Public Accounts committee  Absolutely.

Public Accounts committee  And this is an issue, because most of the medical community did not want to be placed in the position—

Public Accounts committee  In one case, we did file a complaint with the College of Physicians and Surgeons against the individual whom we thought was prescribing a lot. But the issue is that many doctors are not authorizing it. For people who want it, because the courts have said they must have reasonable access to marijuana, some doctors are more willing to provide the authorization forms than other doctors.

Public Accounts committee  I don't want to give anyone any history lessons, but I want to remind you that the Canada Health Act excludes military persons from the Canadian health care system. When a member of the military leaves the Canadian Forces and returns to civilian life, at that point, the provinces are responsible for their health care.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, sir. As was mentioned, when I arrived at the department 18 months ago, there was no pharmacist. I saw that as a gap to the good functioning of the formulary review committee. We hired a very experienced pharmacist from the Canadian Forces and started right away to put in some procedures to tighten the decision-making that was identified by the Auditor General.

Public Accounts committee  I think we gave those deadlines, because although we do have a new national pharmacist and we are hiring staff, implementing new procedures takes time. I don't think we're going to wait until that date to get things done. Things are under way, and we've given ourselves until next May to complete them, knowing that implementing change can take time to organize, especially when I have just the one pharmacist working with new staff who have been hired to support the drug formulary.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's an administrative, legal thing. I don't think my medical expertise in there has anything to do with that.

Veterans Affairs committee  No. They don't have to go one, two, three. It's just that in medical terms, it's not considered first-line treatment.

Veterans Affairs committee  They come to us from several.... They can come to us directly from the CF, so doctor to doctor; and they can come to us from our case managers, who say, “We have a client here whom we think...”, etc., and they come to us directly.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's the first line.

Veterans Affairs committee  Go Riders.

Veterans Affairs committee  We have one out west.

Veterans Affairs committee  We have them in Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver. I like Saskatchewan. My partner is from Humboldt, Saskatchewan. I know Saskatchewan. When the clinics were established, they were established where there are big bases such as Valcartier and Edmonton. We collocated close to the forces clinics so that we could catch the people coming out.

Veterans Affairs committee  But where we are, we need to expand there, because they already have critical mass there and expertise, and they're well under way. That was my...it was about expanding the clinics in size, not in numbers.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.