Thanks for that.
Through you, Chair, it's interesting. You talk about appropriate use, and I certainly think that at some point, we'll come to that, and it would be a shame if, for this pamphlet that's being rammed through, we couldn't get to that amendment related to appropriate use specifically and debate it. On behalf of my physician colleagues, I would certainly suggest that the last thing we need is another government agency telling independent practitioners, who've been educated by our great country, which drugs to use in certain situations. To me, that seems overly draconian and a significant violation of the ability to prescribe medications.
In the system that currently exists, a prescription does not even need to have an indication on it. Therefore, having a government agency begin to encroach on the independent nature of the practice of medicine seems like significantly burdensome and troublesome government overreach. Again, it's about the vagueness of the wording that exists.
I wish I could sit here and say that I'll take the government at their word that there will not be that significant overreach and interference with respect to the independent practice of medicine. However, I don't believe that to be true, so when I look at the next several paragraphs, these are going to be incredibly troublesome, again given the potential for government meddling in independent practice. Government interference is something that I can only hope will not come to fruition, and it's certainly something that I know my Conservative colleagues and I will be quite happy to fight against.
We know that many medications are used in an off-label fashion, which concerns me significantly. Not only this bill—and I'll mention this for only a second, Chair, so that Mr. Julian doesn't lose his mind over it—but also the Budget Implementation Act that exists now talks about a significant increase in ministerial powers with the ability to limit things like off-label use, when we know that every single pediatric medication that is out there, with perhaps the exception of antibiotics, is used in an off-label fashion because there are very few studies done on pediatric patients to give a specific indication.
To me, the appropriate use clause that exists in this pharmacare pamphlet indicates significant bureaucratic government overreach and interference with respect to the independent practice of medicine.
Certainly we've seen it. I've experienced it before in medical practice, when people who have not even examined a particular patient will want to argue with the physician about the diagnosis. From afar, from a referee's chair at a tennis match, they would like to say, “Hey, this is not correct. That's not the diagnosis. It's not what should be happening”, etc., when oftentimes somebody has had a significant and long-term relationship with a patient, including multiple medical trials and multiple consultations for a diagnosis.
Looking further down the road, I'll be happy to repeat these comments when that time comes, but I want to get them on the record, because it's very likely we will not get to those amendments, and they will be rammed through on a vote without any significant consideration by this committee, much in the way the rest of this bill has been, which, I will say on behalf of Canadians, is a travesty.
Chair, if there are no other ideas, I'm certainly happy to cede the floor and move on to a vote with respect to this particular amendment.