Mr. Speaker, last week at our annual meeting, ministers of health from across the country made real progress toward managing drug costs to make sure seniors and other Canadians could have access to the drugs they need at reasonable prices.
Instead of the 14 separate assessments of cost effectiveness after a drug is approved by Health Canada, we have agreed on one single review shared by all governments. We have agreed to look at the whole issue of how drugs are prescribed and used to make sure they are used only in proper cases. We have also agreed to look at bulk purchasing to achieve economies of scale and save money. These are concrete steps making real progress for Canadians.