Carolyn Bennett

[Health, February 1st, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, it was yesterday that the Canadian Hemophilia Society released its third report since the Krever commission in which it has congratulated Canada on the huge strides that have been made in making our blood system one of the safest in the world. This is done by a strict regulatory environment, with inspection guidelines, good manufacturing practices and the issuing of establishment licences.

Canadian Blood Services and Héma-Québec have instituted the new tests for West Nile virus and hepatitis B, as well as enhanced pre-screening information on CJD, to really make sure that it is the safest system in the world.

[Finance, January 31st, 2005]

moved:

That this House take note of the third report of the Standing Committee on Finance.

[Health, December 10th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the Public Health Agency of Canada responded very quickly to the reports of malaria in tourists coming from the Dominican Republic. Last week the agency posted a travel advisory on the website. The agency has been collaborating with its stakeholders, the Council of Chief Medical Officers of Health, the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies, travel health insurance operators and all the Canadian tour operators, as well as the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians.

The Public Health Agency wants Canadians to know that before going to the Dominican Republic they should see their family doctor or a travel doctor to get an independent risk assessment. They should try to avoid getting bitten and should let anybody know when they come back of their--

[Supply, November 23rd, 2004]

Mr. Chair, we were very optimistic when all first ministers agreed in the September meeting to work together on school health and the formation of a school health consortium. The Minister of Health was able to organize hat at the meeting.

We are very keen to move forward and do our part in this in terms of sharing best practices and defining what school health would mean, just as the member has said, in terms of all of the common risks, from vending machines to physical education in the schools but also some of the--

[Supply, November 23rd, 2004]

Mr. Chair, I look forward to having further conversations with him about his idea. I remember hearing about the Prime Minister attending the round table in Cole Harbour and how inspired he was with what happened when a group of people from all walks of life with various approaches to keeping Canadians healthy, or a well-being initiatives, got together. I also think the member knows that some of the best work on indicators was done by Ron Coleman's group, GPI. I think there are all kinds of good things.

I had round tables both at Dalhousie and Acadia before the launching of the agency, and there was such a huge interest. I think the people of Nova Scotia and in Atlantic Canada, more generally, know that the health status of their citizens is of the worst in the country, and it is extraordinarily important. As we were building the case for each of the six collaborating centres across the country, it was not surprising that Atlantic Canada was asked to deal with the collaborating centre on determinants of health.

It will be extremely interesting, as we develop the collaborating centres, that each of the collaborating centres will be the glue in the region. They will begin to get together with local and provincial public health officials, federal agency officials, the stakeholders, as have been described, and academia. Citizens will be an extraordinarily important part of how we do the next step of identifying best practices, using community laboratories to find out what works and what does not work in the joint project of keeping people well.

The whole longitudinal approach, as the member described, from maternal child and infant to child care, to schools, to youth and sports, to families and healthy places for families to seniors is very exciting. In the whole life cycle approach, as we move forward, we will have to work with great people like Ron Coleman and with people in all aspects of health and health care.

We also have to work with all departments on how we choose health goals for Canada and how we pick some realistic and meaningful targets that people will buy into in the real approach of a strong common purpose, keeping as many Canadians healthy for as long as possible while at the same time respecting local wisdom and local knowledge to get it done.

I am look forward to working with the member and all members of Parliament and with all governments. The first ministers have asked us to work with them in picking these goals and targets. At the same time we have to understand, as the member has described, that there has to be goals around the health determinants, poverty, violence, the environment, shelter and equity as well as the goals around the kinds of choices people make, such as exercise, eating, drugs, alcohol and sexual health. We also have to look at specific outcomes in other epidemics of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, mental illness and lung disease. How do we move forward in picking those targets and how do we--

[Supply, November 23rd, 2004]

Mr. Chair, the chief public health officer is an important position. As the Minister of Health has said, the appointment of Dr. David Butler-Jones has provided his network with respect with regard to his relationship with the chief medical officers of health throughout the country in terms of their shared work.

We had a fabulous lunch with the Chief Medical Officer of Health and the chief medical officers for the provinces and the territories. They have an unbelievable understanding of the social determinants of health and the common risks. We need not only ministers of health across the country but we need ministers of all departments to put a health lens on healthy public policy. Whether it has to do with smog days or whether it has to with the percentage of families spending more than 50% of their income on rent, it must be a response by this government and indeed the whole country.

