- Member of Parliament
- Member of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians
- NDP
- Vancouver Kingsway
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 59%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $153,893.57
- Government Page
- Jun/1/23 2:53:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Health recently blocked reforms that would save Canadians billions on their prescription medicines. The minister said he did this because he wanted to be consulted by Canada's drug price regulator but did not receive an invitation. In fact, documents obtained by the health committee show he was invited at least five times, and the minister's office either ignored or rejected them.
Why will the minister not come clean with Canadians and just admit that he refused to lower drug prices because big pharma told him not to?
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- May/30/23 3:12:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yet another study once again proves public pharmacare saves our health care system money: $1,500 per patient every year. It also reveals patients cannot access medicine because of cost. This means more hospital visits, needless suffering and billions of dollars wasted.
The New Democrats have pushed for public pharmacare for decades because we know it saves lives and money, and the Liberals have promised it since 1997. Will the minister finally implement public pharmacare to keep our bottom line and Canadians healthy?
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Madam Speaker, I certainly meant no disrespect.
Does the hon. member believe that we can interdict our way out of this problem? What does she think about the prospect of trying a new approach, other than the failed war on drugs, to try to make sure that people can at least get the drugs they are addicted to from a pharmacy or some other place where they can be assured that the quality of the drugs they are getting will not kill them?
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- Dec/8/21 9:11:56 p.m.
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Madam Chair, it was a simple question: Will the federal government meet the deadline of January 1, 2022, which is less than a month from now? I guess the answer to that is no, it will not.
Can the minister confirm when national universal pharmacare will be in place for Canadians?
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- Dec/8/21 9:11:22 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the Liberal-appointed Hoskins advisory council called on the federal government to launch national pharmacare by offering universal coverage for essential medicines by January 1, 2022.
Will the federal government meet this deadline?
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- Dec/8/21 9:10:18 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I would like to congratulate my hon. colleague on his appointment. I look forward to working with him to build health care for all Canadians.
In the 2019 throne speech, the Liberal government pledged to “introduce and implement national pharmacare so that Canadians have the drug coverage they need.” The 2020 throne speech noted that the government “remains committed to a national universal pharmacare program” and would “accelerate steps to achieve this system”.
The 2021 throne speech contained no reference to pharmacare whatsoever. Does this omission reflect his government's abandonment of universal pharmacare?
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- Dec/2/21 11:15:46 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for pointing out something that is very important, which is that health care in this country is shared jurisdiction. The federal government has a role to play. The existence of the Canada Health Act is proof positive of that, where we set conditions for the provinces to get money. There are five conditions in the Canada Health Act that provinces must meet in order to receive that money. I would point out that the words “health care” do not exist in the Constitution. All that is there is that the provinces are given the power to establish and maintain hospitals, so it is important to point that out.
There is no mention of pharmacare in this throne speech. The price of drugs has not gone down since the government came to power in 2015. Why should Canadians take any comfort from the member's comment that they may have relief in terms of universal pharmacare?
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