In keeping with much of what Dr. Hanley said, I support the section as presently worded. I don't think it needs to be amended.
I certainly do not think the purpose of this section is to establish a federal bureaucracy to decide on what is and isn't the appropriate prescribing of medications and pharmaceutical products. That kind of decision or judgment is rightly left to institutions like the college of physicians and surgeons of the individual provinces, medical advisory committees, chiefs of staff and chiefs of department. Again, I don't see this as an attempt to encroach on that jurisdiction or make those kinds of decisions, which are appropriately left to doctors. There is appropriate oversight within the medical community.
Again, as Dr. Hanley suggested, these are things for a minister to consider when working towards implementing national universal pharmacare. Certainly, the minister and the whole system would want to consider what is and isn't an appropriate use of medications when setting up such a system, along with safety.
I would put the emphasis on sustainability. Those of us who have been practising medicine for a long time all learned, when we were clerks and interns, that we should always take the cheaper option when available. Similarly, in setting up a national pharmacare system, if there's a choice between drug A and drug B, and both of them work just as well, we want to be able to use the cheaper medication when it has equal outcomes, in order to make a more affordable system—which I think all Canadians want, as we don't want to be paying all our money in taxes.
Again, although I understand where the concern is coming from in the Conservative party, I do not see that as the intention of this clause.
Thanks.