Health committee  Like most public health units, we do have obligations. Let me speak to the Ontario context. I'll start there. In the Ontario context, we have something called the Ontario public health standards. All local public health departments are expected to adhere to those standards. One o

Health committee  To answer the question specifically, I'd be happy to share with you what we have with respect to responding to infectious diseases. I will tell you that this novel coronavirus was identified a month ago, but I will remind you that infectious disease response and management has an

Health committee  Certainly we've had some discussion around that. It's a matter of interest, being part of the public health response to the novel coronavirus situation. Again, since we are not a jurisdiction directly impacted by that, I can't tell you that we've had in-depth conversations on tha

Health committee  Having been a medical officer of health for Peel region, I am quite familiar with the circumstances in Brampton and the challenges with respect to health care access. With respect to how the situation is being managed, I would defer to my provincial colleagues. Suffice it to say

Health committee  Thank you for the question. I will do my very best to respond to it, not being a laboratory medicine specialist myself. The short version of the story is that you have a new virus. This is a virus that was only identified about a month ago. In the world of lab medicine, and m

Health committee  I'm not particularly familiar with what's happening in the U.S. laboratory system. I apologize for that.

Health committee  Again, as I am not familiar with what circumstances WHO is seeking to address, it's difficult to comment on that. However, as with many infectious diseases, often the best strategy is to strengthen the capacity of those other nations and other jurisdictions where the capacity do

Health committee  Thank you very much. As you've just heard, I'm Dr. Eileen de Villa, medical officer of health for the City of Toronto. Thank you to the members of the committee for giving me this opportunity to address you this afternoon. I will keep my remarks very brief. As you've heard, I'm

Health committee  The board of health did approve that report and they did make the call to the federal government.

Health committee  I look forward to receiving that response.

Health committee  I hope so.

Health committee  I think that, again, you need a fulsome response. I would treat this as a health issue rather than a criminal issue. I think we've done a great deal of harm and I think we've burdened our health care system. I can't speak enough to the determinants of health: supportive housing,

Health committee  I think we've tried to allude to this already, myself and others around the video conference. I feel, and I think the evidence demonstrates, that there are significant harms associated with prohibition and that there is a good rationale for looking at drugs and drug use through a

Health committee  I think this question of addiction and addictive tendency is one that has a fair amount of individuality to it. What I was trying to address in my comments is that there are many reasons that people engage in drug use. I think really getting to the heart of it and getting to prev

Health committee  I would suggest to you that needle exchange programs are also, as I mentioned with harm reduction, a critical, life-saving component as part of a response to drug use in our community. They are not encouraging drug use. I think they encourage safer drug use. They allow for the he