Finance committee  I would be delighted, and I say this very seriously, if this committee recommended to the Minister of Finance a general operating principle that, going forward, all programs must be targeted, not universal. I'm excepting health care itself because it's been around for 70 years an

Finance committee  I haven't crunched those numbers. I would like to see some numbers. I'm starting to do some work in that area but I would like to see it. There are many different grants, as we know. There's just a plethora of grants.

Finance committee  I know you're going to be debating it in the next 12 months. I hope there's a very serious debate on universal pharmacare. It is massively expensive and there are different studies out there. We're all aware of them. The figures are anywhere from $20 billion to $40 billion. These

Finance committee  I don't need free drugs, I assure you, and neither does Conrad Black and neither do MPs.

Finance committee  I'm living very comfortably and I don't have free drugs, other than through my benefits package, which I pay for.

Finance committee  The universal pharmacare program.... The targeting principle says that we help those who need help, not wealthy people who don't need help. That's what I mean. I didn't say “eliminate it”. We already have pharmacare in Canada. One of the great urban legends right now is that Can

Finance committee  We have many of them. We have 10 provinces and the territories as well. That's in the annual report from CIHI, which is superb and I urge every MP to read it. It's the annual analysis of pharmacare expenditures in Canada, going back some 15 years to the present.

Finance committee  I'm glad you asked that because these aging numbers are not theories. They're not opinions. It's called demography, and the demography is just relentless. We're going to have one in four people over 65. What we can do though, as you just suggested, is to try to reduce the barrier

Finance committee  I thank you, Mr. Chair, for the invitation to appear before the finance committee, but first I'll state my disclosures. I do not consult to anyone or anything anywhere in the world, directly or indirectly. I do not belong to or contribute to any political party or post lawn signs

Finance committee  I've strongly endorsed it. You know, you've closed the deal on CETA. It was negotiated by the Conservatives, but you closed it. That's an extremely important deal, with 500 million high-income consumers. There are those in unions who say we shouldn't be negotiating with middle-in

Finance committee  Somebody has to have the money to pay for those bonds, yes. Not someone like me—someone who's wealthy.

Finance committee  Or corporations or investors.

Finance committee  Well, certainly the government does pay interest on the debt.

Finance committee  It includes anyone who's paying taxes, for sure.

Finance committee  I see where you're going. That isn't my concern, if you're asking me that. I have different intellectual or analytical concerns. Those wealthy corporations or individuals have to, of course, pay taxes, file annual tax returns. They pay personal income taxes or corporate income ta