Let's just look not only at Nova Scotia but in the Atlantic region and right across the country. As Ms. Payne noted, the Atlantic region is a resource-based economy. We depend on the fishery. We depend on the forestry sector and those industries.
People should not have to make a decision of whether to buy drugs or food and put their health at peril. The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions have been calling for a pharmacare strategy for many years. It would have a negative impact if drug costs in this region escalate. We have seasonal workers in the Atlantic region and this population.... It just makes it more difficult for people to have to decide whether they can afford drugs. We know, and the studies have proven, that the cost of drugs and the production of generic drugs will go through the roof, and the production of generic drugs with the patents and everything will be very limited or blocked in its entirety.
It will have a devastating effect on this region, and I have no doubt right across the country.