When it comes to jurisdiction, pharmaceuticals are a bit of a problem because health care establishment is a provincial jurisdiction. When it comes to drugs, there's nothing in the Constitution, except that legal substances or illegal substances are to be decided by the federal government. It is the role of Health Canada to approve new medications. When it comes to pricing of the drugs as well, it's with intellectual property, the patent system, which is also with the federal government. So like it or not, the federal government already has two feet in the jurisdiction of pharmaceuticals. But yes, absolutely, in terms of moving forward, we need to have the collaboration of the provinces. Right now we have some great steps with the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance, basically a creation of the provinces, wanting to move forward. Right now there's an open hand, basically, from the provinces, and I think the context is just great to build this collaboration to move forward with the provinces.
On April 18th, 2016. See this statement in context.