House of Commons photoLost her last election, in 2019, with 26% of the vote.
Aboriginal Affairs May 16th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, neither the UN nor the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food delivers any food to anyone anywhere in the world. Sixty-five per cent of the world's hungry live in only seven countries: India, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and sub-Saharan Africa, where 239 million people are going hungry in the World Food Programme.
Aboriginal Affairs May 16th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, I met with the individual this morning and I found him to be an ill-informed, patronizing academic studying aboriginal people, the Inuit and Canada's Arctic from afar.
I took the opportunity to educate him about Canada's north and the aboriginal people who depend on the wildlife that they hunt every day for food security.
Health May 14th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, my heart goes out to those individual families who have lost loved ones from suicide.
We are committed to working collaboratively with the first nations community and our federal partners, as well as provincial and other partners, on initiatives that would improve the well-being of first nations communities and individuals, including the Cowichan tribes.
We recently signed an historic tripartite agreement with the first nations in British Columbia and the provincial health departments. This will give the first nations a major role in the planning, designing and management of health care services for their communities.
Health May 11th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, as we have said all along, the shortage resulted from decisions by the provinces and the territories to sole-source their drug contracts.
Our role is to ensure that drugs are safe before they enter the market. We are working around the clock to address this issue by identifying new suppliers for the provinces and the territories, fast-tracking approvals and providing access to the national emergency stockpiles system. In fact, we have approved 16 replacement drugs and approved more than 120 drugs through the special access program since the drug shortage occurred.
Questions on the Order Paper May 10th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, on April 18, 2012, the Minister of Health announced that a team of researchers has been selected to undertake an interventional phase I/II clinical trial for chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, CCSVI, in persons with multiple sclerosis. The objective of this trial, which is to be co-funded by the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, is to determine the safety and efficacy of the procedure proposed by Dr. Zamboni.
The successful team will now need to obtain ethics approval from their relevant university research ethics board or boards before recruiting patients and conducting the trial. The funds will be released and the study will begin as soon as ethics approval is granted. The clinical trial is expected to begin in the fall of 2012.
The closing date to submit applications to conduct this clinical trial was February 29, 2012. Applicants were invited to devise the best possible trial with a sample size of 100 patients and then propose the budget required to implement such a trial. For this reason, the budget was not specified in the funding opportunity. Both the MS Society of Canada and CIHR are committed to funding the trial subject to positive outcomes at ethics review stages.
Further information concerning this announcement, evaluation criteria, conflict of interest requirements and next steps, such as review by the research ethics board of the research institute concerned, may be found at http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/45249.html, http://www.researchnet-recherchenet.ca/rnr16/viewOpportunityDetails.do?progCd=10266&language=E&fodAgency=CIHR&view=browseArchive&browseArc=true&org=CIHR and http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/193.html.
Health May 9th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague, the member for Kildonan—St. Paul, for that great question. I would also like to thank the member for Barrie for introducing his bill, Bill C-314, regarding raising awareness for women with dense breast tissue. I hope it will result in more lives being saved.
Our government has invested almost $1 billion for cancer research since we formed government in 2006. We also renewed our funding commitment over the next five years for the Canadian Partnerships Against Cancer so that it can continue to do the great work that it is doing. Thanks to this, more people are—
Health May 9th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, again, we will continue to provide support to the provinces and territories. We have committed to long-term stable funding for the provinces and territories that will see health transfers increased.
Once we were elected, our government took quick action to establish the Mental Health Commission of Canada, which the member and the party opposite voted against.
We will continue to work with the provinces and territories.
Health May 9th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, we welcome the strategy from the Mental Health Commission of Canada. As the opposition members know, members of the NDP did not support the commission that was established.
Our government will continue to support the provinces and the territories in their efforts. That is why we have committed to a long-term stable funding arrangement that will see health transfers reach record high levels by the end of the decade.
Health May 8th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to inform members of the House that our government developed, in close collaboration with the Mental Health Commission of Canada, an initiative for projects that will complement its work and is consistent with the mental health strategy for Canada. The initiative was launched today. It will help us understand how we can prevent homelessness in those afflicted with mental health issues.
I am proud that our government created the Mental Health Commission of Canada in the first year of its mandate. It is too bad that opposition members voted against it.
Health May 8th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, as I stated earlier, we welcomed the release of the Mental Health Commission's strategy this morning. As the opposition member knows, this is important work of the commission, and we continue to work with the provinces and territories in the rollout. That is why we have committed to long-term stable funding to the provinces and territories. The funding arrangements will see that health transfers reach a record high of $40 billion, and provinces and territories will be able to adjust it to priorities in their areas.