Madam Speaker, I think it is important to note here that this argument related to health care is centring around a Supreme Court decision.
We need to specifically note that what it called for is the availability for people to purchase private insurance plans. Despite the rhetoric of the Liberal government in the last decade, there has always been the growth of private health care in many provinces. Today, right now, if people have enough money they can get private health care in Canada. The distinction is that now people can purchase private insurance.
It is an unfortunate legacy that the government of the day has not invested the appropriate resources into health care and, second, regulatory reform. Regulatory reform is very important, because we cannot just throw money at this situation.
I would like to ask the hon. member a specific question about one of the regulatory reforms that even the United States has addressed. That is the issue of evergreening, the notice of compliance where generic firms are available to produce drugs. After 20 years when they get to the market, the pharmaceutical company can get an automatic stay of injunction for patent infringement without having to present a shred of evidence.
In the United States it is only allowed once, but in Canada there is multiple evergreening, preventing different types of patented medicines from moving into generic form, which would save millions of dollars per year for the Canadian taxpayer and for benefit plans, which are very important. Most labour negotiations today centre around benefit plans and their loss or reduction. This is what has created the most strikes in the last decade.
It is very important for the member to clarify this. Does she believe that Canada should be the only country left in the world that automatically allows the stays of injunction? We are the only ones left. There is nobody else, especially since Rx&D, the pharmaceutical companies, have never met their 10% promise. They have been promising that for 20 years in terms of putting money back into research and development. They have never met that promise.
We do mostly packaging here. That is what they call R and D in Canada: packaging.
Does the hon. member support regulatory reform for this? The biggest single driver of expensive increases for our health care system is drug costs. Does she support changing the system or is she supportive of Canada being the only nation to have this backward policy?