Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for the question and for underlining the challenges that all families in Canada are facing in this flu season.

I don’t need to remind the honourable senators or Canadians of the steps that they can take to protect themselves, whether masking, covering their nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, staying home when sick and washing their hands.

The Government of Canada continues to work with the provinces and territories to address the challenges they are facing in the funding, management and organization of their health care services. For its part, the Government of Canada has taken significant steps by establishing the Coalition for Action for Health Workers to inform immediate and long-term solutions to address these challenges, including challenges in the workforce; introducing measures to facilitate the entry of foreign national physicians as permanent residents; and announcing a Chief Nursing Officer for Canada to provide strategic advice from a nursing perspective to Health Canada on priority, policy and program areas.

The government’s priority remains to do its part to work with provinces and territories and, as the Minister of Health has said on previous occasions, invite the provinces and territories and the leaders of those provinces and territories to allow the Ministers of Health to work with the Minister of Health of Canada to find durable solutions for the challenges that face us all.