Health committee  When a person needs cannabis, they must first have a prescription from a doctor. It is an authorization and not necessarily a prescription. So we're talking, to use the exact terms, about a doctor's authorization. There is a process in place to verify whether this is a duly issue

Health committee  To close the subject, I would just like to add, as the minister explained, that the new Cannabis Act now gives us a power that we did not have before to intervene when we see problems. We intend to use this power in such situations.

Health committee  I was actually at the World Health Assembly in Geneva and had occasion to be part of some of those discussions. I believe the negotiations concluded only yesterday, so I was not in the room for all of the conversations, but I can share a bit of the story around this issue. In th

Health committee  It was as amended through fairly extensive negotiations that went on over a period of days. Having been involved in a lot of these conversations over the years, not just in health but in other sectors, that's fairly standard. When you get 170 countries in a room, there's bound t

Health committee  I'm so glad the member asked this question, because it gives an opportunity for me to do a bit of correction of my earlier response. I think the confusion is, at least for me—there's no confusion on your part—that Health Canada received just over $30 million in the budget to ad

Health committee  Maybe I can start, and Dr. Strong could speak as well. We've had very good conversations with the network, a number of them, as we've been working on the issue of organ donation and transplantation.

Health committee  We would agree that they do really good work, so there's certainly no quarrel there whatsoever. There was funding that the government set aside in the budget to further the work on organ and tissue donation and transplantation, and certainly we want to be talking to them and oth

Health committee  Yes, Mr. Chair, this is a question for my response. I can say that there was the $150 million allocated for the emergency treatment fund. The hope is to get it into the hands of jurisdictions relatively quickly. The design of the fund is such that we wanted to use it to help the

Health committee  It probably wouldn't be appropriate to get into some of the details of the cut and thrust of the conversation. What I can say is that we had very cordial and very productive discussions with Manitoba. Some jurisdictions signed earlier and some signed later. There was obviously so

Health committee  I apologize; I believe it was some time in March.

Health committee  I can get you the exact date, but it was certainly before March 31. It was before the start of the current fiscal year.

Health committee  Both the health accord agreement with Manitoba and the emergency treatment fund agreement were signed before the start of the fiscal year. What I can say is that our objective as a ministry was that before the commencement of the fiscal year, we wanted to be in a position such t

Health committee  The work is still going on as to how that money is to be allocated. We want to make sure that we maximize the benefits of those funds. One of the ways in which Health Canada is helping to support the government in its dealing with the opioid crisis is that there are a range of tr

Health committee  I can assure you, though, that we have a strong interest in making sure that people are following the rules. It's a reputational issue, obviously, for the department whenever there are community concerns, and we act within the constraints of the law. We share the interest of tryi

Health committee  I can speak generally to how we regulate, whether in the case of antibiotics or other kinds of therapeutic products. I can't speak, without consulting my colleagues back in the department, to the specifics of this particular compound you're talking about. As a general rule, for m