Madam Speaker, I questioned the Minister of Health on October 1 with regard to the promise on pharmacare in the Liberal red book.
In the question to the Minister of Health I alluded to the election campaign and the promise to introduce a pharmacare program for all Canadians. I proceeded to quote from the red book two and I will quote now from page 75 of the Liberal election platform:
We will work with our provincial partners to ensure that all Canadians have access to medically necessary drugs within the public health care system. The federal government has a role to play in bringing together provincial and territorial partners and a range of other interests to develop a national plan and timetable for introducing prescription drugs into the medicare system.
I guess the only response the minister could make was that he would consult with his provincial counterparts. That is not good enough. I contend it was an election promise simply for the purpose of getting elected. The minister and the Liberal government had no idea of how to implement such a program. I have lots of evidence to back me up on this, that it was nothing more than election rhetoric. The cost of doing so is astronomical, is well beyond the present government's ability to pay.
Presently in Canada we spend $10.8 billion annually on drugs. Out of that $10.8 billion about $5 billion is for prescription drugs. So the question is, how will the government come up with $5 billion, knowing full well that there are financial restraints on the government.
It did not stop there. When the present minister was first appointed to cabinet in his new role as health minister, I guess he could not resist the idea of going back at it. I quote from the Ottawa Citizen of June 12 which states: “Canada's new health minister promised yesterday to preserve medicare and perhaps even expand it with universal pharmacare and home care programs”. That was long before he had the opportunity to realize what he had said and what he would have to do, again because of the cost.
The Minister of Health has found out and he comes back to it in every single answer in the House with regard to the pharmacare program that he has to consult with the provinces. Indeed he would have to consult with the provinces because there is a hodge-podge of programs across this country provincially with regard to pharmacare and none of them are the same. In other words we have 10 provinces and every one of them has a different policy with regard to pharmacare. Some provinces have a very good system of pharmacare for seniors and some provinces do not. Some provinces have a pharmacare program for people below a certain level of income.
The point I am making is that the minister and the government had no idea what they were promising in 1997 with regard to the pharmacare program.