...to inform and protect Canadians and to allow Dr. David Butler Jones and the Public Health Network of Canada do its job without political interference. After the terrible experience with SARS, the Naylor Report called for the 4 C's of collaboration, cooperation, communication and a clarity of who does what and when. As you have seen from my public comments, I continue to be very pleased that the Minister of Health has kept the opposition critics in the loop through daily conference calls with senior public health officials about any changes regarding the H1N1 flu outbreak. It is through these co-ordinated communications that we have been able to keep politics separate from public health, and speak to Canadians in one voice.

We are hugely grateful to have the benefit of the experience and advice of Dr. Kirsty Duncan, a leading expert on pandemic preparedness and author of 'Hunting the 1918 Flu.'

I was pleased that the Minister of Health granted our request to be given a tour of the Operations Centre of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to observe how the agency is monitoring the H1N1 Flu Virus. I was joined by my colleagues from the Health Committee, Kirsty Duncan and Joyce Murray and Luc Malo.

During the tour, PHACs top officials demonstrated how their operations centre is working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, leading the H1N1 flu virus response both domestically and globally, among federal departments in Canada and with our international partners. It was led by PHAC's key operations staff including Dr. David Butler Jones, the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada; Dr. Danielle Grondin, Assistant Deputy Minister, Infectious Disease and Emergency Preparedness; Dr. Teresa Tam, Director General, Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response, Infectious Disease and Emergency Preparedness Branch; and Dr. Arlene King, Director General of the Centre for Immunization and Respiratory Infections Diseases at the Public Health Agency of Canada.

It is unfortunate that the PMO would not grant access to the media, because I think that Canadians would be impressed with the facility and the technology that links the experts with the officials as well as the World Health Organization and the Centre for Disease Control.

I would encourage you to visit the Public Health Agency of Canada's H1N1 Flu Virus website here or call their hotline at 1-800-454-8302 for updated information.

I am very pleased that the observations on the ground have been that the difference between this outbreak and SARS in 2003 is 'night and day'. Jan Kasperski reported that the Ontario College of Family Physician (one of the harshest critics of the handling of the communication during SARS) was very complimentary of the quality and timeliness of the information received.

Please let me know of any concerns. I will be pleased to raise them at our daily PHAC briefing.

BILL C-6 - CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY

Bill C-6, An Act Respecting the Safety of Consumer Products, has been referred to the Health Committee for study. This means that our investigation into Health Human Resources in Canada has been postponed indefinitely so we can fix what stakeholders have already told us is a flawed bill.

In my speech to the House of Commons, I promised to propose an amendment at the committee stage instructing the Minister of Health to consult with an expert advisory committee with a mandate to give public advice before the minister can restrict access to a product. This is what we did for Bill C-11 and what we will do for any future health Bill to ensure transparency, effectiveness accountability, and scientific integrity.

We have also heard concerns from key stakeholders that Bill C-6 needs an amendment to deal with tobacco manufacturers and another amendment regarding hazardous substances and toxic chemicals. We have been transparent with the Department of Health and provided it with copies of your proposed amendments and will insist that they are included in a future bill.

However, if this is a repeat of Bill C-11 where information sessions were substituted for meaningful consultation, we will insist that the government will make the appropriate government amendments and bring back the witnesses with the most serious concerns and ensure that the bill as amended would be acceptable to the most objecting stakeholders.

Please let us know if you have any further amendments to Bill C-6, or if you would like to appear before the Health Committee as a witness. You can find the text here

ASSISTED HUMAN REPRODUCTION ACT

Along with my colleagues on the Health Committee, Kirsty Duncan and Joyce Murray, last month we called on the Harper government to stop delaying regulations for protecting Canadians who need medical assistance to form a family as further delays will put the health and safety of Canadians at risk. You can find our press release here. Years have gone by without the necessary regulations to enforce a safe and ethical framework for patients and children under Canada's Assisted Human Reproduction Act, 2004.

As Joyce Murray stated, these delays are inexcusable and Canadians must have confidence that they can access care in a safe and ethical manner.

