Health committee  There's one model in Alberta which is the spinal health centre. It was an idea that started, like with many great ideas, over a beer. A chiropractor and his two neurosurgeons were sitting around complaining about their workload. The neurosurgeons said they had a stack of faxes on their desk this thick of referrals from medical doctors for patients that have back pain and leg pain, and they knew most of them did not need surgery, but they still had to see them.

Health committee  Even just speaking back to earlier interventions and their success, the largest part of the burden represents about 30% of the patients who become chronic with musculoskeletal conditions. Many models are built right now on getting early access so that conditions can be treated effectively before they become chronic.

Health committee  With me is my colleague Tanya Nayler, also an Ecojustice staff lawyer. Not with us today is our senior staff scientist, Dr. Elaine MacDonald. She is our scientific expert on pesticides and environmental health. I should give a few quick words about Ecojustice. We are Canada's largest public interest environmental law organization.

Finance committee  The Premier of Ontario has actually said this publicly. I think it was in her throne speech. She mentioned the poverty reduction strategy that they just released and said that we need a national child care program and that Ontario would welcome it. I haven't asked them, but I think it would depend on what a federal government would do.

Finance committee  Thank you. I'm the executive director of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit. I'm talking about the other end of the age spectrum compared to what Dr. Simpson was talking about, but there are actually a lot of policy similarities. I'm really pleased that you asked me here today to talk about the relationship of child care to the priority of supporting families and helping vulnerable Canadians by focusing on health, education, and training.

Status of Women committee  Dr. Trew also talked about a need for patients to teach their doctors about the situation. Sadly, the time it takes to do this is often more than the patient has before they're in crisis or they die.

Finance committee  I would add to your list as well the work being done at the Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation and the Irene MacDonald Sobey chair for Alzheimer's research, with Dr. Sultan Darvesh, and also some of the work done by Dr. Kenneth Rockwood. Are there other barriers to collaboration in terms of this kind of research and perhaps even issues around commercialization, ownership, and IP?

National Defence committee  I know that Dr. Bow has particular expertise in Mexico, so I won't steal any limelight other than to say that the Canadian and the American navies are so closely integrated that they can essentially operate together seamlessly, as we do in NORAD, and that they share information and have a doctrine and tactics that are totally consistent, to their great advantage in operating in both oceans.

National Defence committee  I guess in this context I remain a pragmatist. Dr. Bow has given you some pretty good ideas about what could be done differently, and I would have argued, when NORTHCOM was set up in the States that NORAD could have piggybacked onto that opportunity to make more than NORAD, and to make more of that broader command that would be a shared command between Canada and the United States.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much, committee members. Meeting here before you this afternoon brings back memories of appearing before this committee at the time of the free trade agreement. So it's nice to be back to see what progress has been made over the years. I do not see this, as my colleague from Dalhousie sees it, just as a trade deal in the narrow context.

Leaside Sports Hall of Fame Inductees  Recently the Hall of Fame inducted its inaugural class of 10 athletes and recognized its first Leaside athlete of the year. They are Howard Birnie, Teri Black, John Child, Cathy Lansdowne, Dr. Ron Taylor, Pete Mahovlich Jr., Erica Gilbert, Lloyd Woods, Dr. Tom Pashby, and Rich Ferguson. Martha McCabe is Leaside's first athlete of the year. She competed in her first Olympic Games, in swimming, at London in 2012 and is preparing for Rio in 2016.

Status of Women committee  Income splitting is not something that is going to benefit the families that need it most. It is essentially an upside-down benefit, so the wealthiest families reap the greatest rewards. I think there are many ways that we could better spend the billions of dollars that an income-splitting program would cost, not least on a federal child care program, which would itself yield great rewards, as I've said before, for our economy and for families across the country.

International Trade committee  It would be helpful, but they sent me animated emails over the weekend about how happy they are and how eager they are to share any information they have.

International Trade committee  I don't know.

International Trade committee  Yes. Let me just talk a bit more about this German-Dalhousie program that has these Ph.D. students, because they come and they are funded by a CREATE grant, which is something that NSERC funds. It insists that the graduate students get placed in industry and get placed in foreign country laboratories.