Finance committee  The minister would receive a proposal from us on the proposed fees to be changed. The minister would have the final authority here in that sense, setting them through a ministerial mandate.

Finance committee  That's correct. That is the proposal. David wants to make a point.

Finance committee  The EMA charges, I believe, 100%. I couldn't quote you their absolute cost for a new active substance review, but we could get that information for you, if you would like.

Finance committee  Your point is well taken. Essentially, they're charging more for the cost recovery of the drug review, but the fee, the cost of drugs in the country, is lower generally.

Finance committee  In a consultation, I would have to listen to those arguments. As to their merit, however, and the evidence-base around them, I would have to look at that specifically. It's hard for me to say.

Finance committee  I've never done a comprehensive study, but globally, it does not seem to be correlated.

Finance committee  We have several. One is the consultation proper, together with discussions and negotiations about what the fee should be, in view of the impact on those sectors. I'm very glad that I'm not in the farming sector when I'm trying to set fees. Second, we have a policy of fee mitigat

Finance committee  Are you talking about the total cost to our branch?

Finance committee  We currently are charging about 40% of the total cost for a drug review, and that's based on 100% time-tracking. So we know the costs are quite activity based—they're not just a guess. We charge about 40% of the true cost of a drug review right now. As to the total revenues for

Finance committee  Ninety-seven million dollars a year, which represents just under 50% of the budget of our entire branch.

Finance committee  I can elaborate. Basically, all the departments that charge user fees do so individually under their regulations generally. What the Transport Canada folks who were just presenting were talking about were non-regulatory areas where the administrator would enter into an agreement

Finance committee  What would that do?

Finance committee  If you say a health product costs $10, the fee to the industry currently represents 1¢ of that $10. What would happen? As I said, globally, we know others are charging 100% cost recovery and much larger fees, and there has been no negative impact on industry that we know of exter

Finance committee  It is possible, I think.

Finance committee  That's absolutely right.