It strikes me after listening to all this that the very easiest way to do this constitutionally is to just expand the Canada Health Act, which already provides for universal, free, publicly administered services.
The example that I think of is that if I cut my finger, I go to a doctor. I walk in. The doctor looks at me. He treats me by sewing up my finger. I walk out of there. I never see a bill. The bill gets paid. It's done.
If I went into the doctor and got diagnosed and the treatment was not stitches but a pill, he would write a prescription. I go to the pharmacy. I pass the prescription. I walk out of there with my pills. I never see the bill.
Can we not just expand the Canada Health Act on exactly the same constitutional basis, on exactly the same principles by simply expanding the medical services to a different kind of treatment, which is pharmaceutical treatment as opposed to surgical or some other intervention?