Mr. Chair, I am happy to answer those questions from my hon. colleague, beginning with the first one pertaining to Liberal members of the government, particularly those from Manitoba.
I am not at this point able to ascribe any motives to the senior Liberal member in Manitoba in terms of this debate and this issue, because I think that what we are all grappling with is a difficult situation. None of us want to see the end of Internet pharmacies. We do not want to shut down the business, because it is providing a useful role in terms of the Manitoban and Canadian economies as well as meeting a need for an important service for lower income and vulnerable people in the United States. We are all cautious about maintaining a balanced position.
I imagine that the Liberal senior member from Manitoba is in the same boat. He is getting information after the fact. He is not getting direction from his own government and the Minister of Health in order to be able to deal with this expeditiously and on a timely basis.
I believe that we have to balance the role of Internet pharmacies in our economy with the real concerns that many have demonstrated, particularly those from the pharmacy community, who have an expertise in terms of pharmaceuticals and understand the possibilities for confusion, shortages, chaos and problems in terms of our supply.
What I want to do tonight is say to the Minister of Health that he must take those concerns into account when he brings forward his package of solutions. He must make sure that he listens to the Archie Orlikows of the world, hears their concerns, answers those concerns and comes back to the House with a package that gives all of us assurances that the quality of our drug supply is not threatened, the affordability of drugs is not in question, and the future supply is not a worry.
That was in answer to the first part of the member's question.
The second question has to do with the supply of doctors and the whole issue of broader questions around our health care system. I think the best thing I can say on this issue pertaining to that question is that we must not let ourselves assume, in this debate dealing with Internet pharmacies, that we can off-load onto it all of the other problems with the system of pharmaceuticals in Canada.
There are many problems that have to be addressed. There are many issues in terms of the whole health care system. There is a critical shortage in terms of some health care professionals. There are waiting lists in terms of other areas. There is clearly still a big impact from the cutbacks of 1995.
Let us deal with these separately. Let us acknowledge that in terms of safety and affordability we have major work to do in this Parliament to beef up the scientific research capacity of Health Canada in terms of scrutinizing drugs entering the marketplace and scrutinizing them for side effects once they are on the marketplace.
That is an area where the government has been totally negligent and totally irresponsible. It was in 1997 that the minister of health at that time, Allan Rock, actually killed the only independent research bureau for scientific analysis of drugs. The drug research bureau of Health Canada was killed by the Liberals, meaning that there is no independent capacity left within the federal government apparatus for determining safety of drugs and problems with interaction with other drugs and foods once they are on the market. This is a problem that has to be addressed.
There are questions about evergreening and the whole drug patent system, about the fact that the Liberal government keeps letting the brand name drug companies have open season in terms of pricing. Not only do those companies have, through the Liberals' help, an extension on drug patents up to 20 years, but they have also allowed for that period to be extended through court cases and challenges.
Let us start dealing with banning evergreening. That is what we have said in our end of the world, in the NDP corner of this place. Let us stop this control that brand name pharmaceutical companies have over our drug supply.
These are a couple of the issues that we have to deal with. There is so much more that we could do as a Parliament and as representatives of the people in terms of these issues.
The final question to me pertained to the role of the health committee and the minister's responsibility to the committee. I think that is a very important issue. It has been a problem throughout the time that I have been in this chamber, since 1997. It has been difficult for the health committee, a standing committee of Parliament, to get the ear of the government and to have timely and responsive meetings with the Minister of Health.
I sense that the member is dealing with the same problem, only on an even more harmful basis. It sounds like the present Minister of Health is practising the same kind of dithering with respect to this issue and the member's committee as he has shown with respect to the whole question of enforcing the Canada Health Act. The fact that he and ministers before him have let slide the issue of enforcing the act to ensure that privatization does not get such a strong foothold in our country is something that we have to wrestle with daily.
That is why the New Democratic Party has put forward a package of suggestions to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health as a road map for the future. In fact, we have suggested that this Minister of Health take seriously the notion of tougher legislation to prohibit the establishment of private clinics and private hospitals, to prevent that kind of situation by penalizing provinces that allow for that kind of erosion of our health care system. We think that is an absolutely critical need in our society and in this country. We hope that the Minister of Health ends his dithering and starts to act on behalf of Canadians.