Mr. Speaker, I listened very carefully to what the Minister of Health had to say. I thank her for the amendment which, as I have just said, we are pleased to accept.
In listening to her comments, I want to stress that the motion talks about requiring reporting on any planned disruption or discontinuation. Obviously, if there is a fire, it is impossible to report it in advance. I believe that is covered in the motion.
I also agree we are all talking about the need for a long-term strategy and to get to the bottom of this. Part (a) of the motion talks about co-operating with other jurisdictions in developing a nationwide strategy, so I assume that with the amendment the minister and the government will be supporting the motion. I just want to make that clear.
Part (c) of the motion talks about expediting the review of regulatory submissions. In her remarks, she said there have been 15 applications that have come in. I know that the provinces, for example, Manitoba, are saying that the biggest priority right now is for the federal government to provide a quick turnaround on the licensing of alternate therapies.
When the minister says it will happen within weeks, I wonder if she could specify a little more what that will mean. Because we do know that the Auditor General, in his fall 2011 report, did raise concerns about the lack of service and process for dealing with these kinds of submissions. We do need to deal with that shortcoming. When the minister says “within a few weeks”, could she possibly spell out what that means in terms of expediting in a safe way those approvals?