Thank you.
Clearly, the federal government would have to have a long and thoughtful conversation with the provinces and territories on the direction of drug costs. Certainly I'm not in the business of off-loading expenses to provinces and territories that are not appropriate. Having said that, as I said, we've already undertaken some important measures. I can tell you the provinces were delighted when we decided to join the pan-Canadian pharmaceutical alliance, which will effectively decrease costs for all jurisdictions across the country that participate in that alliance.
Obviously we're not in the position of implementing pharmacare at this time. Mr. Davies already pointed out his support for pharmacare. I think the other thing I would emphasize to you is that one of the reasons I'm interested in making sure drugs are affordable and accessible to Canadians is that there is considerable evidence, particularly with certain medications, that we would save money in the long run if we were to make sure that Canadians had access to drugs. I'm happy to give you, and I know Dr. Eyolfson would similarly be happy to give you examples of patients who could not access insulin or blood pressure medications and who ended up having end-stage heart and kidney failure, which in the end cost the health care system thousands of dollars. If we had been able to make sure that those people had access to the medications they needed when they needed them, it would have saved huge money down the road.
There is no question that, while it sounds as if it might be expensive and that's one of the reasons why we're not in the position where we're about to implement pharmacare, there are public drug plans across this country for people who can't afford their medication. That's a good thing. But we still need to make sure all Canadians can access the medicine they need, and that's what we're working toward.