EVIDENCE Standing Committee on Health NUMBER 008 2nd SESSION 39th PARLIAMENT Tuesday, January 29, 2008 Le mardi 29 janvier 2008 Standing Committee on Health CANADA [Recorded by Electronic Apparatus] EVIDENCE January 29, 2008 Committee Edited Evidence * Table of Contents * Number 008 (Official Version) Official Report * Table of Contents * Number 008 (Official Version) Témoignages * Table des matières * Numéro 008 (Version officielle) 08 29 01 2008 2008/01/29 11:05:00 House of Commons Comité permanent de la santé Standing Committee on Health HESA Chair Mrs. Joy Smith 39 2 PUBLIC PART ONLY -

PARTIE PUBLIQUE SEULEMENT (1105) [ English ] The Chair (Mrs. Joy Smith (Kildonan—St. Paul, CPC)) : I will call the meeting to order, please. Welcome, everybody. I hope you had a nice break. It's nice to see everybody back and ready to start, and to catch up on all the news. We have a fairly concise agenda. Pursuant to the order of reference on Wednesday, December 5, 2007, the committee will now proceed with the study of Bill S-220,

An Act respecting a National Blood Donor Week . I want to welcome Hon. Navdeep Bains, the sponsor of the bill. Mr. Bains has put a lot of thought into Bill S-220 . We will be going through the clause-by-clause motions of this bill today. Mr. Bains, I welcome you to add your comments to the committee. Hon. Navdeep Bains (Mississauga—Brampton South, Lib.) : Thank you very much, Chair. I appreciate the opportunity to come before committee. I think you've had the opportunity to read Bill S-220,

An Act respecting a National Blood Donor Week . This bill designates the week in which June 14 occurs in each and every year as national blood donor week. There are numerous benefits to passing this legislation. It has a tremendous amount of support in the House and from other organizations and Canadians who have written to me about this. First and foremost, the purpose of this bill is to create an awareness of the importance of blood donation within Canadian society.

I think it also helps reinforce that blood donation is completely safe, that people should not be concerned about giving blood, and that we have a very safe system. We are fortunate, as a nation, but there could be circumstances where a crisis could occur and we'd need to build up some additional blood supply for peak demand periods. It's also very important to celebrate the contribution of various blood donors and volunteers in each and every community. The purpose is fairly straightforward. It's a very concise bill. If you have any questions, I'd be more than glad to answer them now.

Otherwise, I think we can proceed to clause-by-clause. The Chair : Thank you, Mr. Bains, for your comments, and thank you for the work you've put into Bill S-220 . Are there any questions or comments before proceeding to clause-by-clause? If not, then pursuant to Standing Order 75(1), consideration of the

preamble and clause 1 is postponed. We will call for clause 2. (Clause 2 agreed to) The Chair : Shall the

preamble carry? Some hon. members: Agreed. The Chair: Shall the title carry? Some hon. members: Agreed. The Chair: Shall the bill be carried? Some hon. members: Agreed. The Chair: Shall I report the bill to the House? Some hon. members: Agreed. The Chair: I intend to do this on Wednesday afternoon. That's the way it's set up. Is that agreed? Some hon. members: Agreed. The Chair : Thank you very much. Congratulations, Mr. Bains. Some hon. members: Hear, hear! Hon. Navdeep Bains : I'd just like to thank the committee members and the chair for your cooperation in this.

I appreciate the fact that it went fairly seamlessly. Thank you very much. The Chair : Thank you. We're just going to pause for one moment. We're going to go in camera. I'm sorry, before we do that, Mrs. Davidson. Mrs. Patricia Davidson (Sarnia—Lambton, CPC) : Thank you, Madam Chair. Before we do that, I'd like to add my congratulations to the Hon. Mr. Bains. I think it is wonderful that he has brought forth a motion and a bill that we can support in this fashion. I think it's very important, and I'm glad we were able to do that. Hon. Navdeep Bains : Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

The Chair : Yes, thank you so much, Mr. Bains. The committee appreciates your work very much. We will suspend for one minute. We're going to go in camera for committee business. [ Proceedings continue in camera ]