Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for exemplifying how Liberals managed to take 13 years and waste it without getting anything done on this file.
A national pharmacare program was a 1993 commitment of the then Liberal government. It had all sorts of platitudes about it, not just in the election but in subsequent Parliaments. It never got it done. The member did a very good job of showing how the Liberals can keep running out the clock on an issue as important as pharmacare without actually getting anything done.
The member rightly says that we need to negotiate with the provinces. It is in the motion to negotiate with the provinces. The motion simply calls for the federal government to organize a meeting of the provinces within 12 months to discuss the implementation of a pharmacare program and to get to all the various details that he and other Liberal colleagues have rightly pointed out.
Our point is that we have seen Liberal governments rag the puck on this issue before, until they are no longer in power. It could be over a decade that they do it. What we are saying is that we want the government to commit to action. We want it to call the meeting and start doing the work that has to be done to prepare for that meeting. That is what we are asking for.
They are right. This is not an NDP issue. It is driven by Canadians. They have been driving it for decades, and Liberal governments have not been doing anything about it. We are asking it to be different, support the motion, and get ready for that meeting.