Madam Speaker, out of respect for countries grappling with the AIDS crisis and to which Jean Chrétien had made a commitment to reduce the negative impact, particularly in Africa—in my view this is more like Canada's commitment to Africa—I will briefly come back to the bill.
The Bloc Québécois is in favour of this bill because we feel it is more a technical bill. Senators can sit at committee as planned to consider the issue.
An error had occurred resulting from the fact that all the parties in this House had wanted to pass this bill before the election campaign so that it could come into force as soon as possible. This is important and we feel it must be passed as soon as possible. This will allow Canada's commitment to Africa to be implemented as soon as possible and that is what we want.
The other change is a highly technical one, the outcome of a court ruling. In the past there was some flexibility, that is to say a small company paid taxes on patents, with adjustments as it grew in size. The court felt that a far more formal approach was required and the government decided to regularize the situation. This is, therefore, an appropriate change and one that must be put forward as soon as possible.
As the previous speakers have said, it is important that this bill, which is focussed particularly on accessibility of drugs to the least developed nations, be passed as promptly as possible.
As well, since we are fast approaching the end of a session, I would invite hon. members to pass this bill quickly on second reading, so that it will take effect and ensure that drugs will get to the populations concerned.
We are also calling upon the federal government to ensure the same promptness for enhanced measures to help implement this act. The act alone will not bring about sufficient results unless there is also allocation of the appropriate budgets, either through CIDA or some other means, to ensure the support that is indispensable for delivery, along with the appropriate medical care for patients. The colleague before me spoke along these same lines.
The Bloc Québécois will therefore be supporting this bill in order to see it passed as quickly as possible. We hope that, after a few witnesses in committee, it will come back to the House and be adopted promptly.