Debates of March 12th, 2012

Drug Shortages

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Mr. Speaker, the drug supply chain is very complex. It does not just occur in Canada; it occurs outside Canada as well. The supply chain can be disrupted within Canada and outside Canada.

As the member is well aware, the provincial and territorial health ministries deliver health care. Our role is to work with the provinces and territories and assist them in addressing the issue of drug shortages. Within the regulatory authority that we have in Canada, we have provided information to the provinces and territories to ensure that they have access to other companies in Canada that provide the drugs in question.

In terms of moving forward, we have to work with the provinces and territories. They are the ones that deliver health care in Canada. We have to respect the Canada Health Act. The provinces and territories are best positioned to respond to their supply needs. At the same time, they have contracts in place with a number of industries. They can best tell whether they have the notice provisions or notification of any disruptions and so forth. Our role is to work in partnership with them as well as with industry to address this concern.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, could the minister tell us in the government's view, is it or is it not the responsibility of the federal government to do two things: one, to ensure there is an adequate supply of necessary drugs across the country; and two, if the voluntary system is so patently not working, to provide a regulatory framework to ensure there is accountability for the supply of drugs?

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Mr. Speaker, the regulatory process is always an option for us to look at. My response was to deal with the immediate issue before us. If I started the regulatory process for jurisdictions, that would take about two years to complete. I needed to respond immediately to the drug shortages in Canada to be able to look at and identify sources for the provinces and territories.

The provinces and territories deliver health care. They have contracts with the industry to make sure that they have the drugs for their health care system.

Health Canada approves drugs for Canada and they are available for each jurisdiction whether they want to include them in their formularies or not. We also have emergency review processes in place to respond quickly to any type of shortage. We are doing that.

Again, it is up to the provinces and territories to purchase the drugs and to look at alternate suppliers so that they are not put in the situation which they are in now. Health Canada has been working 24/7 to assist the provinces and territories in dealing with the drug shortage situation.

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I understand this is not the first time there has been a drug shortage in Canada or in other parts of the world. All members in the House understand that health care is the responsibility of the provinces and the territories.

Could the minister provide us with some information as to what Health Canada and the hon. minister are doing to minimize the impact on Canadians of this shortage of drugs?

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Mr. Speaker, in circumstances where the shortage of important drugs does occur, Health Canada will work with the provinces, territories, manufacturers and health professionals to minimize the impact.

Canadians can also be assured that Health Canada is ready to respond on a priority basis. For example, we can help authorize access to alternatives on an emergency basis and expedite the review of manufacturers' changes or new suppliers. We will use the right tools for the situation at hand. The time required for each will depend on the specific request.

We expect Sandoz, as an example, to post all of its drug shortage information on its website and existing public websites at the University of Saskatchewan Drug Information Services. An equivalent French website has been established. Health Canada is closely monitoring the timeliness and completeness of the information that Sandoz has provided to determine if changes are needed to make sure that Canadians have access to the information they need. We are encouraged by its response.

[André Bellavance, Bloc, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it is true that the federal government does not have much to do with health care, but what little it does, it should do properly. Transfers to Quebec and the provinces are one thing, but the list of unavailable drugs is also within the federal government's purview. Right now, drug company participation is voluntary. The minister can respond, but I believe that her government is receptive to the idea of making the list mandatory. That would help. A system to alert stakeholders about shortages is clearly within federal jurisdiction.

I would like to ask the minister one simple question. The FDA found a problem with one single product at the Sandoz plant, so why did it conclude that the entire pharmaceutical company was compromised? The government could talk to the U.S. government about that. There was a problem with one single product, a product that is not even used in Canada or Quebec. That is unbelievable.

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Mr. Speaker, that one product that is produced by Sandoz is not used or sold in Canada. The FDA notified Sandoz because Sandoz provides that drug to the United States.

The problem escalated because there was a fire at the Sandoz factory. Late notification from Sandoz to the provincial health authorities has created this situation. We are working with the provincial and territorial health ministries to respond to the situation.

At the same time I would encourage members of the House to read today's press release stating that members of Canada's pharmaceutical industry have come together to address the drug shortages in Canada.

