I look forward to seeing developments that take us on a path to a national home care plan in this country, Mr. Chair.
I want to ask one more set of questions around drug safety. It relates to the question my colleague, our health critic, asked about Depo-Provera.
One of the other developments that happened when the minister's predecessor Allan Rock became minister in 1997 was the closure of the drug safety lab in the department. That was an important bureau for testing for problems with drugs on the market in terms of interactions with other drugs or interactions with food or natural health products.
When we lost that, we lost an important mechanism for generally ensuring that drugs on the market were safe beyond a reasonable doubt and that the “do no harm” principle was followed. The example of Depo-Provera shows that there are slippages, that in fact rather than a tough, proactive model we have a risk management model which means that we lose at certain times.
Are there any plans on the minister's part to put in place a mechanism that will allow for the government and his department to be proactively involved in the ensuring that drugs are safe beyond a reasonable doubt?