Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chair, deputy chairs, ladies and gentlemen of the committee, thank you for this invitation to appear to report on the work that has been done, at your request, to estimate the cost of creating and administering a national pharmacare program.
Preliminary terms of reference have been sent in advance to your committee, and we will be pleased to answer your questions if you need some clarification about the required resources, the timeline, or the methodology.
I would like to mention that to develop those terms of reference, my colleagues Carleigh and Jason have met and had discussions with many of the stakeholders mentioned in your motion. Mark and Carleigh have negotiated some potential agreements that will be required for obtaining appropriate data and information, and in the terms of reference you may note that the project will require two full-time analysts over an expected six-month period and that the total cost of data from various sources will exceed $100,000.
Although such an amount could be planned in the Office of the PBO's budget, it is worth noting that I do not have the signing authority for any amount exceeding that threshold of $100,000. In those circumstances, the Library of Parliament has to submit a request to the Speakers of the Senate and the House of Commons for their approval in principle to enter into such a procurement process. Of course, I do not know what the outcome of their decision might be, but I will have to take it into consideration for the future of this project.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll stop here. We will be happy to answer all the questions you may have.