Mr. Speaker, in response to (a), (b), (c), and (d), provinces and territories have primary responsibility for delivering health care services, including the implementation and delivery of the national pharmacare program, and they are responsible for gathering the requested information. Recipient provinces and territories are required to provide annual reports that demonstrate how federal funding was used to increase existing public coverage for the prescription drugs and related products specified in the agreement.
More information on national pharmacare program agreements can be found at https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/corporate/transparency/health-agreements/national-pharmacare-bilateral-agreements.html.
In response to (e), Health Canada used only existing internal resources to manage national pharmacare bilateral agreements, and made no payments to third party administrators or technology platforms. Per section 4.8 of the bilateral national pharmacare program agreements, provincial and territorial governments could use a portion of their federal funding allocations to pay for administrative costs related to delivering the commitments in the agreement. Recipient provinces and territories are required to provide annual reports that demonstrate how federal funding was used in delivering the program.