Debates of May 27th, 2014

Protecting Canadians from Unsafe Drugs Act (Vanessa's Law)

[Philip Toone, NDP, Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from the other opposition party for his question.

There was barely one hour of debate on this bill when it was introduced in the House in December. It deserves much more attention. I think the committee deserves to hear what the House thinks to get a better idea of what direction the House would like the committee to take.

We invite members to share their constituents' thoughts on this bill in today's debate, to ensure that the debate is complete. We need more debate. The amount of time spent on this debate depends on the members in the House, on both the opposition and government sides.

It is up to the Speaker and the members to decide how long this bill should be debated.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like the member to please consider going to his House leader now and asking his House leader to arrange to have Vanessa's law, Bill C-17, sent to committee today.

[Philip Toone, NDP, Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for his suggestion.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Mr. Speaker, earlier, my colleague said that there had been consultations and that several groups supported Bill C-17. However, I think we must set the record straight.

It is true that several associations say that Bill C-17 is a step in the right direction. However, they have reservations and say that this bill does not go far enough.

If I am not mistaken, the Canadian Nurses Association, for one, says that it hopes that experts in the field will be consulted to ensure that stronger and more meaningful action is taken. It is good that the players in the field want to be consulted and taken into consideration.

Does my colleague also think that this should be given serious consideration in committee?

[Philip Toone, NDP, Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question.

That actually brings us to the issue of transparency and the real trust people have in this government when it comes to consultation.

Previous bills have eroded this trust. It is very difficult to trust the government when consultations are often bogus or non-existent. We know that the government often tries to push bills through the various stages very quickly. Mammoth bills are a very good example, because we have very little time to debate them. However, we need to take the time to do so. I want the House to be able to express its point of view so that the committee understands the direction the House is taking.

I invite the members of the House who want to move forward more quickly to make their comments as soon as possible so that we can guide the committee in its work.

In addition, the government often—all too often—tends to limit debate on bills. We have seen this on many occasions. I hope the government will clearly understand that a bill must not be passed quickly; instead, it should be well thought out. Experts and stakeholders must be given an opportunity to testify.

We hope there will be a good debate in committee, as well as in the House.

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

Mr. Speaker, today, we are talking about Bill C-17, An Act to amend the Food and Drugs Act. My first comment is that it is about time.

Finally, society will be able to better protect people. Finally, the government will have the power to order drug recalls. Finally, the government will have the power to order manufacturers to change the drug labels to include the side effects of a drug. Finally, the government will be able to order the assessment of drugs. Finally, the government will be able to require manufacturers to keep the available information up to date. It is about time.

When profit hangs in the balance, I do not believe in voluntary approaches. Earlier, my colleague talked about the Walkerton tragedy. We could also talk about the XL Foods recall. There are also heartbreaking examples related to the train derailment in Lac-Mégantic last year.

Good health is the most precious asset of every member of the House and everyone watching. We even wish people good health at the beginning of a new year. That is why I believe that this bill is a step in the right direction. I believe that we must move forward with this bill, but that we must also examine it carefully.

Basically, the bill explains that better coordination is needed when it comes to health administration. That is why this bill is a step in the right direction. We need a broad view of health and a comprehensive approach to pharmaceuticals to serve human beings. That is what we need.

In my riding, there is a company that tests drugs . Not to name names, but it is called inVentiv Health Clinics. I have had the pleasure of visiting this company, which conducts clinical research. I learned about the importance of the clinical trials conducted by pharmaceutical companies. In this era of globalization, clinical trials are conducted throughout the world, including in Canada. The unfortunate part is that the rigour of these tests varies from company to company and from country to country.

Legislation such as this, which requires manufacturers to take more responsibility, may ensure that clinical trials are more rigorous. It may also bring contracts that are currently being awarded to foreign companies back to Canada. This would be advantageous for Canadian companies and could be a positive effect of the bill. We would therefore be able to provide higher drug assessment standards for Canadians, including during the clinical phase.

We also have to talk about production quality and the distribution chain for drugs. We cannot remain silent about how drug shortages are managed. We also have to talk about transparency. A number of my colleagues have talked about transparency and how important it is. More and more, the world of pharmaceuticals is unbelievably complex. The pharmaceutical industry faces major challenges in coming up with new medications to improve our health, our children's health and our neighbours' health. Managing that complexity is increasingly difficult. That is why doctors and pharmacists, the people we trust when we have health problems, must have at hand all possible information about the products they are prescribing.

They want the best for us, we want the best for ourselves, and everyone wants to be healthy. Given the complex environment of medications today, increased transparency of course will help the specialists to make the best decisions possible, which is what each and every one of us wants. Clearly, to get an overall picture of medications, we have to look at both sides of the coin.

