Health committee  I think that is a difficult question. Why have we not made progress? I think it's a very complex issue. There are many reasons why I do not think we have made a lot of progress. Change is difficult. You have a system that's been developed and has benefited people for many years

Health committee  That is a tough question. I think that e-health and telemedicine hold a lot of promise. Some of that has been piloted and tested in British Columbia and other parts of the country. I don't know much about that, not having been involved in it myself, but I do think that is one thi

Health committee  Some of them may well do that. We would certainly be supportive of those kinds of technologies. We believe it is very important to develop electronic health records and other electronic data systems that can be used to support practitioners in their work. Other than that, no.

Health committee  Yes. Many of our members do as individual members. I myself am a professor at the University of Victoria and I hold a CIHR-funded research chair, so I am funded there in my role at the university. The Public Health Association has received money from the Public Health Agency of

Health committee  I can't speak to that. We don't track what all of our individual members may be funded for, so I'm sorry, I can't answer that.

Health committee  It's a difficult question because of the fact that in Canada, health care is a provincial responsibility, so transforming the primary health care system is particularly difficult for that reason, and the role of the federal government then is somewhat difficult. As does my collea

Health committee  Like Dr. Raza, we are an advocacy organization as well. It's a volunteer organization with a volunteer board. We have a very small budget. We do not spend any money on technological innovation. Our role is to promote and protect the health of the public, so we make recommendatio

Health committee  That's not our role. We don't do that. We do not develop technologies.

Health committee  Yes. Our members are primarily public health practitioners and leaders, and so in their roles as health care providers they may in fact utilize technologies.

Health committee  Thank you very much. I really appreciate the opportunity to present to this committee today. My name is Marjorie MacDonald and I'm representing the Public Health Association of British Columbia. I would like to acknowledge my colleague and vice-president, Dr. John Millar, who d