Thank you for inviting the Prince Edward Island Health Coalition to participate in this hearing.
Our coalition of community and labour groups has been in existence since 1979 and sees huge problems with trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
First, it is very important that Canadians have access to medical drugs when they need them, but currently Canada's pharmaceuticals are the second most expensive in the world, second only to the United States. Canada needs a publicly funded prescription drug plan accessible to all Canadians. It would save Canada close to $11 billion annually, and $45 million for Prince Edward Island.
The intellectual property chapter of the TPP could shadow this by preventing Canada from buying bulk drugs at a greatly reduced price. By extending patents, the TPP would increase drug costs by at least 5%, or $636 million annually. CETA would add another 6.2% to 12.9%, or $850 million to $1.6 billion.
For this province, the CETA costs would increase from $3.8 million to $6 million by 2023, at the same time that 23% of Canadians cannot afford medications as prescribed.
Furthermore, the availability of generic drugs about to enter the market would be delayed by five years. It is reasonable to expect that if both agreements are ratified, those costs would be cumulative.
Ninety-one per cent of Canadians want a publicly funded prescription drug plan with equal access for all. We fear that the TPP and CETA could prevent this and increase costs way beyond the reach of those who are already struggling.
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade told us that the federal government would compensate the provinces for some of the increased costs. The same was said about supply management. Why take perfectly good and workable programs that serve Canadians well, destroy them with trade agreements, and then say, “We will compensate them”? It makes no sense. What kind of nation building is this?
Second, our coalition believes there is inadequate protection in the TPP and CETA for our public medicare system. Health care should not be part of trade agreements. It is not a tradeable good nor a profit-making commodity. Provisions in both the TPP and CETA fail to protect health care from the investor-state clauses.
Under the TPP, Canada will be vulnerable to court challenges from large corporations, if they think we are giving preference to Canadian interests. This is already happening with Eli Lilly on patent extensions here, and with the Philip Morris tobacco company against Australia's plain packaging of cigarettes.
The investor-state dispute settlement chapter could seriously limit delivery of Canada's health care and cause a chill effect to policy-makers.
Roy Romanow stated that Canada's public system of health care belongs to the people of Canada. It is the people's program, paid for by our taxes, and it is based on Canadian values of care for each other. We cherish the fact that any Canadian is entitled to free medical care in the doctor's office and in the hospital. We desire the same for people needing medication. We need to expand and improve medicare, not hand it over to challenges and barriers of the free market corporate agenda.
Third, the TPP would pressure Canada to speed up approval of drugs, increasing the 3% to 4% of new drugs that have to be withdrawn yearly because of safety concerns.
Fourth, the TPP would end supply management and open our borders to more milk products from the U.S.A. In Canada, we already fought and won the battle over the rBST hormone in milk. Under the TPP, it would not be traceable or labelled. Canadians don't want this hormone imposed on us.
Taking supply management from farmers would lower our current standard. The TPP is mainly a financial agreement protecting multinational investments and intellectual property. It's not about safeguarding health care. Our trade balance is better with nations with which we have no trade agreement. Canada's health care is too important to be part of the TPP and its negotiating process. The values and principles of our public system of health care leave no room for corporate control. Health care is not a business, and introducing privatization into the system goes against the common good of all Canadians.