Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Pickering—Ajax—Uxbridge.
When I first came to the House of Commons in 1988, some four campaigns ago, I used to believe that the biggest challenge we had in the House of Commons was pushing the main financial institutions of the country to do more for small business. I stand here today to say a bigger issue is the challenge that we have as parliamentarians to deal with the most profitable companies in the world, the pharmaceutical drug manufacturers.
We on this side of the House have made several commitments over several campaigns to deal with the issue in the interests of consumers, of research and of having a generic drug system. I stand here today saddened that we have not been able to meet all our objectives.
We on this side of the House are blessed with having a member of parliament who has essentially devoted a great portion of his parliamentary career to dealing with the technicalities, the specifics and the development of a proper policy in the particular area of pharmaceuticals.
I support everything that my colleague from Pickering—Ajax—Uxbridge has said and I defer the balance of our 10 minutes to him.