Mr. Speaker, today, World Contraception Day, falls in the middle of Gender Equality Week. Sadly, in Canada, we have neither equal access to birth control nor gender equality. For example, birth control like the NuvaRing is available on public formularies in Quebec, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and the Yukon, but not in B.C., Alberta, Manitoba or Ontario. Only Alberta covers emergency contraceptives, and only Quebec covers the contraceptive patch.
Canada has an obligation to ensure that everyone across the country has access to the highest quality of medication, but obviously, this does not include many women, trans or non-binary persons in need of contraceptive care.
The Liberals are known for running with New Democrat policies to get elected and never keeping their promises. The Prime Minister could take the first concrete step and implement his promise of national pharmacare by beginning with free birth control, as proposed by my Motion 65.
He could take this—