I am encouraged by the response we are receiving from industry to provide timely and accurate information to the provinces and territories, pharmacists, medical associations, and all stakeholders involved to deal with drug shortages or anticipated drug shortages across the country. This is a work in progress.

What we saw with Sandoz has resolved that we need to do this as quickly as possible.

[Denis Blanchette, NDP, Louis-Hébert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for taking part in this debate.

One of the reasons we have this problem right now is that health costs are increasing considerably, and the provinces are always looking for ways to reduce costs. Because the federal government does not want to provide the provinces with enough funding for health care, among other things, the provinces are forced to have a single supplier in order to get a better price. This causes the problems we are experiencing right now. All the minister is offering is to advise the provinces to ask the private sector to co-operate.

I have two questions for the minister. First of all, at what point is she going to stop simply asking people to co-operate and finally show some leadership? Second, once she finally decides to show some leadership, what does she plan to do to ensure that Canadians never have to go through this again?

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Mr. Speaker, I again must emphasize that the provinces and territories deliver health care. I work with the Quebec provincial health minister who I have spoken to in regard to this situation. The provincial health ministers know best what their hospital requirements are with respect to supplies. The provincial governments have contracts with their suppliers who tell them what products they need when and where. Each jurisdiction signs a contract with the industry to purchase its drug supplies.

When we were dealing with the isotope shortage situation, we diversified our supply chain. The lesson learned in that situation should be applied in this situation. Jurisdictions should also diversify their supply chain for the drugs that are used within their hospitals.

We will continue to work with the jurisdictions and the provincial and territorial health ministries to ensure that they have a backup plan with respect to the contracts they have with drug suppliers.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to this issue probably because we have been raising it at the health committee and with the minister in this House for almost the last year.

The minister said some important things that I did not realize she had jurisdiction over. She said that the federal government has jurisdiction over the regulatory framework that allows it to look at contamination and safety standards and quality for unsafe manufacturing standards in any kind of manufacturing sector that has to do with health. I need to ask the minister a question and I hope she will be able to answer it at some point in time in the House.

Sandoz was told by the FDA in July 2009 that it had breached manufacturing standards with regard to aseptic and contamination processes and with regard to crystallization in its intravenous products. The minister should have known that if she had been checking and inspecting the plants the way she told us she had been. However, she obviously did not bother to do that in July 2009. Then, just prior to the FDA giving a letter to Sandoz in November, the health department decided that Sandoz was doing absolutely appropriate manufacturing practices and that its quality controls were very good.

I need to find out from the minister why she did not act long before she knew about this. To say that she only found out about it recently really concerns me because it means that somebody is foot-dragging on the job here.

We raised this issue in August, September and November 2011 because I, as a physician, and the Liberal Party were very concerned about the potential risk to patients and the safety of patients in this country. We knew this because the Canadian Pharmacists Association had written a report in the fall of 2010 warning and asking the federal government and, in some instances, provincial governments to act with regard to impending shortages. Ninety-eight per cent of pharmacists surveyed in 2010 said that they were having trouble finding certain drugs within the last week.

We are not only talking about drugs used in the ICU, in the OR and in the emergency room. We are talking about drugs used for children, antibiotics, pediatric drugs and essential cancer drugs for patients. We are talking about painkillers and drugs like Prednisone that is an essential drug for many conditions and can actually save lives. We are talking about a shortage of ordinary drugs for epileptics that have been used for many years.

It is interesting to see the surprise the minister evidences when she says that this is the first time she has heard about this even though she knew about it in 2010. Her and the government's reaction in 2010 was to set up a voluntary system. I wanted to contrast this to what the United States did. As soon as it found out about this shortage, congress did an investigation. We have been asking the Department of Health, the minister and the health committee to do a similar investigation, with absolutely no results. Not only that, but the president issued a directive stating that he would like to look into various components of the root causes of this problem, some of which relate to why companies are not making drugs anymore, why a profit margin is a big problem for them and what we can do about it. He was looking for collusion. He was looking for actual financing problems within a manufacturing sector that is very private and is based on supply and marketplace demands only. Therefore, he felt that it was important for him to look at pricing as a cause for why certain drugs were not being made anymore.

