Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to all our witnesses for being here today. As we navigate through the troubled waters of the third wave, we hope that you and your families continue to stay safe and healthy.
I'd like to start with Dr. Ahmed.
You have raised very important testimony, as have all the witnesses. Your testimony, in terms of critical drugs, is fundamentally important.
There is another element, though, of course and that is access to medication. As you know, there are about 10 million Canadians who have no drug plan, no medication plan, so that access to critical drugs falls short because we don't have public universal pharmacare. The government did make a commitment back in 2019 that they would bring that into place, but unfortunately, tragically in this bill the government has abandoned its commitments.
How important is it to have in place public universal pharmacare so that not only are critical drugs available but Canadians can actually access them regardless of their ability to pay?