Thanks very much for that.
Through you, Chair, I have a couple of follow-up questions related to that.
Interestingly enough, if we're going to ask the CDA to do things that the pCPA is already doing, to me that would be redundant. If we're going to ask them to do things similar to what CADTH is already doing, why would we want to spell that out? I guess that's another part of it. I would consider this a national bulk purchasing strategy, given the fact that they negotiate one price for medications for all public plans, if I'm not mistaken. If I am, please correct me.
I think the final thing—maybe I'll save it for later, but I'll give you some food for thought—is on budgets for CADTH and the CDA, and understanding that there is a cost associated with the stand-up of a new agency that should be talked about in here. I won't ask you that now, but I'd like to give you a heads-up. Perhaps you have the information with you. Perhaps you don't. If you don't, we'd love to hear that at some point.
Obviously, if we're negotiating one price for medications such as metformin on public plans, that would be, in my mind—and I believe in the minds of Canadians—a national bulk purchasing strategy, even though, as you mentioned, you could certainly add on other agencies, such as hospitals. There's no issue with that, although they benefit, certainly, from similar prices, as they do elsewhere. If the Canadian drug agency is taking over for CADTH and they already do these things, why would we need to spell that out? This would be a continuation of that work.