many things going on. There were areas of controversy like the hep C issue, which certainly was a significant problem. There was an issue of where the focal point was for public health issues.
Canadians may wonder what public health issues are. Canadians will also recognize that there has to be a reason for the legislation. There has to be a linkage to the constitutional authority given to the Minister of Health.
As it relates to public health, the government obviously wishes to take measures in certain areas. These include health protection and promotion. There is a health protection branch already, but it is in need of that focal point as well.
The issue of population health assessment is another important area, as is health surveillance to ensure that we are vigilant about emerging problems and early detection of situations. There is as well disease and injury prevention. There is also emergency preparedness and response, which is where the SARS situation comes in. These areas are of significant importance to Canadians because they all relate to the umbrella topic of public health.
The Government of Canada also needs to have this focal point to foster collaboration within the field of public health, to collaborate and coordinate federal policies and programs in the area of public health, as well as to promote cooperation and consultation in the field of public health with provincial and territorial governments. It is extremely important that there be this coordination. I can think of a couple of examples where the absence of that coordination has caused some significant delays in progress on certain public health issues.
It is also fair to say that the public health issues transcend Canada's borders as well. It is important that we also foster cooperation in the field with foreign governments and international organizations, as well as with other interested parties and organizations. We did have one issue as it related to SARS which was the sourcing back to a province in China and the fact that there were significant delays in the reporting of the detection of the SARS related problems to the World Health Organization. This had a ripple effect of putting everyone else behind in terms of their ability to respond to this emergency situation.
There are many people who frequently travel internationally and Canada is a destination for many people from around the world. There is significant activity at our borders and airports. Equipment was put in at the airports to try to detect whether or not there might be some problems. This should come as no surprise.
As I listened to the debate yesterday and today, one of the things I noted is that the debate has basically become a broader discussion of health issues and their importance. We have talked about trans fats. The member for Yellowhead took us down memory lane with all the subjects that the health committee has dealt with over the last several years, ever since he has been on the committee. It gives Canadians an opportunity to appreciate the breadth of work that happens at committee and the importance of that work.
Bill C-5 indicates that the minister has the authority to set up committees. These committees are going to be paid and the bill sets out the Treasury Board guidelines, et cetera. It is rather interesting that it is in there. It is almost as though this actually does happen. It is under the general provisions clauses 13, 14 and 15.
Back when Allan Rock was the health minister I was advocating a private member's initiative relating to fetal alcohol syndrome. Allan Rock used to sit beside me at national caucus. There were press releases going out and all kinds of government documents on the issue of fetal alcohol syndrome. These documents were actually put together by committees of people who were responsible for that little area.
One of the principal statements the Government of Canada made at the time was that fetal alcohol syndrome is the leading known cause of mental retardation in Canada. What an ominous statement. It sure should get our attention. It is an interesting statement to make but this came from Health Canada and the statement was absolutely wrong. Fetal alcohol syndrome is not the cause of anything. It is the result. In fact, it is prenatal consumption of alcohol by the mother that is the leading known cause of mental retardation, yet Health Canada in its wisdom was putting out things like that.
It went further. Health Canada set up a coalition that included the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Nurses Association and NGOs representing all walks of life, including aboriginal people. It came out with what was called a joint statement which said the same thing, and this was some years later. It said that fetal alcohol syndrome is the leading known cause of mental retardation in Canada.
When there is a coalition of some 18 groups and organizations representing virtually everybody who has ever touched an issue and those groups still do not get it, we start to have some questions about whether or not committees have been charged with the proper instructions.
We saw the same kind of problem with another issue that came to the health committee. It was about health warning labels on alcoholic beverage containers, which again related to fetal alcohol syndrome. The government created a task force. It was a very broad task force. A lot of money was spent on that task force. It worked for a couple of years and came out with reports. There was glossy literature but what the task force did not have was any recommended strategies or solutions. All of the reports and documents were saying things like, “Here is where we have been. Here is the history. Here is how we got to where we are today and we are continuing to work”.
If more and more committees are going to be set up within Health Canada, or any other department for that matter, we have to be vigilant. If accountability is a hallmark word for this Parliament, then accountability also means that when committees are established, as this bill permits the minister to do, those committees should be charged to follow the full line of activity right though to strategy, recommendations and other proposals related to implementation.
When I first raised the issue of fetal alcohol syndrome with the then health minister, the hon. Allan Rock, he decided he was going to set up a national advisory commission on fetal alcohol syndrome. One night after being in the House most of the day, I went back to my office and there was a fax on my machine. I had met with the people in Health Canada who were going to set up the advisory commission and they wanted to send to me the terms of reference for its establishment.
It was the same as what I had seen before for another committee in another department. There would be one person from every province and territory. There would be a gender balance and other criteria. There would be people who were knowledgeable about fetal alcohol syndrome and they were going to do some work.
I did not think it was really necessary for anyone to know any more about fetal alcohol syndrome after all the work that had been done. I thought that maybe what we should have been doing was creating an advisory commission that would advise the Government of Canada, the Minister of Health and parliamentarians on strategies that may very well work to handle the situation where it has to do with behaviour. We cannot legislate behaviour but we can encourage good behaviour and maybe discourage behaviour that is not healthy.
I spent the whole evening rewriting the terms of reference and saying that when we set up committees, we need to have people whom we know have the experience and the expertise to deliver solutions. We need them to recommend solutions and strategies and have the basis so that there will be a buy-in for all the stakeholders.
I recommended a behaviouralist, a psychologist and an expert in federal-provincial relations because we do cross jurisdictions within governments. We needed marketing people and communications people. We needed people who could deliver a product and get the job done.
If we continue to boast, as this bill does, that the minister can set committees up on these various subjects that relate to public health, there is the risk that we could actually increase the bureaucracy of Health Canada but not necessarily deliver in terms of the priorities. I would think that the priorities for the Public Health Agency of Canada should be amplified further with regard to what those priorities are, or at least the minister has to articulate what those priorities are in terms of the most significant health risk to Canadians.
Under the regulations section of the bill, section 15(1) states:
The Governor in Council may, on the recommendation of the Minister, make regulations respecting
(a) the collection, analysis, interpretation, publication and distribution of information relating to public health, for the purpose of paragraph 4(2)(h) of the Department of Health Act;
It is a very broad provision. It is interesting that it says that “The Governor in Council may”. I am pretty sure they will and maybe we should say they shall.
I gave this little speech about doing legislation through regulations rather than in the bill itself.
When the health committee gets this bill it may want to consider whether there should be some provisos with regard to the issues of collection, analysis, interpretation, publication and distribution of information relating to public health because we can really get carried away we this stuff. I hope it is done in a way in which we are not trying to simply see who can produce glossy brochures and a whole bunch of very beautiful looking information but, rather, who will put together this stuff where it in fact is as a consequence of the work done by this new agency under the Chief Public Health Officer who will have the equivalent position of a deputy minister. However that activity has to be established within the legislation which really emphasizes the need that this is not work that we just do to keep people busy. This is work to deliver results.
I would think that, knowing the situation we had with SARS, and given the information we have on the high possibility of a pandemic and the fact that we have situations where there are not enough pharmaceuticals necessary, these are some of the priorities which the minister will have to engage this new officer to undertake.
I wanted to raise that because I do not think the bill by itself does justice to the urgency there is with regard to this new agency.
We have some major risks and threats to the public health of Canadians. Although there are a broad range of activities, I am hoping the bill would be the kickstart to establishing the necessary priorities so Canadians have the protection that is necessary for good public health and they can have confidence in this new agency.