While a court appeal from Quebec with respect to the Assisted Human Reproduction legislation was heard by the Supreme Court last month, a number of outstanding regulations will not be covered by this court challenge. The Standing Committee on Health also has a statutory responsibility to review the Act this spring even though they have not even seen the regulations from the 2004 Bill.

We called upon the Health Minister to immediately direct Health Canada to present the regulations to the Standing Committee on Health or present a new Bill that will rectify this untenable situation. Please continue to let us know if you have suggestions for questions and witnesses for this Health Committee study.

We hope that we will be able to ask the Minister questions about this week when she appears before the Standing Committee on the Main Estimates, which you can find here. Let us know if there is any else you would like us to ask.

FOOD SAFETY

This month, we also learned from Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Williams something many of us already knew, that the Harper government's incompetence during last summer's listeria outbreak put the lives and health of Canadians at risk.

We learned from Dr. Williams that if public health authorities had had timely access to this information, they might have been able to take additional targeted steps to reduce possible exposure among the general public.

The report's findings, which you can find here raise even more questions about the Harper government. I was quoted as saying that the lack of communications with the Ontario Ministry of Health stemmed from their desire to limit political damage - rather than putting the lives of Canadians first. Unfortunately, Canadians will not get all the answers from this government, since they refuse to hold an open and transparent investigation into this crisis - highlighting once again how they would rather put political considerations before the health of Canadians.

This was made clear during Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz's testimony before the subcommittee on food safety when he refused to answer why the CIFA's inspection reports were altered. Hundreds of inspection worksheets from the CFIA show he added handwritten notes to select records on Aug. 26, 2008 -- after the death toll from the listeriosis outbreak linked to the Toronto plant had risen to 12 confirmed cases.

We continue to welcome your suggestions for witnesses and questions for the subcommittee. It is only through these public hearings that we will be able to get to the bottom of this serious public health situation so Canadians can re-gain confidence in their food safety supply.

TOWARDS A COMPREHENSIVE FOOD POLICY FOR CANADA

After our hugely successful tour of Western Canada, the Liberal food caucus took our road show to Eastern Canada this past month. Along with our chair Kirsty Duncan, we were joined at various stops by Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter, St. John's South-Mount Pearl MP Siobhan Coady, Dartmouth-Cole Harbour MP Michael Savage and Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe MP Brian Murphy.

From St. John's to Halifax to Charlottetown to Moncton, we continued to from producers, public health, food banks and interested Canadians. You can find summaries about what we heard on my website .

After our tour of Eastern Canada, we went on the road to Guelph where we attended a fantastic event organized by MP Frank Valeriote. We were met with so many phenomenal recommendations identifying the essential components of a policy aimed at ensuring the accessibility, affordability and safety of our food.

We want to thank everybody for their participated our discussions over the past few months. These discussions are just the beginning, and we will continue to meet with any concerned citizens and stakeholders so you can continue to inform us about the essential ingredients in a comprehensive food policy for Canada. If you would like to meet with our food caucus in Ottawa, please send Kirsty an e-mail at duncak@parl.gc.ca and we will be sure to let you know when we are heading out on the road again!!

INDIGENOUS PHYSICIANS ASSOCIATION OF CANADA MEETING

I was pleased to have a very informative meeting with Dr. Marcia Anderson, the fantastic new President of the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada and Kandice Leonard, IPAC's wonderful executive director. However, their media release which you can read here greatly worries me. If there are more examples of institutional racism that you've seen in the health care system please let me know.

PLATFORM

As you know, Michael Ignatieff has committed to having our platform ready by next month in case we need it!!!!! Please let us know your ideas for what should be included, not only Health and Health Care, but all of the Social Determinants of Health of course!!!

SPEECHES

Please be sure to visit my website to view all my speeches from the past month. I would especially like to draw your attention to my address at CAN CARES which you can find here and my speech at the Ontario Centre for Engineering and Public Policy Conference here.

All the best in the coming month!! Stay in touch!!

Carolyn

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