Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I want to thank the guests today.
You've really opened my eyes on a few of these issues, particularly that three million Canadians suffer with these conditions. It certainly doesn't sound rare. I guess individually it's rare, but it's a significant part of our population.
I like what's been said around the table—I think Peter brought it up first—about the federal challenges on the regulatory issues.
We talked about drugs in different provinces and how it seems to be a patchwork type of thing.
In a previous parliament, one of our Liberal colleagues, Mr. Bell, had a motion. I think Madam Bennett would probably know. Some of the things we're talking about, considering internationally accepted standards and how Health Canada's work on a progressive licensing framework could provide appropriate support for the design of clinical trials for small numbers.... My understanding is that Health Canada started an initiative and began meeting with the provinces. Of course, the motion was dissolved when Parliament was dissolved, but my understanding is that the work continues.
However, I wanted to perhaps get Madam Coleman and Madam Wong-Rieger to comment. This is obviously something you've probably followed. My understanding is that some of the provinces have lost interest as well. Could you tell us about that?
Madam Wong-Rieger, you mentioned that we're close and some of the work has been done. You talked about modernizing the regulatory framework and harmonizing the regulatory framework. Where did the process end? What did you learn from it? What happened to it? Could you bring us up to date?
As Madam Bennett said, we should work on seeing what we can do to get things done. What happened there?