Very briefly, I would like to talk about experimental treatments. A young mother in my constituency suffers from ovarian cancer that no longer responds to traditional treatment. As much as we want to protect all Canadians from side effects and from frankly obscure studies through this bill, we also want to help this mother of two in my constituency who wants access to experimental drugs that have not gone through all the clinical trials and all the testing. I mention this because I feel it is important for us to understand the degree of complexity the world of medications has reached today.

That is why I am pleased that we are discussing this bill. That is also why I feel that we need to take the time to debate it properly and consider it as a first step towards better use of medication in our society. That is also why I am speaking about the importance of a comprehensive examination of the use of medication. I do not think we should be looking at one aspect at a time in order to fix a minor problem and then moving on to try and coordinate all the various aspects. That usually does not work very well.

I am therefore asking the House to continue studying this bill, but to do so in a comprehensive way so that we can avoid making this a technical process when it should be a holistic one.

We want to look at the complexity of the issue, but to do that we need an overall plan. We need to be able to inform our specialists, but Canadians also need to know what they are getting themselves into when they are taking medication. Taking something for a headache is fine. However, sometimes even taking too much of a certain medication for a headache can have severe side effects.

We need to be able to give people the tools so that they can have an intelligent conversation with their specialist. That specialist must have relevant information and be able to recognize how various medications interact with one another. That is especially important for seniors. The more medications someone is taking, the more important it is to know how those medications interact.

That is why we think this is a step in the right direction. In committee, we will propose amendments that call for more transparency. We also want to see a better communication system between the various stakeholders so that each one of us and every professional has the tools required to make the best decision possible.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for his speech and his remarks. He made comment about the difficulties in the pharmaceutical industry in bringing a drug to market and addressing the issues in the health care field.

It is worth noting, though, that one of the key problems in the industry is that most of what is produced is drugs that offer no significant new therapy. The source of that information is the marketed products prices review board of Canada. It reviews every new drug that it wants to get approved on the market, and it decides if it is a significant new therapy or not. If it is a significant new therapy, it will allow for more to be charged for the drug.

In the past, it has had years where, when the drug companies come to Canada to apply to put on the market and get a notice of compliance, as many as 97% of all new drugs are copycat drugs. The companies have taken a molecule of an existing drug, such as Viagra, and made a new drug out of it, such as Cialis or Levitra. It is a variation of an existing drug on the market. That is the industry's key problem. It is not coming up with new drugs that offer significant new therapies.

I would like to ask the member to go to your House leader. You have recognized the importance of the bill. Ask your House leader to help us send it to committee today.

[The Acting Speaker, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

I presume it is not my House leader.

The hon. member for Louis-Hébert.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member opposite for his comments.

I hear his suggestion, and we all agree with the bill in principle, but I would like to know why his House leader did not put this bill forward faster. Why did his leader not introduce it faster?

We are not here just to do trivial, unimportant things. What we do here has an impact, and this time, it will have a real impact on the health of Canadians. In the lead-up to his question, the member talked about new drug molecules and variations on molecules, demonstrating just how complicated the drug sector is.

That is why I think we need the best possible legislation. We do not want to have to revisit this issue with new legislation because the work was not done properly the first time around.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, when we think of medications, it is important that we recognize that there are benefits versus risks. I would think that one of the greatest challenges that we have within government is the education about those benefits and risks.

A part of education means that we have to understand where we have issues with certain drugs when the risks are too high. There is this lack of information flow that supports Health Canada and other organizations to be able to educate the user. This is something that is critically important. I say that, because when I look at this legislation, what the Liberal Party and I see is legislation that at least moves us in the right direction. The Liberal Party's health critic has spoken on this legislation and indicated that we would like to see the bill go to committee. We are even prepared to see the bill go today.

My question for the member is, if the NDP is not in a position to pass this today, does he believe that they would like to get the bill called again? If so, when would they like to see it called again?

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

Mr. Speaker, I always find it strange that, when a piece of legislation deserves our attention, they tell us we have to act fast.

If a piece of legislation is important and vital, we have to take our time with it, pay attention and propose amendments. When members of the House rise to give speeches, what are they doing? Nothing less than enhancing the work of the committee when the time comes to study the bill. This is enhancing that work. That is why I think we have to carry on for as long as it takes.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I take special interest in federal policies, legislation, and the regulations that govern the pharmaceutical sector. The western part of Montreal, a great part of which falls in the riding of Lac-Saint-Louis, includes many brand-name pharmaceutical companies and medical equipment suppliers that together employ a great many of my constituents. As a result, I am fortunate to be regularly kept apprised of issues impacting this industry. Constituents also contact me to share their concerns about matters like the cost of drugs and drug safety.

Liberals support sending Bill C-17 to the health committee for review and improvement. Whether the government agrees to important amendments at committee will signal whether it truly takes the safety of Canadians with respect to pharmaceutical products seriously.

