Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, everyone.
There's a bit of a theme here, obviously, with the CMA, CNA, CPA and CCS in terms of health care. One of the things we're dealing with in our country is that there are now more people over age 65 than there are people under the age of 15. The majority of the health care costs that we incur are incurred at points of time in our lives, and that usually happens near end of life, unless we're getting treatment for cancer or some other illness. It's really important that we come up with strategies to make sure our system is efficient and make sure that people are covered.
To the pharmacists, you've used a term that I actually quite like, called a “close the gap” approach to pharmacare. Whereas approximately 80%, or thereabouts, of Canadians have coverage when they need a prescription drug, and my family does, fortunately, as we have two young children so it's very important, some Canadians don't and that “some” number is actually quite large.
I wonder if you could just elaborate on this catastrophic drug coverage plan, knowing in the basis that, because we are a federation of provinces, each province is different. Quebec has a great model, a great formulary model in place, but I do want to hear more on the “close the gap” approach to pharmacare.