Madam Chair, I have had questions for all of the other speakers, just as I have for the critic for the NDP, and specifically one question that is the same.
Understanding that there are economic interests and that people encourage entrepreneurship, that we encourage people to develop jobs, whether it is Internet pharmacies or others, can it be done while maintaining the security of our drug supply and the security of patients, whether they are Canadians or international? I do not think that the member would want a lesser standard being imposed on people outside our country than we would impose on our own people. If we can do that, then would those jobs and industry be permitted?
We certainly want to encourage the manufacture of drugs for export in Canada, but we also want to protect drugs for Canadians and protect the security of our people. I would ask the member to speak specifically of the three elements of the strategy. Does she agree with those elements? Does she agree that a bill based on the three elements of that strategy would be worthy of consideration by the House and, by extension, by the health committee?
I would remind her that one of the elements is the creation of a drug safety network or drug supply network, so that we understand what is the state of our supply in Canada and so that if problems were to arise--and the member correctly addressed this earlier when she said there are currently no identified problems that we can think of--and we were concerned, the system would feed the information to us. Another element is that we restrict the exportation of drugs at any time when medically necessary or necessary for the protection of human health in Canada. Third, for all transactions in all provinces, we would require that for a prescription to be given and a drug to be sold to an individual that person must have a relationship with the physician. As I understand it, all provincial jurisdictions now ask for this.
Does the hon. member agree with those three elements? I would ask her to comment.