Finance committee  We certainly recognize the impact on our business. I'm not aware that we're tracking the impact of it on the business. In part, the reason may be that its cost for our business is a little more indirect than for the P&C insurers. When you have a natural disaster, the impact i

Finance committee  Those who have lower incomes generally would be covered through public programs, and these would provide certainty over time. It's more that longevity risk would help with other individuals.

Finance committee  Do you want me to state it specifically?

Finance committee  I guess the bottom line, and the reason we mention rare diseases specifically, is that we want to make sure they are included or captured within the program. They are unique in a number of respects. First, you can have a number of rare diseases that affect smaller portions of the

Finance committee  —the drug therapies are very costly.

Finance committee  No, I understand.

Finance committee  Just that rare diseases are captured.

Finance committee  It could possibly be that. Our suggestion is that we would be wanting to work with government as they develop solutions for the rare disease community.

Finance committee  That would be one option that we would support, and we do have a pooling mechanism within our industry. It's not specific to rare diseases, but pooling is another option to address high-cost drugs.

Finance committee  Sure. I've heard the arguments and concerns of pharmaceutical about lower prices. My understanding of those arguments is that, to the extent that prices are lower in Canada than they are today, maybe that wouldn't attract the same level of investment from abroad, or the establi

Finance committee  Yes. I would clarify is that it's not for our industry; it's for Canadians and for payers of medicines. You have public payers and you have private payers. The way it would work in the private industry is that you have employers ultimately paying, and Canadians paying for their d

Finance committee  Sure. I'll just give you a very quick background. Our request or ask is the elimination of the capital tax on financial institutions. The reason for this is that the capital tax adds a cost of doing business to the industry and other financial institutions. I guess the added effe

Finance committee  Correct, and it influences behaviour.

Finance committee  I spoke to the issue of high prices in Canada for prescription drugs. The first issue to address, which would help with all payers and therefore with access, is first, implementation of the PMPRB reforms. Those are on their way and we are fully supportive of them. The second o

Finance committee  It's the Patented Medicines Prices Review Board, yes. The second element is having the private insurers join the pCPA, the pharmaceutical alliance that currently is with governments. The reason for doing so is that it would allow all buyers to pool their full market power to neg