Precisely what the drug cost modifications would be is a tricky question. It's an unknown at this time, but maybe I can take a step back for the benefit of the committee.
As in the CETA, the TPP includes provisions that extend the term of protection for patents which can have the effect—not always, but it can have the effect—of delaying the entry into the market of generic drugs. When there is a conversation around whether drug costs will go up, just to bring it back to what the root of it is, there is a commitment, which Canada has made in the CETA and which is also made in the TPP, to allow for an extension of patents for innovative drugs for up to two years, under certain conditions related to the time it takes to get the necessary regulatory permissions for marketing that drug. The comment therefore is that if it takes longer for generic drugs to hit the marketplace and generic drugs tend to be less expensive, that is going to raise the drug costs for Canadian provinces, for consumers, for insurance companies, etc.
When the CETA is implemented, there will, I think, be a study of that, and perhaps before; I'm not sure. The minister and her cabinet colleagues are looking into this. But in that assessment, there are many variables that will come in too.
To get to your question, which is what the increase in costs will be to provincial governments or others, such as consumers and insurance companies, there are many variables that go into it that will have to be assessed: what the drug is; how widely it is prescribed; whether there are other alternatives. There are so many things that go into understanding and being able to assess the impacts that this is not a question that can be answered in the abstract.