The benefits you talk about are quite staggering for the investment. In fact, you say that to bring first nations children up to the poverty line it would cost $580 million, or 11% of the budget of the department, which presumably isn't a lot of money when you consider the enormous amount of money that's being spent.
I appreciated the research very much. Thank you for bringing it to us.
My next question is for Mr. Adams.
The seventh recommendation in your work refers to the need that I know has been identified in the past, for a program for pharmaceuticals in Canada. It's a program that, as you say, is in consultation with the provinces and others. It would be a program to establish a comprehensive prescription drug coverage program.
Again, I was struck by your research. You cite from Ipsos Reid, which showed that one in five households doesn't have supplemental insurance coverage for prescription drugs. It's 20% of the population that has to find the money and often can't do so.
Then you said that this means many people are unable to manage treatable conditions and end up in the hospital, and there's an additional cost as a result of that.
Has the CMA done any costing of such a program? Have you envisaged how it might work and how much it might cost for such a program?