Congress will soon be tabling legislation that basically says that companies would need to give three months to six months notice when there is an impending shortage or when they decide they will no longer make a drug. Other companies would then have the opportunity to pick up the slack and make that drug.

We are talking, as the minister so eloquently put it, about drugs that are essential for the life and health of Canadians. As the minister also so eloquently put it, the health department is responsible for the safety of patients in this country.

The United States took immediate steps a while ago to deal with an issue that everyone knew about but our health minister continued her voluntary system, which has not worked, and then waited for a catastrophe to occur, a catastrophe that she is now trying to avert and blame everyone.

The issue of what is happening at Sandoz is only the tip of the iceberg. It is an issue that is affecting many drugs. Sandoz has flagged it. It has created a crisis that made the government suddenly decide to wake up, take notice and do something, except I still hear the minister talking about not regulating and no mandatory websites, but simply going back to trusting everyone to do the very best they can.

I am pleased to know that the minister is interested in working with the provinces, instead of blaming them for sole sourcing. If one looks at the issue of drug shortages, it is not only what happened at Sandoz. We know there are many reasons. For instance, many drugs that were made by generic companies that are no longer profitable are not being made. That is about 90% of the problem. The other 10% of the problem is the fact that there are no raw materials available. However, that is not really an issue. One can deal with raw materials by looking at a robust R and D system that might be able to find new materials to make drugs.

The problem really is that the provinces need to buy the drugs they can afford on their formularies and, therefore, are looking for the cheapest drugs. When a drug becomes so cheap in the country that there is no profit margin for a generic company, the generic company stops making it. Regulations will be put in place in the United States to deal with that. Why does the minister not look at the legislation and regulations in Canada and do the same thing in order to forewarn us and find a way to look at a moral imperative, whether it is a tax credit or whatever the incentive, to ensure that companies that no longer make drugs because of lack of a profit margin have some sort of incentive. I do not know what the answer is but this is the greatest source of the problem and we need to look at it.

The minister was warned and yet has done very little. Now, suddenly, she is saying that she is willing to do a lot of things. I would like to give her some ideas.

Within the Food and Drug Administration there is sector called the drug shortages program which has been in place for quite a while. I believe there are 11 people working in that sector and they are there to work closely with the manufacturing sector, the hospitals and the pharmacists to find out what drugs will have shortages, find a way to avert the shortage and ensure that there will not be a shortage. They have been doing that quite well within the Food and Drug Administration of the United States. Why has the food and drug administrative area within the minister's department done the same thing? It has a best practice and it has seen it work.

We are talking about what a responsible government does. We have seen what the United States FDA does as a responsible government. We have seen what congress does as a responsible government that cares about the health of its citizens. I would like to know the reason for the foot dragging. What is the reason for us not following the best practice?

When we look at global shortages, the minister is putting a band-aid on a problem. Sandoz is not the problem. Sandoz is part of the problem but it is only one of the things that is causing drug shortages. The minister says that she and her department are going out of their way to get offshore sourcing for the drugs that Sandoz is no longer making. Because this is a global problem, there will come a time when those drugs will not be available to us in Canada and I would like—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

I hate to interrupt the hon. member. She has one minute left to conclude her remarks. I was wondering if she could inform the Chair as to whether she was planning to split her time.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Yes, Mr. Speaker, I am splitting my time with the member for Halifax West.

Problems are occurring. The minister and Canada have good standing at the World Health Organization and they should be talking about this as an urgent global problem. I can understand why the minister would not do that. Since she herself has not addressed the urgent problem in Canada, it probably would be a bit of a problem to ask other people to address a problem that she has not taken any steps to prevent or avert.

The federal government has in its power the ability to look at regulations, legislation and work with pharmacists, hospitals, provinces and manufacturers to build a system that we could strongly regulate and pay attention to the way the United States is doing. We could flag when there are going to be shortages, avert them and protect Canadians.

I would hope that, having learned a lesson, as the minister said, she will no longer drag her feet and she will take important mandatory steps to deal with this problem.

[Anne Minh-Thu Quach, NDP, Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend the hon. member for Vancouver Centre on her speech, which allows us to continue the debate and ask the Minister of Health some very important questions.

Although the Minister of Health continues to repeat that this issue falls under provincial jurisdiction, the federal government also has responsibilities, including the responsibility to ensure sufficient regulation, as the hon. member said so well, in order to prevent shortages like this one from happening again.

