Mr. Speaker, this government has acted when the last one would not. The previous government held press conferences, had pictures taken with rock stars and took credit for what was billed as a humanitarian effort where Canada would lead the world. In the end, it left a program that does not work.
Our government took charge of this file by advancing the mandated review of Canada's access to medicines regime almost a year early.
In addition, the government has taken a number of positive steps to encourage eligible importing countries and Canadian generic drug manufacturers to make use of the regime and improve access to medicines in the developing world.
The process to access medicines with this regime has been described to the industry committee recently as onerous. So, in July 2006 the government released a CD-ROM which explains the CAMR process in detail. This government is doing what it can do to move drugs to the developing world through its program for the first time by addressing the access problem in CAMR.
I think it is apparent that the Jean Chrétien pledge to Africa has flaws that we are working to repair.
As the member knows, we have just wrapped up a very good set of meetings on CAMR in the industry committee. The government will have its consultation paper out when it is ready.
After the hype, all the previous government left was its old press clippings.