Mr. Chair, in response to his question, I urge Mr. Van Bynen to read page 3 of the Research Canada paper on government investment matters. It states:
We believe that if we do not get this right they may threaten to undermine the government’s historic investments in research and innovation, constrain an increasingly vibrant health research and innovation ecosystem and market for high-quality jobs, and will ultimately restrict patient access to lifechanging treatments.
It is not the industry saying this, it's the people doing basic research. Somehow, there has to be a compromise. To get it right, those researchers first recommend delaying the implementation date of July 1. Second, a roundtable should be established to bring partners together to find common ground for the rest of the implementation process.
For example, they could decide to delay implementation and act on the recommendations from the papers, which, at the moment, show a consensus. They recommend reviewing the reference basket of countries and then sitting down with all the stakeholders, whether it's representatives from patient organizations, the research community, life sciences, the Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux, INESSS, which is doing important work, the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health, CADTH, the American Pharmacists Association, and obviously the PMPRB. They all want to discuss and really consult this time. We would also have representatives from the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries at that table.
Who would be against doing it that way? Wouldn't that be the way to go right now, faced with this mess, these distortions, these relationships and this jumping to conclusions? Do you really believe that they are going to get results if they don't do it like I just suggested to you, using an approach that's in line with Research Canada's?
Mr. Lévesque, would you be willing to sit at such a roundtable? Is that a solution, in your opinion?