Mr. Chair, one of the things that pharmacists have been trying to do over the past several years is to advocate with their provincial governments to increase the scope of practice, increase the service they can provide to patients. In pretty much every jurisdiction in this country, pharmacists now can do more than they could even five years ago. The primary reason we've advocated for that, and I might add we've done so quite successfully, is to broaden the ability of the pharmacist to interact with the patient to ensure better drug safety.
For example, one of the new services that pharmacists can now provide that they couldn't a couple of years ago is a comprehensive medication management review, whereby a pharmacist can sit down with a patient, review the medication history of that patient, review what they are and are not taking, and come up with a care plan. That service has only been in place for several years.
Again, it's not just something that pharmacists are talking about from a legislative standpoint, but in their day-to-day interactions with patients. Safety is paramount. It is priority number one, and we are trying to provide ourselves and pharmacists with the tools to ensure better drug safety for that patient.