Incidentally, I applaud the member for Oakville who has been relentless in pressing for enhanced drug safety in Canada. I have been witness to his interventions at health committee and can attest to his tenacity and expertise on the issue.

Bill C-17 however is a delayed response to an issue that has demanded our focused attention going back to the very beginning of the Conservative government's mandate.

A key pillar in the national pharmaceutical strategy launched in 2004 was “Strengthening evaluation of real-world drug safety and effectiveness” to strengthen surveillance of prescription drugs.

An earlier attempt to address the issue, Bill C-51, languished on the order paper when the government, violating its own fixed date election law, triggered the 2008 election. That was six years ago. Canadians would like to know what has taken the government so long to address such a vital issue.

Let me get to the bill. What would Bill C-17 do? The bill applies to prescription and over-the-counter drugs, vaccines, gene therapies, and medical devices. The main features of Bill C-17 are as follows:

First, the bill would require mandatory reporting by health care institutions, presumably meaning hospitals, of adverse drug reactions in patients so that the government may know whether to re-evaluate a drug's safety.

Second, the bill would empower the government to order recalls of unsafe drugs without first entertaining representations from the manufacturer or being obliged to negotiate the recall with the manufacturer, provided the Minister of Health “believes that a therapeutic product presents a serious or imminent risk of injury to health...”. Astonishingly, the government does not already possess this authority when it comes to therapeutic products like drugs. On the other hand, the federal government currently has the power to recall bad toys, tools, cleaning supplies, clothing, and food, something it does with varying degrees of efficiency, but not unsafe drugs. Currently, drug recalls are at the discretion of the manufacturers and distributors. This is hard to believe but true.

Third, not only would Bill C-17 give the government the power to recall drugs, it would create stronger penalties for the marketing of unsafe pharmaceutical products, including jail time and new fines of up to $5 million per day instead of the current $5,000.

Fourth, the bill would authorize the Minister of Health to order a person to provide the minister with any information in the person's control regarding a therapeutic product that the minister believes “may present a serious risk of injury to human health” and that “the Minister believes is necessary to determine whether the product presents such a risk”.

Fifth, the bill would also authorize the Minister of Health to require label or packaging changes if the minister “believes that doing so is necessary to prevent injury to health...”.

Finally, the bill would allow the minister to order therapeutic authorization holders to conduct assessments and provide the results to the minister and in order to improve understanding about a product's effects on health and safety, compile information, conduct studies and tests, or monitor experience regarding a therapeutic product.

The bill is seen to have some important loopholes that compromise its ultimate effectiveness.

First, the definition of “therapeutic product” does not include a natural health product within the meaning of the National Health Products Regulations.

Furthermore, stakeholders are concerned about what constitutes a “prescribed health care institution” under the bill. Does this definition only mean hospitals or does it include clinics and doctors in family practice?

Also, the bill raises the real-life distinction between sellers of therapeutic products and holders of drug authorizations, underscoring the fact that in the complex modern marketplace, they may be different entities.

Incidentally, a therapeutic product authorization is:

....the authorization that permits the import, sale, advertisement, manufacture, preparation, preservation, packaging, labelling, storing and testing of a therapeutic product.

As an example of the distinction, and to quote an article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal:

...the company holding the market authorization may...license distribution to another company.

An historic example shows us why the distinction is significant and why there is a need for the bill to cover both sellers and those with authorization. When, in the 1960s, thalidomide was suspected of being harmful, manufacturers eventually withdrew the drug after some negotiation with Health Canada, the kind of negotiation this bill would presumably no longer require. However, free samples, the primary form of the drug's distribution, were still sitting in doctors' offices across the country. Health Canada did not have the legal authority to control or contain this problem.

The power the bill gives to the minister to recall or suspend drugs appears limited to sellers only. According to the CMA Journal, the health minister:

...should be explicitly empowered to issue suspensions and recalls to both types of “persons”.

Another issue related to the question of the federal government's capacity to fully protect Canadians from unsafe drugs has to do with whether it has the financial and human resources to ensure that drugs important to Canada are manufactured under strict quality control standards, along with ensuring quality control in manufacturing facilities in Canada.

We know that the government has been cutting in areas related to environmental protection and health protection, whether at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency or Health Canada. For example, budget 2012 cut 275 positions from the health products division at Health Canada, the group responsible for monitoring the safety and efficacy of prescription drugs.

Constituents have spoken and written to me because they have been concerned about conditions abroad in plants that manufacture drugs, often generics. Their concerns have often followed news of recalls of drugs such as Ranbaxy's atorvastatin calcium, the generic version of Pfizer's Lipitor.

For example, a 20 milligram tablet was recently found in a sealed bottle marked for 10 milligram tablets of the drug, resulting in a 64,000 bottle recall. This situation followed another episode, where glass particles were found in other batches of this same generic Lipitor.

