Thank you very much, Minister, for being here.
You've had a number of questions about national pharmacare, and I just want to say that it's certainly one of my passions. For me it's quite simple. No Canadian should be denied access to necessary prescription medicines because they can't afford them. We need to find a solution to that.
One of the reasons I entered the political sphere was to fight for this. As a member of this committee, I introduced this as a study topic to the committee back when we first started, and I was absolutely delighted that it was the unanimous decision of all the committee members to undertake this study. No member actually came forward with a motion. I was really honoured and delighted to see that happen.
I just want to emphasize the importance of pharmacare. I know Dr. Hoskins is studying the implementation of national pharmacare. Our study talks about universal pharmacare. To me, these are the same words describing a system of universal single-payer coverage for all Canadians.
There is a lot of pressure from insurance companies and drug companies. They're more interested in different solutions, like regulating the industry to ensure that all Canadians are covered. It leaves many of the fundamental weaknesses of the system in place.
Can you comment a bit more along the lines of Mr. Davies' questions around whether you really see a situation where we would just regulate that sector, or whether you really feel we are looking at implementing a national or universal pharmacare system?