Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank colleagues on both sides of this House for the kind words and prayers during my recent medical bout with cancer. I would also like to thank the physicians and staff of the Odette Cancer Centre of Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital.
I am very grateful for a positive outcome, but I am grateful as well for insight provided by medical professionals on a crucial matter of public health.
Colleagues will recall that while vaccination programs are a primary responsibility of the provinces, our government provided funding in the 2007 budget for a national vaccination program to immunize adolescent girls against the human papillomavirus, HPV. My doctors advise that the program should now be extended to cover boys, and that otherwise we can expect a spike in the incidence of HPV cancers in men in coming decades.
I am delighted to report that the Minister of Health has told me that she will take this matter under consideration.