As a result of such incidents, the U.S. FDA has apparently increased its presence abroad with a view to auditing certain facilities. What is Health Canada doing? Does it have the resources, financial and human, to do anything? Is it working with the FDA?

Whether in the U.S. or Canada, we need drug monitoring systems that catch problems before unsafe products are in consumers' hands and bodies.

This bill is obviously a good step in the right direction, but we have to ensure that any loopholes that would compromise its efficacy are closed. This can be done at the health committee. We also have to ensure that the government, quite apart from this bill, commits the funding necessary to guarantee that we have a safe drug system in Canada. It obviously has to work with the FDA and other international partners in the process of doing so.

Again, I congratulate the member for Oakville for his assiduous efforts in this area. I look forward to seeing what happens to the bill in committee.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier.

It is a pleasure to rise today on behalf of my constituents of Surrey North to speak to Bill C-17. Before I do, I would like to say that I had a chance to attend a graduation ceremony last night at Queen Elizabeth Secondary School where 310 young people graduated. I want to congratulate them and their parents for a job well done. It just so happens that Queen Elizabeth is my former school. I graduated from there many years ago. I took the red eye so I could speak to this important bill this afternoon.

Bill C-17 is a step in the right direction toward tackling a far-reaching problem. After years of pressure from the NDP, health care practitioners, and health care organizations, I am glad to see that the government is finally taking action to address many issues related to drug safety. However, while the bill is a definite step in the right direction, it does not go far enough in addressing some of the key gaps in Canadian drug safety legislation.

I am sure that all of my colleagues in the House would agree that all Canadians deserve to have the information they need to make informed decisions about their health care. Furthermore, I am sure we can all agree that all Canadians expect their health care providers to have all the information necessary to make the best decisions possible about the care they are providing, including information related to the medications they are prescribing. In reality, Canadians and their health care providers are being left in the dark when it comes to important decisions related to their health care. I can provide numerous examples for the House.

In 2011, the Auditor General warned that consumers were not receiving safety warnings about pharmaceutical drugs fast enough, because Health Canada is slow to act on potential issues it identifies. People sometimes have to wait more than two years before Health Canada completes a drug safety review of a product already on the market and before it provides updated information on the risks. This is a backwards process. Canadians deserve to have full information about pharmaceuticals before they make the choice to use them. One of the most basic principles we teach our children is to think before they act. The process Health Canada follows right now seems to encourage the exact opposite of that: use a pharmaceutical first and think about the potential consequences or side-effects later. This needs to change.

It is an unacceptable statistic that most risks associated with prescription drugs are identified after they are introduced to consumers. Almost one-fifth of new active substances approved by Health Canada between 1995 to 2010 were later given serious safety warnings. This further illustrates the backwards process currently being followed.

If that does not provide enough proof that drug safety legislation needs to be urgently strengthened, then let us look at the major drug safety incidents we witnessed in 2013.

How about the diluted chemotherapy drugs given to over 1,200 patients in Ontario and New Brunswick? How about the recall of the birth control pill Alysena 28? It took a full week before this recall was issued, and in the meantime, many Canadian women were exposed to unwanted pregnancies. If that is not enough, five other popular birth control pills were recalled and had serious safety warnings issued about them. The list goes on, but I think members are beginning to see a pattern here.

Canadians deserve better. They deserve to be presented with the full information they need to make informed decisions about their health. They should be able to trust that they will be protected from drugs that would put their well-being at risk.

It is for all these reasons that I, along with my colleagues, am glad to see this bill. Bill C-17 is a good step toward the comprehensive drug safety plan Canada so badly needs. Canadians should have assurance that their medications are safe for use, and they should have access to plain-language information on why their medications are safe.

Bill C-17, in its current form, would allow the government to recall drugs or order the distributor to take corrective action to remedy a problem with a drug. It is a scary thought that up until now, Canada has not had mandatory recalls for drugs. This means that even if a drug posed serious health risks to Canadians, the government could not force the manufacturer to remove it from the Canadian market. This aspect of the bill would give the government the power to protect Canadians when drug safety issues arise.

Bill C-17 would also give the Minister of Health the power to order a manufacturer or importer to modify the label of a drug to update the side effects or health risks associated with it. It would also require manufacturers to update Canadian information about the risks associated with a drug, even if the safety risks were discovered in another country. These are all important steps on the road to ensuring that Canadians have as much information as possible about the drugs they are about to use.

However, while we on this side of the House support the legislation, there is still more that needs to be done to improve drug safety in our country. This legislation still leaves many gaps that must be addressed.

For example, although Bill C-17 would improve labeling, it would not set up better communications systems between doctors, pharmacists, and patients for communicating and reporting risks. Likewise it would not increase access to public information about drug trials, additional drug testing, and why medications are or are not considered safe. While it would include provisions regarding reporting adverse drug reactions, there is no mention of a follow-up by Health Canada to these reports.