The Minister of Health said earlier that it would take two years to establish a regulatory system; however, if we do not establish one, we will never have one. We will always be reacting to problems as they occur instead of implementing a long-term solution by creating a mandatory registry and diversifying supply sources in co-operation with the provinces. In order to do so, the federal government must speed up the approval process for the various supply sources. The current drug verification process is very long; even the Auditor General has said as much. Verification can sometimes take over two years. I would like to know what the Liberal member thinks about this.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, as a physician, I look at best practices and I look at results. Our neighbour to the south has shown us the way to best practices. The minister has absolutely no excuse for not looking at the kind of legislation that is being put in place by Congress with regard to mandatory early warning systems with a penalty from manufacturers if they are no longer going to be making a drug, so that another manufacturer might want to pick up the drug. That is important.

The minister has a duty to ensure that manufacturing practices for drugs and food in this country are safe for Canadians. She has already said so herself. There are many things the minister can do immediately. But in the long term, there still needs to be a long-term plan to deal with the problem of companies no longer wanting to make drugs because they are not profitable, to deal with the long-term plan for raw materials shortages and to deal with a mandatory reporting site.

I do not know if the hon. member saw it, but there is a press release that just came out from the brand name pharma, research and development pharmaceutical companies, the generic companies, suggesting they are prepared to put $100,000 each into starting a process to deal with this issue. Should the Minister of Health not have done that?

[Joy Smith, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Mr. Speaker, clearly I have to applaud the minister for her leadership and being a catalyst to anticipate the collaboration between industry and provincial jurisdictions, but we are talking about provincial jurisdiction here tonight. Drugs are manufactured and supplied by industry. It is the most appropriate place to do that. Through that, it is the provinces that deal with the formulation of the plan to have the drug supply for each individual province.

I am wondering if the member thinks we can supersede the provincial jurisdictions in this area, because this is not the jurisdiction of the federal government. I have to applaud the minister for taking the leadership to pick up the phone and ask those questions and encourage the provinces and the industries to work together.

Could the member please answer that question?

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the federal government is responsible for the Canada Health Act, which speaks clearly to the issue of accessibility, of universality. Accessibility means regardless of ability to pay; and accessibility means it does not really matter where one lives. So the federal government has a role to play to ensure that the federal government looks at the manufacturing standards and the safety of the manufacturing of drugs in the country. If the federal government had done that, it would not have okayed Sandoz just before the FDA sent it the last letter. It would have also known there was a problem with it.

The other thing that the minister might want to know—

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

This is not so with Canada. Did you not hear my speech?

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, if you wish, I will sit down until the minister stops commenting and I may be able to speak freely.

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

I will ask all members to hold off on comments until the Speaker gives them the floor. The hon. member for Vancouver Centre has 20 seconds left to conclude.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, there are lots of things the minister can do. We have seen it happen in other countries. We have seen the United States take steps. I have repeatedly brought this to the minister's attention. She has completely ignored the problem and only responded when there was a crisis.

Even now with the crisis, the minister does not seem inclined to do anything that is mandatory, any regulation, and to do the job—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Resuming debate, the hon. member for Halifax West.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to take part in this emergency debate. In fact there is certainly a need for an emergency debate and it has been building for some time now. It was almost two years ago, in fact it was late 2010, that the Canadian Pharmacists Association sounded the alarm on shortages.

We have heard the minister this evening tell us that it takes about two years to bring in regulations. That is not much of an excuse, when in fact the Conservative government has had almost two years and it has not begun the process of bringing in regulations.

A few minutes ago the minister said to my colleague to be nice, and I do not think she was being unpleasant or making any particular personal attack, but she did not like the criticism, it seems. None of us likes criticism, but we all have to take it, and we have to take it in this place from time to time, especially when one is a minister. That is the way life is for a minister. One has to take responsibility and be held accountable in this place. That is our job, as MPs, to do that.

The question really is this. Did the minister and her department act urgently when a problem appeared, and did they take the appropriate steps? That is a reasonable and fair question. It is not a matter of not being nice. That is the appropriate question we have to ask here to test the competence, the accountability, the actions of the government.

