Mr. Speaker, the comment the member made about patient families being used by pharmaceutical companies when they are coming to Parliament Hill to advocate for themselves is an absolutely shameful comment to make in the House.
My family is affected by a rare disease. Being in the province of Alberta, my family is allowed to gain access to a specific type of medication that helps my oldest son with the condition he has. However, Quebec has made the decision on its formulary that one is not allowed to do off-label prescribing, which is Quebec's choice to make. The province should be allowed to make that decision, so if I were a resident of Quebec, I would be going to my MNA in that province and advocating for it.
Patient families are coming to Parliament Hill and advocating for access to medication, and the issue is access, not pricing. There are medications approved in Canada for rare disorders for which there is no reimbursement through the public insurer, the government. There are patient families trapped between two governments arguing over the price, when the issue is accessing the medications we need.
I do not have a question. It is a comment. It is shameful to say that patient families with rare diseases coming to Parliament are only doing so because pharmaceutical companies are pushing them to do it.