Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate my friend from Vancouver East for moving the motion and encouraging us all to address this question. All of us have been very troubled by it and have been raising it as an issue. My colleague from Vancouver Centre will be participating in the debate. We are all very concerned about it.
I would like to ask the hon. member the following. I still did not hear in her speech what she thinks are the actual causes of this shortage. There is obviously a huge market for a variety of products being produced by a variety of companies.
Is it that the companies do not feel they are getting sufficient payment for those products? Is it that they feel they can make more money by selling other products? If that is the case, would the member tell us, apart from a task force, and here I think we all recognize that something is required to get the discussion going, what she would envisage as a solution to ensure that the drugs, the painkillers and the supplies required by hospitals and doctors, will in fact be provided by the companies in question?