Health committee  They are published annually. There are annual reports coming out of CIPARS and the other one, CNISP, Canadian nosocomial infection surveillance program, as well as periodic reports coming out of those surveillance studies. They are available.

Health committee  I will talk to that, Mr. Chair. I've looked back into that 2002 report and, as you say, there are 38 recommendations. The analysis that was just carried out of the implementation of those recommendations suggests that action has been taken on every one of them. Many of them have been fully implemented.

Health committee  I'd like to say that the Public Health Agency did well with its recommendations on CIPARS.

Health committee  That type of information, really, is available through our colleagues at CIDA, and if you like, we can bring that to you or to the committee as a whole.

Health committee  Certainly.

Health committee  I don't know. I would defer, maybe, if it's agreeable, Madam Chair, to Dr. Cameron.

Health committee  Thank you for the question. Canada has taken the whole envelope of AIDS-related research and accepted it in the broadest context: supporting research at the discovery level, as Dr. Cameron mentioned; supporting palliative research for people affected by AIDS; supporting the development of antivirals, so that their condition can be ameliorated; and, in conjunction with universities within the country and outside of the country, supporting investigations that try to get at the root cause of HIV infections.

Health committee  I must say only in the general sense right now. The modelling that has been carried out about the advancing rate of HIV infection, in Africa in particular, although we have somewhat similar figures in Canada, is that even the antivirals that are being put in place are not numerically able to cope with the advancing rates of infection, so that antivirals are a palliative stop-gap measure.

Health committee  Not in wrestling with the decision, no; there was no influence that way.

Health committee  I think what I said—and I hope I was clear, but perhaps I wasn't—is that the overall issue of dealing with HIV/AIDS on a global basis has many large components. I don't mean to be vague about it here. From a strict cost-benefit analysis...? Steven could respond to that. There was no additional study carried out that assessed cost-benefit of the multitudes of other opportunities that were there—

Health committee  I'm going to, if it's agreeable to you.... I have to admit that some of this predates my being with the federal government, so some of the details I'm not as privy to. Steven, would you be able to respond to that?

Health committee  Madam Chair, the information flow was really unidirectional: on process and how far we had achieved the process. Obviously we're obliged to inform our minister on an interesting project like this—where we were, were we meeting, the milestones, the process—but there was not a judgment call requested, or a request, if you like, for approval from the minister at all.

Health committee  Thank you. We haven't spoken very much about the Gates Foundation, and I'm going to be limited in what I can say because it's, in a way, second-hand. My observation, working with the foundation, has been that they are very scientifically driven and use evidence-based science as the basis for any of their decisions.

Health committee  That's fine. I think that captures the extension of the process. Thank you.

Health committee  Thank you. It really is the valid question that we're dealing with at the moment: how do we effectively apply the money that had previously been earmarked for a facility, as we said, to where it can now provide the greatest value? I have to start by repeating what the process had been.