Mr. Speaker, I fundamentally disagree with many points that my hon. colleague is asserting.
First, I do not know where he gets the $34-billion cost. That does not emerge from any of the studies. I sat through the two-year study at the Standing Committee on Health. We know that national pharmacare, through the public system, will save us billions of dollars. He also suggests that the system is working well while his other colleagues stand and ask question after question about how it is failing Canadians with rare diseases in this country.
I have a two-part question. If he thinks this is a purely provincial matter and the federal government has no role to play in this, is it his position that the federal government should get out of health care and leave it entirely to the provinces, or does he think that we should continue to participate and provide transfer payments? Does he not agree that if we can save $4 billion to $8 billion by reorganizing our system, would that not make more money available to help all those Canadians who are not getting access to the drugs they need for their rare disorders?