Health  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her ongoing watch on global health and health care in Canada. To date there is no evidence of efficient human to human transmission of avian flu H5N1. The WHO has not changed its assessment of risk to human health as a result of the health care worker's case.

Health  Mr. Speaker, the member is a tremendous advocate for chronic disease prevention. The province of Nova Scotia has really taken health promotion seriously. We are pleased that the 2005 budget expands the initial investments in the Canada Public Health Agency and sets out $300 million over five years for a strategy focussing on healthy living and chronic disease.

Health  Mr. Speaker, the Public Health Agency of Canada continues to be actively involved with respect to public health threats. Its activities include emergency planning within the agency itself, and collaborative efforts with its various national and international partners, WHO among them.

Quarantine Act  Madam Speaker, compensation would be on a case by case basis. It would not cover all the problem situations. Compensation may not be appropriate in the case of it being a shared responsibility of a community or whatever. We need to think about compensation but it has to be negotiated based on each individual case.

Quarantine Act  Madam Speaker, the Bloc Québécois member has a good question regarding the issue of compensation. I think he is well aware that this issue requires greater flexibility and that each case should be reviewed on its own merits. We think that sometimes it may be a small, very obvious compensation that would be negotiated.

Quarantine Act  Madam Speaker, in today's modern era, emerging and re-emerging public health threats do not respect borders. This we know first hand from our recent experience with SARS. With advances in technology, rapid air travel is now common practice in the daily lives of individuals, replacing the days of long voyages on ships.

Health  Mr. Speaker, the World Health Organization has called the pandemic influenza plan for Canada one of the best in the world. I believe that is because of the amazing cooperation of the federal-provincial-territorial committee on this. One of their strong recommendations was the purchase of antivirals.

Health  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.

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

Health  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.

Supply  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  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.

Supply  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.

Supply  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.

Supply  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.