There are more steps that need to be taken and more issues that need to be addressed to create the comprehensive drug safety plan that is needed in our country. Comprehensive drug safety legislation should include optimal prescribing practices to ensure that drugs are used only when medically necessary and for the correct reasons and that negative side effects and drug interactions are avoided as much as possible.

Canadians also deserve access to clinical trial results. The reporting of all trial results, both good and bad, would lead to better-informed health care decisions. Although since 2007 Health Canada has encouraged clinical trial sponsors to make their data available, it has no authority to compel this transparency, which is a vital component of a comprehensive approach to drug safety.

I am glad to see this critical step toward improving drug safety being taken. Bill C-17 has the potential to benefit all Canadians in a concrete way and to especially benefit vulnerable populations, such as children and seniors. The bill, in its current form, lays the groundwork for even more concrete measures to be taken to strengthen our drug safety legislation. It is my sincere hope that the government will carefully consider amendments that my colleagues will be proposing at committee that will strengthen the bill.

I would like to talk about that a little bit. We have seen over the last two or three years that the government has brought in legislation that has gone to committee stage. We have seen over and over that the opposition has made concrete, valid amendments. Unfortunately, the Conservatives do not seem to want to take any sort of advice, either from the opposition or from experts who have testified before the committees. I would urge the Conservatives to take into consideration amendments that will be offered at the committee stage to further improve this very important measure.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the member for taking the red-eye here and attending an important graduation last night. That was important. I have had the privilege of working with this member in the past.

In listening to the debate today, though, I think there is a concern that there is somewhat of a delay in getting the bill to committee. We need to get the bill through the House. It needs good discussions at committee, and potentially additions can be made to improve it.

One of the problems I see as I listen to a lot of the remarks from the NDP is that if we have the objective of making the bill perfect, we would probably lose the good that is in the bill, because it will never get to where it has to get to.

I ask the hon. member if the NDP is willing to speed this process along and get it done.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I have worked with the member for Malpeque, and he is very reasonable.

Of course we would like to see the bill approved as fast as we can, because it concerns the safety of Canadians, but we would also like to improve the bill. I know the Conservatives do not like seeing amendments to improve the bill, but we will offer those.

As I pointed out in my speech, we will not make everything perfect, but we could certainly improve the bill and get close to making it as perfect as possible. I would encourage the Liberal members also on the committee to offer some amendments to improve the bill, because that is what we are here for. We are here to offer amendments and offer ideas on how we can improve legislation that will protect Canadians.

I hope the member for Malpeque and his health critic will also come with some prepared amendments that will offer to improve the bill further.

[Mathieu Ravignat, NDP, Pontiac, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his great speech. I think what he has touched on and what is fundamental with this particular bill is the role of government in making sure that Canadians are safe with regard to something as important to their health as prescription medication or medication in general.

The fact is that statistics have shown that not taking one's medication properly or not taking it all, because one misunderstands, can have dire consequences on one's health or could cause death. There is a tension between the interests of the pharmaceutical companies and their profit-making initiatives and informing the public, so there is definitely a role for government to play, a role that the NDP has recognized consistently. Informing and educating the public is essential. Making sure that labels are very clear is essential.

I would like to hear my hon. colleague's opinion on that positive role that government can play with regard to our health system and our pharmaceutical industry.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I absolutely agree with the hon. member that the government needs to ensure that it protects the safety of Canadians, whether it is in drug safety or food safety. We have seen this government cut food inspectors. Canadians expect us to put mechanisms in place to ensure that they are provided with safe drugs and safe food. It is critical that we act in a fast manner to ensure that these measures are put in place.

Unfortunately, time after time we have seen the Conservatives fail to protect Canadians when it comes to drugs and food safety.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to join my colleagues in the debate on this important bill, Bill C-17.

The debate we are having in the House today is also very important. I have heard Liberal members questioning the fact that NDP members are rising in the House to take a stand on Bill C-17 and propose solutions. I have heard Conservative backbenchers yelling for us to send the bill to committee.

I think they have forgotten what has been happening in committee since the Conservatives won a majority. The Conservatives say publicly that they are open to amendments and discussions with the opposition parties to try to improve bills, but when it comes time in committee to actually consider amendments proposed by the opposition to try to improve the bills, the Conservatives insist on meeting in camera and systematically oppose any idea that comes from the opposition, even if that idea was shared time and time again by various subject matter experts, groups and Canadians who expressed their views to members from all parties.

The NDP believes it is important to take the time to publicly propose in the House the amendments we would like to see made to Bill C-17 in order to correct the flaws that still exist in this bill. No bill is perfect when it is sent to committee after second reading in the House. I have been here for three years and I have never seen a perfect bill come out of the House at second reading, and I am sure that other members who have been here longer have not either.

