Mr. Speaker, this is a great place because you can get rhetoric and fiction or you can listen to parliamentary secretaries and get fact and reality.
I am pleased to have the opportunity to give this House the government's plans with respect to a national approach to pharmacare.
One of the recommendations of the national forum on health was the expansion of medicare to include other medically necessary services such as home care and drugs. The federal government intends to pursue the examination of these future directions recommended by the national forum.
On drugs, for example, we will develop a national plan, a timetable and a fiscal framework for providing Canadians with better access to medically necessary drugs.
On pharmacare, the federal government recognizes that as a country we can do better with how we deal with prescription drugs in the health care system and with respect to the coverage that is provided; in other words, with compliance and prescription. We can do better with respect to integrating our health care system and in allocating resources among drug therapy, hospital therapy and medical care.
Drugs have become a medically necessary component of health care and it is time for us to start talking about how we are going to ensure that all Canadians have access to this care.
But the dialogue has just begun. The federal government has no ready made national pharmacare scheme secretly prepared in Ottawa. Canada's health care system is a partnership. The federal government is counting on working fully with the provinces and the territories to explore the possibility of pharmacare.
As part of the new health transition fund, $150 million over three years announced in the last budget, the Minister of Health will be co-hosting a national conference on pharmacare with the minister of health for Saskatchewan. This will be an important step in our discussions on a national approach to pharmacare.
The federal government wants to do what it can to promote optimal drug therapy for all Canadians and a national approach to pharmacare will make a significant contribution.