Let's be very clear: The reason our colleague from the NDP is voting no is because he's been told by his coalition that this is the way they want it. This is the way that he is to vote with respect to any CPC amendment. It's the same old, same old that we hear time and again when it comes to legislation that we've been told time and again in the House...
The government tells you, “Just let it get to committee, and we'll work in good faith. Amendments will be taken in, and we'll work with great collaboration with all parties to get this bill right.” Look where we are today with a piece of legislation that really isn't... It's being called pharmacare. It really isn't pharmacare.
This is the line that we're talking about, so that Canadians are fully aware of what we're talking about here. It is page 3, subclause 4(a), and the last sentence reads “in a manner that is more consistent across Canada.” What is being proposed is “that is more consistent across Canada, in order to avoid a patchwork of care”.
The whole argument that we hear from our colleagues down the way is that there are millions of Canadians who do not have... There are some who do have care. They have programs and access to medications. There are some Canadians who don't. For me, that would be a patchwork of care that we're experiencing and that Canadians are experiencing. If you want to believe what our colleagues are saying, the government is trying... Bill C-64 is all about making sure we're eliminating the patchwork of care. Why not put that in the bill? It's no different from what we said earlier on.
We talk about the heart medication. We have cardiac patients and constituents who have cardiac issues. Our colleague from the NDP has brought up a number of times that his constituent faces $1,000 per month because of the patchwork of care that we have in our country, yet he still didn't negotiate, when he was sitting at the table with his coalition partners, to have cardiac medication in here.
There is another rare disease that was not mentioned here. I don't believe it was mentioned in any of the testimony either. It's ALS, and thousands of Canadians are afflicted with this horrible disease. I remember one of my constituents who was struck down at the age of 28. He was a soldier with our Canadian Armed Forces. “The best of the best”, his commanding officer said. At the age of 28, with his future right in his hands, Deane Gorsline was struck down with ALS. He lived the remainder of his life much like my former employee, Brett Wilson, who passed away last August, nine months after his dad Rick passed away from ALS as well.
After their diagnosis, both Rick Wilson and Deane Gorsline lived the remainder of their days fighting for Canadians who were struck with ALS. They were better people than I am. They turned their attention to ensuring that the next Canadians who would be diagnosed with ALS had access to those drugs that could prolong their lives, in the hope that they could walk back the impacts of that terrible disease.
We don't have a rare disease strategy in this country. When we talk about this national pharmacare plan, that's what our colleagues suggest Bill C-64is, and it does none of this. It doesn't provide greater access for those Canadians who are struggling with rare diseases such as ALS.
I think about that when we're talking about this bill. Due to the size of our country, and in some cases the comparatively small population of Canadians who are afflicted with certain diseases, Canadians struggle to have access. Pharmaceutical companies will not look at Canada in a favourable way to provide access for the small groups of Canadians who are afflicted with such illnesses as ALS. They are forced to lobby and forced to do whatever they can, even though their days are limited before this terrible disease takes over.
It is absolutely horrific to see and watch. I think about cancer patients within our country for whom this bill does nothing in terms of access to more medications and treatments. If it was a true pharmacare bill, we should have noted that. Maybe it would have been brought up. It's disappointing. This CPC-11 is a non-partisan amendment that simply clarifies, or adds to the line, and again, I'll read it out. After “in a manner that is more consistent across Canada”, it simply adds, “in order to avoid a patchwork of care”, which is exactly what we're talking about.
Mr. Julian's got his hand up, so he'll continue his NDP filibuster in the next little bit here, and he'll go on and on about how Conservatives are ragging the puck and filibustering this bill, but at every chance, he's on that speakers list, Mr. Chair, speaking as much as Conservatives members.
With that, Mr. Chair, I will cede the floor so that we can get to the vote on CPC-11, unless Mr. Julian wants to continue his filibuster.