I was going to give a little statement.
I don't have the actual numbers here, but we know we spend tens of billions of dollars a year on pharmaceuticals in this country. We've heard estimates that a national pharmacare program could save between $4 billion and $11 billion a year. To me, then, to spend $100,000 to collect data that would be useful to the government to have in any event is not only, I think, a bargain, but in fact it's our responsibility to do. You mentioned in your report that this data would be retained by the PBO and would be useful not only to the PBO but to the health department. To know how many Canadians don't have coverage has been a concern raised by my Conservative colleagues. They doubt that we have accurate data on how many Canadians do or do not have coverage. To gather the data on what a national formulary would cost is superb information for the government to have in any event, and it may inform public policy.
My question is this: do you regard gathering this data as being of some utility to the health department or other departments in any other respect?