This is where we begin thinking about the bill and we take the time to debate it. Quite frankly, I find it unfortunate to hear my colleagues from the other parties saying that we are wasting our time, that we should send the bill to committee and that we should trust the committee members who will examine it. I would like to have such blind trust in the government, which holds a majority on every committee, but to date, I have seen virtually no evidence of its good faith.

Unfortunately for the Conservatives, it is our responsibility to take the time to discuss the bill in the House at second reading. it contains some good elements. We in the NDP know full well that we will not be able to come to a perfect result in the debates here at second reading. It will be very difficult to achieve that result in committee, but we still have some ideas to put forward that were raised on a number of occasions by experts whom we consulted and who provided their opinions on the matter.

As some of my colleagues have mentioned, Bill C-17 deals with a very important issue, namely drug safety. The changes that will be made to the current legislation are long-awaited. So this is a good first step in the right direction. The bill before us today would allow the government to require the recall of drugs or to order distributors to take corrective action in respect of their products. It would also allow the Minister of Health to order a manufacturer or importer to modify the label on a product in order to provide the most current information possible on side effects and health risks associated with the drug in question.

Bill C-17 would also allow the Minister of Health to order that a drug be tested and the results sent to the minister, and to require manufacturers to update the information available in Canada about any health risks associated with their products, even if those risks have been identified outside Canada.

While information is available in other countries, and while scientists have conducted research and there are documented cases of problems caused by taking certain drugs or by drug interactions, this literature is not distributed in Canada. Therefore, Canadians have to do their own research if they want to be informed. This appalling situation is frankly incomprehensible. This is one of the most important improvements that must be made to the bill as presented to us today.

We in the NDP are pleased to see that the government has finally listened to the pleas of doctors, health professionals, and representatives from the area and from the NDP. Our health critic, the hon. member for Vancouver East has been questioning the government for a very long time. She has been putting pressure on the government to finally take steps to correct the shortcomings in the current bill.

We are pleased to see a result, and we support the bill at second reading. We want the bill to go to committee so that it can be studied in greater detail and so that the necessary amendments can be made.

However, we believe that the bill still does not go far enough. There are still a lot of flaws. Every year, 150,000 Canadians suffer serious reactions after taking prescription drugs. That is a significant number, and these people still do not have access to all the information they need and do not have all the means they might have to protect themselves. Among these 150,000 Canadians, seniors are five times more likely than the rest of the population to be hospitalized as a result of an adverse drug reaction.

According to a 2013 study by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, one in 200 seniors was hospitalized as a result of an adverse drug reaction, compared to one in 1,000 for the rest of the Canadian population.

Before I became an MP, I spent some time as an information officer for the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec. I regularly answered questions from people, mainly over the phone. We had to explain how Quebec's public health insurance plan and public drug insurance plan worked. The NDP would like to see such a plan implemented Canada-wide. However, that is a topic for another debate.

I also regularly spoke to seniors who called in for information on the price of medications or on how the public drug insurance plan worked. They also had a lot of questions about the drugs they were taking. I did not have the ability to answer them, since I am not a pharmacist or health care professional. However, I could see that our seniors were distressed because, over the years, they had been prescribed more and more drugs for various reasons and they did not always have the information they needed. Furthermore, the information on labels is rather complex and not necessarily very clear. When someone is taking 6, 8 or 10 drugs at the same time for various health problems, it is very important for that person to have access to clear, accurate, up-to-date information, regardless of the source. Whether the information is from an international source or the research was conducted in Canada, it should be provided to Canadians. We hope to see that happen soon.

In my riding of Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, the population is aging. I am concerned about how the lack of up-to-date information is affecting people at present. I am truly worried about how this could affect the health of the seniors I represent and the general population.

The NDP has called for various amendments that we would like to see made to Bill C-17. First, we would like to ensure that best practices for prescribing drugs are adopted by physicians. We want to ensure that Canadians are prescribed the most appropriate drugs in appropriate quantities.

We are hearing more and more about overmedication, whether of our seniors or our veterans who need psychological or physical help and who are prescribed many drugs that are more or less effective. The vast majority of our population could benefit from major enhancements to drug safety.

The NDP would also like to see public disclosure of the results of clinical trials, which does not currently happen. This information will be held by Health Canada, but will not be available to the general public. Canadians do not have the right tools to determine the possible effects of different medications on themselves and on their health.

Unfortunately, I do not have enough time to speak about the various improvements that the NDP would like to make to Bill C-17. I will simply mention once again that we are very proud to support the bill at second reading stage. However, we hope that the work in committee will be done in good faith and that we will truly be able to focus on Canadians' health and safety and enact the best possible bill to protect our citizens.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for her sincere speech and her dedication to prescription drug safety.

I would like to ask her if she would consider going to her House leader today, as soon as possible, and asking the House leader to approve sending this bill to committee today so that it is not delayed and it can be passed in the House of Commons, with any luck, with the agreement of the Standing Committee on Health, and can be sent to the Senate so that Canadians can become safer sooner. It is very important to get this bill passed as quickly as possible.

