This is quite funny. It's really nice, actually, to get some questions for a change, because it has been pretty quiet in the House of late.
In terms of the response to the drug, I said to the industry this spring that I would regulate if necessary, but you don't approach everything with an iron fist. You go forward and you try to work through the process of getting the people and the parties involved to resolve the matter.
If I'm not satisfied and if we have to regulate, then that's always an option, but you don't go from a problem to regulation; you work through the process of identifying where the problem is occurring. That's exactly what we're doing.
I'm very pleased with the response from the industry. For the very first time in this country, the industry has come together to resolve a matter, and we should be proud of that as Canadians, in that we're moving forward and working with the partners that are involved and that are an integral part of the health care system delivery.
On the second point, on the issue of the national pharmaceutical plan, I was the health minister for Nunavut when that agreement was struck. I was also finance minister when health transfers were cut. In terms of the committee that was established, the problem with coming up with a national plan is that jurisdictions all have to agree on what that plan is. If you don't have an agreement, you can't have a plan, so it fell apart.
Jurisdictions themselves have worked to determine how they can better manage their pharmaceutical programs. And they have. They've done great work in terms of dealing with catastrophic drugs. The transfers to the jurisdictions continue to grow every year, and each jurisdiction will make the determination of how they will spend that money based on their population's health care needs.
Our role here is to support them and work with them, which we've done. On this recent issue on drug shortages, I'm again going to sit down with the provincial and territorial ministers on Friday and discuss how we can move forward in ensuring that it doesn't occur in Canada.
Thank you.