The fact is that the Conservatives have known about this for two years. The fact is that we warned them several times last year, and my colleague asked at least twice in committee for studies of this issue, to look at the drug shortages issue.

We suggested the idea of regulations. We recommended a mandatory reporting system. All of these have been disregarded by the government. It said it had it under control. It said, “We know what we are doing. We do not have to listen to any of this. We will not listen to you, because you are another party. You are the Liberals. We do not want to hear anything the Liberals say”, which of course is unfortunate. That is a very unwise attitude for any government to take, because the responsibility of being in government is that one has to try to look out for the whole country, or ought to, and one has to accept criticism. One has to accept ideas from wherever they come.

It was two years ago, as I said, that the Canadian Pharmacists Association sounded the alarm and noted that 90% of pharmacists were facing drug shortages each week when filling prescriptions, and it noted that these shortages have got worse over time. This is not at all a new problem.

We talk about this issue with Sandoz Canada. The minister said that particular drug was not sold in Canada. What she did not say was that her department is inspecting that plant and watching what it is doing in a variety of areas, and what is concerning is that the FDA, the U.S. food and drug administration, could find serious problems at that plant, and Health Canada did not.

What is going on over there? Why did it miss these things? Why is it not doing a more thorough job? Why is it not sounding the alarm? Why is it not letting people know about these problems? It ought to have known for two years now about a serious problem in this area. It has done nothing about it.

In relation to Sandoz, it was July 2009 when the first issues arose in relation to this particular drug. Is the minister telling me that every other drug was being manufactured exactly to standard, that no problems existed when there were repeated manufacturing problems identified by Sandoz Canada? That really stretches credibility.

In the fall my colleagues and I held a round table with drug experts across the country on the drug shortages, because we were becoming concerned about what was happening, what we were hearing from pharmacists and what we were hearing from patients, for instance, who had epilepsy.

I have a bill to make March 26 purple day. I appreciate the support of members around the chamber. It has gone off to the Senate now, but through the process of working on that, I have heard from people with epilepsy and those involved in those organizations about that shortage. It is not a new problem, but what is the government doing about it?

We hear the minister saying her department will watch what happens and maybe it will bring in some kind of regulation. This is two years into the problem that she is saying this. We know it did not do that when it came to sodium or trans fats. Once again, instead of having a mandatory reporting system, it went voluntary. It is a voluntary reporting system, so it has had opportunities over and over to take action and has failed to do so. That is disturbing.

In fact, the reporting system the government brought in, the voluntary one, is truly toothless. It does not have any bite.

What really astonishes me, in view of that, is that tonight the minister, who up until now has been blaming the provinces for the problems, now blames the pharmaceutical generic drug company, Sandoz Canada, for not giving notice and for not putting it on this voluntary website earlier. What did the government expect when it made it voluntary?

Even now, when the minister sees that it has not taken advantage of this voluntary reporting system and has not reported on that and she expresses her frustration and anger at Sandoz Canada for not doing what she says it should have, instead of saying, “Now we're going to put them down hard and we're going to make this mandatory”, she is saying, “Look. We're going to watch things and if things don't improve, maybe we'll regulate”.

We can go back to what I said at the beginning about our responsibility to hold ministers and the government to account and what standard we have to apply. It seems to me clear that the minister and the government are not meeting a reasonable standard in this case. If there were real concern, if they were acting quickly, if they were acting with alacrity, if they saw this as urgent, surely they would do more than say, “Well, we aren't happy with Sandoz but maybe, if things don't improve over the next who knows how long, maybe we'll bring in some regulation”. Boy, that is really cracking the whip. Can members imagine a tougher approach? I sure can, as a matter of fact.

However the fact is, as my colleague has said, that ensuring a safe supply of essential drugs is a key responsibility of the Government of Canada. Who inspects these places? It is not the provinces. It is Health Canada. It does inspections. It is its responsibility to oversee that. Surely, this is a national issue for all of us across the country to ensure we have equal access to health care, equal access to these important drugs.

It is not a new problem, this shortage of essential drugs needed for common health issues and procedures. This shortage has been going on for quite a while. As my colleague said earlier, it is not limited to Canada. It is a global problem. Therefore, to say that during this crisis we are going to get them from other countries, which was one of the answers the government suggested, how does that make sense if it is a global shortage?

