Mr. Speaker, research can save lives. It can help us discover medicine to treat diseases that we never thought possible. It can help us reduce hospital stays and improve our overall quality of life.
We know that Canada's health care system needs adjustments. There are too few doctors and too many long lineups. The future will see an influx of seniors who will no doubt rely on our health care system, and it is not ready.
One way to help, however, is to support the development of new medicine, but the approval time for the new medicines is too long. The time it takes to review and approve new drug submissions is longer than Health Canada's own targets. Its target is 345 days but it now takes it 717 days. That is almost double. It is also a year longer than it takes the United States.
We are talking about saving and/or improving lives, and our neighbours in the U.S.A. are getting medicine a year before Canadians. They are getting well while Canadians are getting sick. That is not acceptable.
We must improve drug approval times. After all, time is a luxury that some Canadians do not have.