Health committee  Thank you. The member raises a very important question. We are all very much focused on providing the kinds of supports for communities and individuals that we know are needed. There are two things I would mention in response to the member's question about what we're doing at H

Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a very important topic for Canadians and the committee. We are very concerned about the effectiveness of regulations. We are especially concerned about health. I would just like to reassure the committee that it is not the case that we are propos

Health committee  It's an important question. We did have a panel look at this question. They provided us with very helpful advice on a number of matters, and it was one of the things we took into consideration as we moved forward, about what kind of labelling, for example, labelling indicating “n

Health committee  Thank you. This is another part of our supplementary estimates that I'm very pleased to speak about with the committee. This is a renewal of the clean air agenda for Health Canada. It is a five-year program. This is a government-wide crosscutting initiative, but the Health Canad

Health committee  Thank you very much for the question. Madam Chair, I am pleased to be able to speak with the committee about the chemicals management plan. It has been a real success story for the department. We have been working in a very collaborative way with the Department of the Environmen

Health committee  Again, Madam Chair, I'm pleased to be able to deal with such an important program. Obviously, first nations programming is about two-thirds of the expenditure of the Department of Health. It is about 65% or 66% of our budget, and when we run a large program like the non-insured

Health committee  I'm very pleased to address this issue, because it is of critical importance to Canadians. I would want to stress that I'm not sure of the 18% figure. It's not one that I have here in front of me. But I guess I would want to reassure Canadians that in fact, as drugs go to market

Health committee  I'll get that document and obviously respond to that question, perhaps in a follow-up. What I would want to flag is that we recognize that so much occurs with the drugs as they interact in the real world, as they are used, and we are very committed to having the kind of mechanis

Health committee  I appreciate the comment about the importance, Madam Chair, of the smoking rates, and as was noted, we are striving...Canada's had a very ambitious goal of 12%. Since that document was published, we've now gone from 18% to 17%, which is very statistically significant. We are ri

Health committee  That is something that is under consideration, obviously, for the next budget cycle.

Health committee  I want to thank the member for her question. This question is very important and very complicated. This is an area where, particularly for physicians, there has been a lot of complexity. We've been working with provinces and territories, medical schools, and regulatory bodies a

Health committee  I think we're making good progress. We've characterized health professions into various categories, and we are working with the licensing bodies and with physicians to increase the capacity to assess, train, and get--

Health committee  I think we have made significant progress in Canada. The overall smoking rate is down to 17%, 9% for youth. These are very low numbers. Internationally, Canada's a real leader. When Dr. Chan was here today and we were meeting with her, she was very supportive. I think it's the

Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the question. The value of indicators and information is critical. Those things are very important if we want to have an idea of the progress made since the 2004 accord. Tremendous importance has been placed on data. Both the Canadian Ins

Government Operations committee  Thank you again very much for the question. As David mentioned, I think we were feeling that H1N1 was a significant real-time, real-life test with huge implications, obviously, for first nations. Communities and partners came together very well at that point. My information here