One of the problems here is that the provinces have not had advance notice. The provinces did not hear from the Government of Canada about this in advance. They heard about it two weeks ago. They had no advance warning, the kind of warning that Health Canada ought to have been able to give them and ought to have given them. In fact, had they been able to know sooner, they could have started to make adjustments.

I mentioned epilepsy. People with epilepsy who have to change the medication they are on cannot do it at the flip of a switch. It takes time. They have to reduce one drug and then start another one gradually. They cannot do it instantly. Of course, in that transition, there are difficulties. Obviously if they have a drug that is working well and suddenly they have to use less of it, that is a concern. Then they have to switch to a new one, which they hope will not have negative side effects, and see how that goes, and then they ramp up gradually. That is why it is so important that the provinces get notice ahead of time and get a chance to prepare for this. It is all the more reason to have a mandatory reporting system.

I know we have heard the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association say that generic pharmaceutical manufacturers are pursuing all options in trying to find ways to deal with this, and I appreciate that, and that there are shortages from time to time. However, the question is not whether there are shortages but how the government deals with these issues.

The Best Medicines Coalition, which is a national broad-based alliance of patient organizations, is extremely concerned about these shortages. It is seeing them. We are hearing about this from patients. We are hearing about it from all kinds of medical groups. Pharmacists, obviously, are experiencing this on a daily basis.

When drug shortages occur, patients are at risk, so why would the minister say it is the provinces' fault, because they only had one source for each of their drugs? Why would she say it is the company's fault? Why would she not say, “Look. We have a responsibility here. We're going to take action now. We're not going to say 'Maybe some day we'll take action'. We're going to act now and do something about this.”?

Disruptions in drug supply can compromise patient care. In some cases, such as drugs that are used in surgery, they can be life threatening. That is a scary thing.

It is an urgent matter. It is time for the government to take an active role and get on the ball with this. It is time for the government to realize that urgent action is required. It is time to wake up, get moving, get the ball rolling and bring in mandatory reporting. It is not the time to be making excuses and blaming the provinces.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I have been paying attention to the speeches this evening. I found one of the comments from my colleague, the member for Brampton—Springdale quite interesting. He said everyone in the House understands the difference between federal and provincial jurisdiction. Listening to the speeches tonight, I do not think that is true. It is obvious, for anyone who knows the jurisdictional issues, that Health Canada has a regulatory obligation to approve drugs sold in Canada, determine the appropriateness of the drugs to be sold in Canada and ensure that where the drug is manufactured is safe.

We have been hearing this evening that we should be regulating, regulating, regulating. However the truth is we cannot really regulate supply. We cannot mandate supply. I was listening to my colleague talk about reporting. We have a voluntary system in place and we are monitoring that. I wonder if he could explain to us what the federal Liberal regulations would look like so that Canadians would know?

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I hope my hon. colleague is not asking me to draft regulations here on the floor of the House of Commons this evening. I am sure if he talks to the officials at Health Canada, because they are not going to do the job themselves, obviously--

They need someone to do it for them. I am disappointed if there are not officials at Health Canada, or perhaps the Department of Justice, who could do that kind of drafting for them. The Government of Canada has a responsibility to inspect drugs and to make sure that Canadians have a supply of safe drugs. That is its responsibility.

If the Conservatives have moved in this direction at all, why can they not bring in mandatory reporting of shortages? If they are not prepared to do that, then we are going to have a serious problem. It is time for them to take action and stop making excuses, which is all we have heard tonight.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to pick up on those comments, I think there is a very high level of awareness in the House about the federal, provincial and territorial division of power and responsibility. I heard the minister say earlier that the provinces and territories deal with the suppliers. That is not what we are talking about. We are actually talking about an oversight role and a reporting mechanism. Even the provincial health ministers are saying they want the federal government to get involved in this. There are a number of them, including the provincial health minister from Alberta.

Would the member comment on that? I know he understands that differential between federal, provincial and territorial levels. We are not talking about wading into a provincial role here. We are talking about the federal government's responsibility under the Canada Health Act, for the safety and availability of drugs, to be proactive on this issue.