From talking with them, provincial ministers of health seem extremely frustrated that they have a colleague in the federal government who doesn't even want to meet them. They don't even have regular meetings any more, and it's because the federal government will not come to the table with financial resources. They want to cut and run from health care.
We know the commitment has serious financial implications and that we won't expand pharmaceutical coverage without a federal financial contribution. That's why the process has stopped, because it's not a priority of the current government.
The perversion of all of this is that meanwhile the federal government is increasing the drug bill and refusing to share in the cost of paying those bills with the provinces with a federal-provincial agreement on pharmacare.
It's the worst of both worlds: they've violated the agreement to expand access to affordable medicine, and yet they're not prepared to share the costs of the rising drug bills. That's unacceptable. It's poisoning federal-provincial relations in every other health file as well.