Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to turn to Mr. Yussuff for a question.
I'd like to thank you for being such a strong advocate for public universal pharmacare. As well as the Canadian Labour Congress, we've had labour activists across the country who have really been fighting for public universal pharmacare. Particularly with this pandemic and the number of people who've lost their jobs, we're seeing an increasing number of people who have no medication plan at all. That's why the Canada pharmacare act that was brought forward in February—and endorsed by the CLC, as you know—was so important. Government voted that down. That would have structured pharmacare on the same basis as our universal health care.
The Hoskins report called for funding this year to negotiate with the provinces to set things in motion. There was no new funding available for pharmacare at all in this budget. Many people are saying that this is abandoning pharmacare and that pharmacare and child care could have been discussed and negotiated with the provinces together.
Could you outline the importance of having public universal pharmacare for workers and for the millions of Canadians who have no medication plan and who struggle to pay for their medication, particularly in a pandemic?