—it will have an impact in terms of our country's ability to actually educate people in ways that will prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS.
I think it might be useful to move some of your money from your war on drugs to a war on drug safety and drug prices, and I mean legal drugs. This is one of the biggest concerns facing Canadians right now—the price of drugs going up and up. There's been an increase in terms of household spending on prescription drugs over the last decade of about 70%. Compare that to food and housing and other basic needs, which is more like 11%. We know that overall this country is spending $21 billion on drugs, and it's growing 12% a year. I want to know what you are doing to bring down the price of drugs and to make it affordable for Canada.
Number one, I'd like to know what you have done to effect implementation of the federal-provincial agreement on a national pharmaceuticals strategy signed in, I believe, 2004.
Number two, what are you doing about your department's recommendations and another department's recommendations, Industry Canada, to help provide doctors with information about cheaper versions and putting in place a mechanism so that doctors can then prescribe based on, yes, quality, but also on when drugs are similar and there's a cheaper version to prescribe the cheaper one?
Number three, what are we doing about the kickbacks in terms of the generic drug industry to pharmacies and why that's not being passed on to consumers?
Number four, what are you doing about evergreening amongst large pharmaceutical companies, and are you prepared to act finally on some of the insidious patent protection beyond even the 20 years through notices of compliance with conditions?