It depends on the province. Alberta is the most advanced. They have something called additional prescribing authority, and the pharmacists can start new drugs and stop. It has to be within a collaborative practice model. The community pharmacist has to communicate with the family doctor, because they have to know of any changes. You can't just go and do these things and not tell anybody. If you have electronic health records, it certainly enables that kind of communication in a better way.
A lot of times it's very simple things, like a prescription for amox antibiotic suspension and the mother says her child won't swallow that. The pharmacist can change it to two tabs: very simple, practical things. Or somebody can't get in for the refills for their hypertension medication because their doctor's away, so the pharmacist can extend those refills, check the patient's blood pressure while they're in the pharmacy, and make sure things are okay.
Awareness will increase with time. We would like the awareness to be much greater, of course, and we're working toward that.