I would like to make that request of the member.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague opposite for his question. I know that the issue we are talking about today is very important to him personally. I thank him for his work on this issue and the passion with which he defends Canadians' health.

If I was sure that the government would work in good faith with members of Parliament, that we would leave the committee with the best possible bill, that there would be no obstruction and that all the parties would truly work together, then I would be pleased to send the bill to committee as soon as possible. Unfortunately, our experience shows that we need to take the time in the House to debate the issue and present our arguments publicly because we are muzzled in committee.

If we are talking about issues that are crucial to Canadians, then the meeting goes in camera. I find it unfortunate to have to take so much time here in the House discussing an issue that is important to each and every one of us.

Unfortunately, this government's attitude since winning a majority leaves us, as opposition members, with no choice.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, it is clear that not understanding the benefits versus the risks of medications will tragically cause some people to get sicker than they were when they started taking the medication in the first place. In many situations, people die as a direct result of taking medication without having a fair understanding of the risk factors.

The bill is a step in the right direction, and the health critic for the Liberal Party has been very clear that we believe we can do more to improve it. We are prepared to see the bill go to committee in the hope that the government will in fact accept and make the amendments that would make the bill that much more stronger.

The concern I have is that the New Democrats might be using this bill as some form of a bargaining tool. Does the member feel that the NDP is prepared to allow the bill to pass? When does she believe the bill would be called again? Ideally, how much more time would she like to see?

Given the expressions of support for the bill, whether from the leader of the Green Party, the government, the Liberals and even from her caucus, there seems to be consensus that it is a good bill that can be improved upon if it goes to committee.

When does the member anticipate that the NDP will be in a position to allow the bill to go to committee?

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question.

I find the Liberals' attitude to be especially funny. They are in a big hurry when they come to the House, but they spent years in government doing nothing, sitting on their hands and not advancing the issues. They could have resolved these problems years ago, when they were in government. Now they are trying to blame the NDP. They are saying that we are responsible for delaying passage of the bill that would help Canadians be in better health and better understand the effects of the drugs they take. Frankly, I think no one in Canada buys that argument.

The work we do in the House is important. My colleague should know how things work in the House. He has been here for some time. He knows full well that as soon as the Conservatives get to committee, they eliminate any possibility for discussion with Canadians. The meeting ends up in camera and we are unable to get our message across.

The NDP knows that, unfortunately, we can rarely trust the government. We take the time we are allocated in the House to debate and to proudly represent the Canadians who sent us here, and to speak to the issues that matter to them, including protecting their health.

[Carol Hughes, NDP, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we are having a wholesome debate today.

I want to reiterate what the bill is actually about. Bill C-17 would bring in the following measures. It would allow the government to recall drugs or order the distributor to take corrective actions to remedy the problem with the drugs. The government could order a manufacturer or importer to modify the label of a drug to update the side effects or health risks associated with it. The minister could order a review of the drug and to be reported back to the minister. People will be quite surprised by the fact that this cannot get done at this point. It would give the Governor-in-Council new powers to create regulations as needed for labelling and authorization criteria. It would require manufacturers to communicate risks associated with their drugs that have come up in other countries. It would impose new fines for keeping unsafe product on the market, up to $5 million per day, and could include jail time, with a stronger penalty if the manufacturer knowingly erred.

A lot of Canadians would be surprised to find out that these measures are not in place at this point in time. It is evident that we need a comprehensive drug plan so all Canadians can be assured their medications are safe for use and so they have access to plain language information about why their medications are safe, including the testing process and medication labelling.

We have heard over and over again at the health committee, when I sat on it a few years ago and today, whether it is GMO or anything else, that people want to see the labelling. They want to be informed, contrary to what the government sometimes thinks. Sometimes it thinks people are not paying attention to what is being said in the House. It thinks people are not paying attention to the bills. Canadians are paying attention.

While we support the legislation, more needs to be done to improve the drug safety measures. We will be proposing amendments to improve the bill. I understand the Liberals are also looking at proposing amendments as well. This is why we should not be rushing bills through. These issues date back many years. In 2011, the Auditor General warned that consumers were not receiving safety warnings about pharmaceutical drugs fast enough because Health Canada was slow to act on potential issues that it identified. That was one of the reasons the Auditor General brought forward.

Fast track now to 2014, three years later, and we are just getting this. If the government is saying that this was such a critical issue, why did it not bring it forward? If the Liberals are saying that this is such a critical issue, why did they not bring it forward when they had 13 years to do it?

I forgot to mention earlier, Mr. Speaker, that I will be splitting my time.

