Again, that is why we're putting in place an advisory council. As I've said, they can really build on the work this committee has done, in order to provide us with information with on an implementation model.
We also have to recognize that the Government of Canada has taken some steps to reduce the price of drugs within this country. If I look at the investments that have been made in budget 2017, we have invested over $140 million over five years to provide Health Canada agencies with the tools they need to reduce the price of drugs. We've also joined provinces and territories, as members of the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance, in which we have been able to bulk purchase drugs together to lower the price. As a result, over the past year, jointly we've saved approximately $1.3 billion—the provinces, territories, and federal government together—so we are taking some steps to make sure that the prices of drugs certainly come down. Also, we're in the process of modernizing the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board.
Once again, we are doing some work before we look at a national pharmacare program, because we certainly want to make sure that it will be affordable, but our priority is also to make sure that drugs are affordable and accessible to all Canadians. That is truly why we are moving forward and have taken the steps we did, but are also now looking forward to the work to be done by the advisory council.
With respect to the advisory council, we're just in the process of finalizing the membership of the council members. I'm looking forward to being able to make those announcements in the very near future. To look at the complement of the membership, we really want to make sure that we have individuals from different backgrounds to provide us with the proper information and advice we need for implementation.