Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Where do I start, or where do I continue?
You know, what's frustrating for me is that Canadians out there are struggling. There is no two ways about it. Whether on dental care or affordable prescriptions and medications, I think we need to do better.
The challenge I have is that this government is putting forth a piece of legislation that says there's universal dental care, and there isn't. Now they're coming out with a piece of legislation that they're billing as universal pharmacare, which it isn't, so Canadians are being lied to. This is a four-page document that has serious ramifications nationally. There's no definition of “single payer” or “first dollar”, so do we even know what this bill or pamphlet is?
The minister could not answer simple questions, such as how many Canadians are without doctors. He could not answer the question of what's going to happen to the 90% of Canadians who do have a benefit plan for medications, or the at least 85%. What's going to happen with those plans? Who's going to pay for those plans?
I know that I met personally with the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association. They raised serious questions. They also raised the fact that nobody's talking to them. Nobody's talking to the insurers about what they're going to do. What about organizations and companies that have chambers of commerce that have plans for their memberships and for their employees? What are these companies and these groups to do?
As far as I can tell, none of this has been worked out. However, I guess—as it is with this government—it's just like the cheque's in the mail. “Wait and see. We'll figure it out. Just get it to committee. You'll work on it; amendments will be passed, and we'll make it better.” Well, it never happens.
You know, another bit of troubling information was that the minister admitted that none of the provinces has asked for this. To our Bloc colleague, was Quebec even consulted?
As I mentioned, we heard from witnesses who expressed deep concern that Canadians would lose their current private plans.
We have a lengthy and complicated drug approval process, which adds to the issue of the cost of our drugs and prescriptions in our country. Wouldn't it be better for our government, the coalition and all of us at this table to work to find a way to make drugs more affordable for all Canadians rather than having a band-aid solution that looks at...?
Again, you're calling it a national pharmacare program, but you're really dealing with just two types of medications. We have what's being billed as a public pharmacare plan or a national pharmacare plan. They always say to wait and see what this is going to look like.
You have millions and millions of Canadians—85%—who have a plan already in place. What is it going to look like for them? What is it going to look like for those who don't have a plan?
All we've done at this point is create false hope. As Dr. Ellis has mentioned, you have Canadians, constituents, who are going into pharmacies, believing they now have a pharmacare plan. We do not have a pharmacare plan, just like we do not have a dental plan.
My point is that if you look at the CPC amendments that have been put forth, they are reasonable amendments. They are non-partisan for the most part, for a change, I guess. We've just taken a common-sense approach to this.
I raised my hand at the earliest part of Dr. Ellis' intervention because we have three physicians on this committee. I respect them for what they do, or what they did, and the sacrifices they make within our communities for the people they serve. I have been on this committee for over a year now, and some of the best testimony.... I think I've said this. I'm on record as having said this. We could close the doors and just listen to the experiences that our three colleagues have had. I believe we would probably get more common sense out of them than we do out of the front benches of the government.
It's deeply frustrating for me when we.... All I have to say is that it's going to be a long five hours if this is the way it's going to go. It's already been an hour and a bit, and we're only on one clause.
Further to that, Mr. Naqvi, to publicly tell a colleague to go and amuse or pleasure himself—whatever words you used—in private is not very parliamentary. You can look at me when I'm talking to you. I think you owe our colleague an apology, because that was very unparliamentary. If I were the chair, I would have made you apologize.
With that, I'll end.