I hope we arrive at the day when we will see that the sustainability of our health care system is actually the shared goal of keeping people well.

We look forward to the efforts of all members of Parliament who have become real champions in their areas with their various networks across the country. This is really a shared goal and vision of all parliamentarians. We thank them all for their help.

[Supply, November 23rd, 2004]

Mr. Chair, it has been a time of renaissance in terms of the kind of understanding the member shows on the importance of health promotion and disease prevention in terms of the ultimate sustainability of our health care system.

It was inspirational to see the Prime Minister and all first ministers make the kind of commitment they did in the first ministers' meeting to both disease prevention and health promotion. It was extraordinarily important for them to outline for all of us to do everything we can around choosing the health goals for Canadians as well as some targets, to be able to move, as the minister said, on these integrated disease strategies understanding how important the common risks to all of these diseases around cancer, heart disease and diabetes can be.

As the member so rightly pointed out, there was the importance of school health and the commitment that all governments made to a school health consortium and program that the Minister of Health was able to shepherd at the health ministers' meeting in September in Vancouver.

It is an exciting time but I probably would not have my job if it had not been for SARS. However, as we have had to deal with the threats of infectious diseases, we have been able to tuck in behind that the other epidemics of diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

We have been able to move forward on setting up a public health agency with the kind of real money that was invested in the 2004 budget and the $165 million that the finance minister was able to find for us. We are now able to do a much better job on disease surveillance, on health risk assessments and on the kinds of things we want to do around the determinants of health in the collaborating centre in Atlantic Canada and in the other collaborating centres.

The $300 million commitment that was made to the provinces for immunization and the $100 million commitment to enhance local public health was also important. As members know, officials are working hard every day with their local voluntary organizations to help do exactly as the member suggested in terms of disease prevention and health promotion.

As I think the member knows, we actually do need the data to support the surveillance that we need to do on both the health status of Canadians and particularly our aboriginal people. We were thrilled to give $100 million to the Canada Health Infoway to begin incorporating the good work it is doing on the electronic health record into proper surveillance on public health.

We will need the support of members as we go into the next budget cycle to make sure we have the dollars we need to do the shared goal of keeping as many Canadians healthy for as long as possible.

[Supply, November 18th, 2004]

Indeed, Madam Speaker, what is evident is that we want to come together with a real strategy on what is practical, what is doable and what will not have unintended consequences. Then we want a timeframe, the “when”, that is doable and practical. Then we want the “how”, which means a real strategy to get the health literacy and civic literacy out there in terms of making choices.

I agree with the member. What has been our concern is to not have those unintended consequences that the member spoke of and to allow the industry to be innovative and creative enough to come up with other choices within the guidelines the task force sets.

[Supply, November 18th, 2004]

Madam Speaker, I understand and I understand the hon. member's concerns about the obesity epidemic, especially among our young people.

I also think the labels are way too small. I am interested, as we move on this labelling, in looking at some of the things being done in other countries, such as red light, green light and amber light. There may be some very serious ways that we can look at in explaining to people that this is a food that is decadent, this is a food that is healthier and this is a food that is really healthy, in a way that actually helps people make better choices.

I also am a bit obsessed myself about the idea that people might want to have the odd chocolate bar but just need to know that maybe they should run for 20 minutes if they eat it. I think there is the idea that maybe Canadians do not know what a calorie is and that we can do a much better job of explaining what are healthy choices as opposed to just banning everything. We want people to be able to make better choices.

As we look forward at not only a healthy living strategy in this country but at this fabulous new idea of sharing best practices in school health across this country, there is a consortium that the health ministers have agreed to. We are now working together with ministers of health and education and their deputies, who now have come together to look at what a school program would look like for Canada. They are looking at how, between the provinces and territories, we steal the good ideas that are working around the country so that we can actually move forward on this huge opportunity within our school system to teach kids how to make healthy choices.

[Supply, November 18th, 2004]

Madam Speaker, I think if there is any ambiguity it is along the lines of “why did we not ban it last year?”. I think what we are saying is that now we need the work of the task force to find out what is the right answer in terms of regulation or presenting legislation that would effectively eliminate to the lowest possible level.

I think we want the work of the task force and the parliamentary committee to help us with exactly what that would be. Some of what I was saying is that this is the reason we did not do it last week. We have been working to find out what really is the right answer on these things and also to put in place a strategy even if the industry had to find other products such that people are not immediately getting the lard out in order to fry their eggs.