Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts on this very important bill. It is an immense honour for me to take the mike right now and speak to my colleague's bill. I want to thank my colleague from New Westminster—Burnaby for bringing this bill forward. This is a very special opportunity that we have right now to make a massive difference in the lives of Canadians.
In Canada in this pandemic, we have seen millions of Canadians lose their jobs, and when they lost their jobs, they also lost their benefits. That means millions of Canadians were not able to purchase the medication they needed. This is on top of the millions of Canadians who already simply cannot afford their medication. Whether they do not have coverage at all or have coverage that costs too much, very, very many Canadians are not taking the medication they need because they simply cannot afford to.
I have spoken to so many families and so many people who tell me of the pain of not being able to afford their medication. I think of a family in which the father works in construction, and he has a heart illness that requires him to take medication to stay healthy, but he cannot afford that medication, and on top of that, his children need medication. Therefore, he has to choose not only between paying the bills or buying his medication, but also between buying the medication either for himself or for the children he loves. That is an impossible position to be in, and he is not alone. There are so many families that face the same decision.
We know that one out of five Canadians are not taking their medication, simply because they cannot afford to. We know that when someone cannot treat an illness, they end up at the worst stage of that illness, and it costs the system and the family and the person so much more. Having universal access to medication so that everyone in our country could afford it would dramatically improve the lives of everyone.
The Liberals have been promising universal pharmacare for 23 years. They promised again in 2019, but have people seen any difference in their lives when it comes to accessing medication? They have not. We have seen, sadly and again and again, that the Liberal government sides with the pharmaceutical industry instead of with Canadians who are desperate to stay healthy and afford their medication.
We have a concrete solution. The solution is to use the combined power of our entire nation to negotiate better prices so that everyone in our country can afford medication. This is so important. This is an opportunity to save lives. I am asking everybody to think about the millions of Canadians who cannot afford medication, to think about our health care system that allows someone to go to a doctor and be diagnosed with an illness but not to be able to afford the medication they need to stay healthy, to think about the only health care system in the world that provides universal health care but does not include medication coverage, and to pick up their phone and call their local MP.
I ask people to sign petitions and write letters. We have a week left. This vote on the first step to establish the first-of-its-kind, free medication coverage for all Canadians is next week. We can put pressure. We can show that this is the way forward and we can win. People have shown the power of organizing; they have shown again and again that when people come together, we fight and we win.
Once implemented, medication coverage for all Canadians would mean that no one in our country would have to worry about paying for medication. If someone needed medication in this country, they would use their health card and not their credit card. That dream can be a reality, and once implemented, it would establish a savings of at least $4.2 billion that could be reinvested into our health care system.
Here is an opportunity for the Liberal government to back up its words. Its own report states that one of the key steps to establishing a universal public medication-for-all system is to pass a pharmacare act like the one we have proposed. It is far past time to pass such a measure and deliver universal pharmacare to Canadians. Let us get it done now.
No one should have to choose between paying the rent and filling a prescription. One in five Canadians is not taking the medication they need because they cannot afford it. Many Canadians are cutting their pills in half or even deciding not to buy their medication at all because they cannot afford it. Too many people are ending up in the emergency room or in the hospital for an extended stay because they cannot afford to take the medication they need. Hundreds of people are dying prematurely every year. Even those with private insurance are seeing the coverage offered by their employer decrease. People are in more precarious jobs, and their family budget is getting tighter and tighter. We need to help families, not make their lives more difficult.
I have met many families in Quebec who say that it is getting harder and harder to buy private prescription drug coverage. It is getting harder and harder to get drug coverage and buy medication. I spoke with unions that represent thousands of workers, and they all say that prescription drug insurance cost workers too much.
It is essential to have fully public pharmacare in Quebec and across the country. Canada is the only industrialized country whose health insurance does not include universal, public coverage of prescription medication. That does not make any sense.
The Liberals have not stopped breaking promises for the past 23 years. They would rather protect the profits of big pharmaceutical and insurance companies than help people. In 2019, they made yet another promise to introduce pharmacare, but they have done nothing concrete since to keep that promise. The Liberals say all the right things in public, but they keep putting powerful pharmaceutical companies' profits ahead of people's needs. They now have an opportunity to vote for our bill to give Canadians a comprehensive universal pharmacare program.
This bill is the first step toward creating a pharmacare program. If the Liberals really want to help Canadian families, they can work with us to provide the universal pharmacare program people need.
I invite all Canadians to contact their MP and ask him or her to vote in favour of a universal public pharmacare program. We must vote in favour of Bill C-213, a bill to help families and save lives.
I am grateful I had the opportunity to share these words. Again, we have an opportunity to save lives, to help families and workers. It is essential that our health care system cover everyone and that also means providing a universal pharmacare program. Together, we can do this. I invite everyone to demand that we undertake this next step towards a universal, comprehensive health care system.