Kirsty Duncan - Etobicoke North, Ontario

Mr. Speaker, the health minister claims she is working with the MS Society. However, the society is asking the federal government for at least $10 million for research into CCSVI, including clinical trials if and when warranted. The society is also pushing all levels of government to create registries to track Canadians who have been treated outside of Canada.

Will the minister listen to MS patients and take a leadership role in coordinating and funding this work?

Leona Aglukkaq Minister of Health

Mr. Speaker, we have established an expert working group to monitor and analyze the results from the MS Society-sponsored studies already under way, both in Canada and in the United States. The provinces, the territories and the federal government have also agreed to move forward to clinical trials once the evidence is available and that was confirmed in September. The provinces, the territories, the medical experts, the MS Society in Canada and in the U.S. are all working together in moving this research forward.

Kirsty Duncan - Etobicoke North, Ontario

Mr. Speaker, the government's response on MS has been totally inadequate: a scientific working group with no CCSVI experts; a review of a handful of papers; no contacting of international experts; no asking for unpublished data.

An estimated 12,500 liberation procedures have been undertaken worldwide while Canadians wait for seven studies which are still in the planning stage.

How can the minister claim to be moving ahead quickly?

Leona Aglukkaq Minister of Health

Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to moving as quickly as possible on the best available science, and is working with the MS Society, the MS clinics, and the provinces and the territories to ensure that all Canadians living with this disease receive scientifically valid information.

We are moving as quickly as possible based on best available science. Let me quote Dr. Marc Girard, president of the Quebec Association of Neurologists, who said: Now more than ever, these studies are necessary so as to better understand the prevalence of CCSVI and determine how research should proceed with respect to the approach proposed by--