Health committee  I'll start responding and then I'll turn to Dr. Sharma to contribute. As we discussed last with the committee, and as Minister Duclos noted, efforts have been made to work with manufacturers to increase domestic production. Indeed, it's up a hundred per cent, as noted in the inf

Health committee  Health Canada is working closely with the provinces and territories, as well as other stakeholders, including industry, patient advocacy groups and others, to develop a national strategy for high-cost drugs for rare diseases, specifically to provide funding to address the high co

Health committee  Yes, the strategy is making progress. We've had several rounds of consultation. We worked on a draft strategy. We engaged provinces, stakeholders and other colleagues through the course of last spring. We are working to finalize the rare disease strategy and, specifically, drug

Health committee  This is a very important issue for Health Canada. I would like to yield the floor to Dr. Sharma to answer your question.

Health committee  Mr. Chair, I will respond in part and would recommend any follow-up with the National Research Council. Indeed, the investment made has resulted in the construction of a biologics manufacturing centre. It is going through the final stages of its good manufacturing practice compl

Health committee  They're being produced now to ensure that full regulatory compliance and the test results on the quality of the batches can be ascertained to complete the certification of the facility.

Health committee  It was just that the process for the certification of the facility and the specific vaccine batches being produced are working towards completion. For information on further steps towards production, the National Research Council would be the best—

Health committee  Mr. Chair, I'll speak in part to that from a Health Canada perspective and turn to Dr. Kochhar to speak from a Public Health Agency perspective. Certainly the supplementary estimates do include important investments to support our work on COVID-19. On the side of Health Canad

Health committee  Mr. Chair, we're happy to follow up with a report on information about health workers in the country. This is an area where we're working closely with provinces and territories, the Canadian Institute for Health Information and other health stakeholders.

Health committee  Mr. Chair, I don't have that information offhand. Provinces and territories have that information through their own processes. We can work to provide a report based on information from the Canadian Institute for Health Information and other stakeholders on internationally educa

Health committee  Mr. Chair, I would indicate that there is a broad recognition of the support needed across all health professions, through existing health professionals trained at institutions across Canada. Provinces and territories, working with those institutions, are seeking to increase enro

Health committee  Mr. Chair, I'll start by recognizing the incredible contribution that health workers have made through the pandemic and continue to make, and the challenges that they're facing, as Dr. Ellis noted and Dr. Lafontaine has spoken about in his role as CMA president. As Minister Ducl

Health committee  We have a team that enforces our regulatory frameworks. The focus is identifying specific incidents or concerns. When that information comes to their attention, they follow up and work as appropriate in conjunction with law enforcement. Certainly this is an area they will have

Health committee  I don't have any information on that specific issue. However, as I said, when we receive information that regulations have been violated, our team works proactively and in close collaboration with the police to enforce them.

Health committee  Mr. Chair, what I would say is that we notably have a variety of strategies to both mitigate the risk of and address the event of drug shortages—