Health committee  Thank you. I'll touch on the three points that were raised: the first being the question of data; the second being the question of the international ranking; and the third being what is in the Health Canada programming to address maternal and child health. Focusing first on th

Health committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Bonjour, tout le monde. Thank you very much for the invitation to be here today. I am very pleased to be here today. With me are Germain Tremblay, Acting Chief Financial Officer of Health Canada, and other senior department officials. By way

Health committee  Absolutely. I will keep this very brief. Health Canada is seeking additional funding of $241.4 million in 2010–11 to focus on the following priorities: $130 million to renew federal aboriginal health programs; $30 million to improve health access and to support innovations and r

Public Accounts committee  It's an excellent question. I confess that I have looked at our departmental reports, but I don't recall this specific detail. In general terms, I would be confident that we have outlined it there, but I would want to double-check and just make sure. I know that the chemicals man

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to reinforce what the commissioner has said, I think we very much appreciate the focus and interest from the parliamentarians. Sometimes this work by our scientists and others goes a bit unheralded and unseen by Canadians. I think we share the interes

Public Accounts committee  I'd be happy to comment on that. When we spoke earlier about the various facets of a strategy, it is the assessment and the risk management, but it also is research and ongoing science, some of which we get internationally, but others of which we do actually here in Canada. The m

Public Accounts committee  I appreciate the question. As a former provincial deputy minister of health, I certainly take the partnership with the provinces very, very seriously. I think it's clear that we do work in provinces. Whether it's on the occupational health and safety front or in the public health

Public Accounts committee  Again, I think the Arctic poses some particular challenges. I think we're very mindful of being supportive of country foods and other things that support a healthy lifestyle for people in the Arctic. But we also recognize that there may be some particular challenges with some of

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much for the question. We certainly share the view that this is an important emerging issue. As has been noted, this is an issue that has emerged relatively recently. Our scientists are aware of it. We've been in discussions with the U.S. EPA, for example. As they

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much for the question. The first cycle of the survey is now complete, as you mentioned. The results of this survey will be released this summer, so we'll start to have very good information that comes out. The second cycle is already under way. I think that longit

Public Accounts committee  I can begin on the mercury side in particular. We do share the concern that has been raised in terms of the findings, because recent biomonitoring has found concentrations of mercury in some of the Canadian Inuit populations. We have found some evidence that these may be decreasi

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question. I'll begin the answer, and then perhaps my colleagues will want to add some details. But there is absolutely a need for ongoing studies to understand the long-term impacts. It's one of the reasons that we believe the biomonitoring program that has bee

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. It is a national initiative, but there are a number of sites across the country. There are pilot sites at various points so we aren't just gathering information in one part of the country, for example. They are distributed across the country. For example, we also ha

Public Accounts committee  I would add that in terms of consumer products the ability to get them off the shelf and “gone”, as you say, has been something that we have been very concerned about. We are currently working with a very old piece of legislation, and we believe that we regulate using the powers

Public Accounts committee  Yes. We believe that it is something we should have. That's why, in the proposed new Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, we had proposed that the department have the ability to do recalls. Currently we can only do them on a voluntary basis, working with industry. While that works