Certainly the NDP is looking at proposing amendments to improve the bill when it reaches committee. In the meantime, it is important to have a healthy debate in the House so we can get the ideas forward, so people can be more educated about what is going on and what the government is putting forward. It is a great bill. Why do we not want Canadians to know about it just by having the debate in the House and being able to hear from other witnesses as they may want to choose to have their words heard at committee, whether it is by writing a submission or being called as a witness?

Sometimes the government will put in place some type of advertising. This is basically what has happened here. It indicates it is taking care of the well-being of Canadians, but as we can see, the bill shows there was a big void. We know, for the most part, when we send something to committee, and my colleague spoke to this a little while ago, the Conservatives still have a majority on the committee and all too often they are just eager to pass legislation without proper amendments. Because the amendments are coming from the opposition, they sometimes think that they are not noteworthy.

Therefore, we want to ensure that people are aware of the proposition and of the changes and concerns we have with legislation. That is why we are having this debate today, so more people are aware of needed amendments and whether the government acts on those.

The Auditor General also found there were gaps in transparency that were keeping Canadians in the dark about Health Canada's drug safety work. Unlike many other countries, Health Canada also does not make information on clinical trials public.

I have a sister who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at the age of 50. She was on a clinical trial. We would have liked to have known what those results were at the end of the day and more information about that.

If information on clinical trials are public, they would show the health risks and side effects associated with the drug during its testing phase. All Canadians should be made aware of what those are. I also think the scientific community is looking at this as well. It does not want to be kept in the dark. The information needs to be passed on in a public way.

When it comes to providing Canadians with the information they need, Health Canada has been slow to react as of late. It took a full week before the voluntary recall of Alysena 28 was communicated to Health Canada and made public. Guess what happened with that? Many women were exposed to unwanted pregnancies. Now there is a class action lawsuit against Apotex for the faulty birth control pills.

The United States stops these medications from going forward. In Canada, we hear about these medications being taken off the market, yet we continue administering them to Canadians. We need to react a little more swiftly and we need to pay attention to what is going on. While Canadians are Canadians and U.S. citizens are Americans, they are all people and it affects them the same way.

Currently drugs can be prescribed without knowing what effects they can have on children, seniors, or nursing women because Canada and other countries do not share the information they collect on the particular effects of drugs and they do not ask drug companies to share it. That is extremely important.

It is not just the NDP that is calling for amendments to the bill.

Dr. Joel Lexchin, who is the drug safety policy expert at York University, calls Bill C-17 a step forward for Canada's drug safety legislation. We basically have said the same thing.

Dr. Lexchin has also expressed concerns that the legislation would not go far enough and that Canadians would still not know enough about the evaluation process that determines whether medications would be safe enough to be sold in Canada.

Let us hear what else he has to say on what needs to be improved in the legislation. I hope the colleagues across are listening to what needs to be improved because these are some of the amendments that the NDP will be bringing forward at committee.

He says that the new drug safety law should require that when the minister makes a decision about a product needing additional testing or that a product should be withdrawn, that all of the documentation used in making that decision should be made public. All of the safety and efficacy effectiveness information about a product that was generated either in the testing phase or once the drug was on the market should be publicly available, including periodic safety update reports. How important is that? It is extremely important.

He also says that the minister should be able to make decisions without prior consultation with the company involved, and those are important to note. All too often we find that the big corporate entities have the government in their pockets. Therefore, this would certainly put that to rest. When a company is required to do additional testing, there should be an annual report about the status of that additional testing. Additionally, the complete results of those additional tests should be public.

He further says that if companies are required to do additional testing, then the companies should turn over the funding to do that testing to a neutral third party, for example, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The CIHR should be responsible for selecting the researchers to do the testing and the data should be analyzed completely independent from the company.

This is about the safety of patients and Canadians.

The government can go on and on about doing some advertising, but until it takes action such as some of the amendments that have been suggested here, we will not get that perfect bill that could provide more security to Canadians. We know over and over again when the government has done advertising. We can look at the economic action plan. We can look at Twitter feed amount it actually puts in. What really matters is to ensure we have proper legislation that will protect Canadians.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to what the member opposite said about amendments. The Minister of Health is on the record saying that she is willing to consider amendments to this bill, which is very positive. It is the way democracy should work, and it is the way democracy is working, if only we can get this bill to committee.

We do not make amendments in the House generally. Where do we make them? We make them in committee. I ask the member to please go to her House leader and ask him to get this bill to committee today.

[Carol Hughes, NDP, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we already told the member that we are willing to move this to committee, but it does not mean we should forego our voices here in the House in the debate on the issues.

We all know full well that, once we are at committee, even though the minister says she is willing to look at amendments, all too often the government is willing to push forward without amendments because it has the majority. We want to make sure the Conservatives fully understand that we think this is a great bill and it is moving in the right direction, but it is imperative that there be amendments to it.

My question for the member, if he were able to answer, would be how this new legislation would improve the prevention of adverse drug reactions when it does nothing to change Health Canada's follow-up on adverse reaction reports.