44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 6, 2024 11:00AM
Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure and an honour to rise in this most honourable of houses. This evening, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Milton.
Before beginning my formal remarks, I would say that, when I think of Bill C-64, an act respecting pharmacare, and the implementation of a piece of legislation that would obviously strengthen our health care system and the delivery of it, I would not be remiss to say that this is not only an excellent piece of legislation that would help Canadians, specifically those in need of contraceptives and the nearly 4 million Canadians dealing with diabetes, but also another sign of our government's strengthening of our social fabric and social system. It would build on other programs that we have implemented, including the Canada child benefit, which we know has lifted hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty and helps families every month. In my riding, nearly $80 million or $90 million a year arrives, tax-free and monthly. We know that the Canada workers benefit, which helps our working poor and those trying to make ends meet and get ahead, helps literally millions of Canadians. We introduced middle-income class tax cuts in 2015, raised the basic personal exemption amount and accelerated the pace. We know those are delivering $10 billion annually in tax relief to Canadians, as we speak.
More recently, the Canadian dental care program, which thousands of dentists have signed on for, is benefiting individuals in my riding of Vaughan—Woodbridge. In fact, in the heart of my riding at Weston Road and Rutherford Road, there is a big billboard, put up by one of the dentists in the community, stating that they welcome patients who are eligible and approved for the Canadian dental care program. This program is already helping thousands of residents in the riding of Vaughan—Woodbridge and in the city of Vaughan. The work that we are doing on Bill C-64 would continue to build on that work of helping Canadians to receive the services they need, which, in this case, is to improve health care.
With respect to health care, I was at the announcement with the Prime Minister and the Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, when we announced a $3.1-billion bilateral agreement of health care funding for more nurses, more doctors and more health teams across the province of Ontario, a part of the $200 billion the federal government is committing to health care across this beautiful country.
I appreciate the opportunity to speak to the important work under way through Bill C-64 with regard to the Canadian drug agency, or CDA. The CDA is one of the key features contained in Bill C-64. On December 18, 2023, the Government of Canada announced the establishment of the CDA, which is to be built from the existing Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health, in partnership with provinces and territories. The government committed $89.5 million over five years to establish the CDA, providing dedicated leadership and coordination to make Canada's drug system more sustainable and better prepared for the future. This investment would be in addition to the existing funding of $34 million per year to support CADTH's current work.
The CDA would build on CADTH's existing mandate and work, expanding to include new functions such as appropriate prescribing and use, data and analytics, and system coordination. Developing the CDA recognizes the organization's reputation of excellence, performance and results. It also ensures that we would be adding value to the system by building on what is already working with the CADTH.
Let me say a bit about how we got to this important milestone. Canada's pharmaceutical system evolves slowly over time, often responding to address new challenges as they developed. When medicare was first introduced in Canada in 1966, drugs used outside hospitals were primarily inexpensive medicines for common conditions. A growing number of specialized drugs are now helping to cure or manage a range of conditions, and rising rates of chronic disease have made prescription drugs a central part of our current health care system.
New pharmaceutical system organizations and functions have been created to manage the access and use of prescription drugs, but this has happened in an ad hoc and fragmented manner. Canada currently has over 100 public drug plans and 100,000 private drug plans, creating a patchwork of access and coverage for Canadians. Despite improvements in recent years, high prices and the patchwork of drug coverage leave many people in Canada facing barriers to access the prescription drugs they need when they need them.
Stakeholders in landmark reports have underscored the need for federal leadership in addressing these gaps. In recognition of concerns about the sustainability of the Canadian pharmaceutical system, budget 2019 provided $35 million over four years to establish the Canadian Drug Agency Transition Office, or CDATO, to provide dedicated capacity and leadership to work with provinces, territories and key partners on a vision, mandate and plan to establish the CDA. Since its establishment in 2021, the CDATO has conducted extensive engagement and analysis, holding over 400 meetings and round tables with a diverse range of stakeholders to understand the gaps and challenges in the pharmaceutical system and obtain advice on how to make improvements.
Extensive engagement has taken place with provinces, territories, patients, pan-Canadian health care organizations, health care professionals, industry insurers and international partners. Based on this engagement analysis, the CDA will build on CADTH's existing mandate and functions, expanding to include new work streams that better support patients and system sustainability, namely improving the appropriate prescribing and use of medications, increasing pan-Canadian data collection, expanding access to drug and treatment information, and reducing drug system duplication and lack of coordination.
Through our engagement, we learned that the appropriate prescribing and use of medications is a clear priority for many stakeholders. This is about ensuring that patients are prescribed the safest and most effective treatment for their outcomes and conditions. Each year, $419 million is spent on potentially harmful medications for seniors, and $1.4 billion is spent to treat harmful effects. However, there is no unified approach to guide and inform prescribers or patients on appropriate prescribing and use.
To date, we have launched an appropriate use of advisory committee involving patients, clinicians, experts and leading organizations in the field. The committee is advising on the development of a pan-Canadian appropriate prescribing and use strategy. Later this spring, the committee will issue its final report that will inform the work of the CDA to create and implement an appropriate prescribing and use program in collaboration with partners.
Stakeholders have also pointed to the need to improve pharmaceutical data and analytics to better understand the impact of drug treatments. However, there is limited ability to access, link or share drug data, which is siloed in different sources, such as hospitals, private drug plans, physicians' offices and jurisdictions. This fragmentation limits our ability to understand a drug or treatment's use pattern and effectiveness, including how it performs once it is being used by patients in the real world and how it compares to other available treatments.
We are working with several organizations in the health data field, such as CADTH, the Canadian Institute for Health Information, Canada Health Infoway, Health Data Research Network Canada and the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance, to improve access to and use pharmaceutical data. Stakeholders also consistently emphasize the importance of incorporating patient equity and lived experience in the CDA's developments and operations. They noted that patient engagement in the pharmaceutical system is limited. Incorporating patient perspectives through engagement and governance were key recommendations for an organization that is transparent, accountable and meaningfully involves those who need it most, the patients.
We have also heard of significant challenges regarding system coordination. During the course of our engagements, most stakeholders highlighted at least one coordination-related issue that they face. Challenges include a lack of information sharing, confusion about roles or responsibilities or limitations to meaningful engagement. Our pharmaceutical ecosystem is managed by multiple organizations that have different purposes, priorities and areas of jurisdiction.
There is one organization mandated to convene players, focus the agenda, ensure efficiency and enhance collaboration. Because of this, there are both gaps and duplication in the system. Building from CADTH is a significant step in promoting system alignment. CADTH is a highly reputable organization with strong leadership and a shared federal, provincial, territorial governance model that works.
Through CDATO and CADTH's extensive partnerships and building on the work to date, we will build a CDA that is well positioned to convene key players and focus on promoting better outcomes for patients. We will develop an organization that has the capacity to adapt to the ever-changing pharmaceutical landscape. Our work to date reflects the significant input provided by stakeholders over the last three years. It also highlights a strong interest across the system to make meaningful improvements.
The CDA will support pharmaceutical system modernization in Canada and lay a strong foundation for future growth, including by providing the capacity to support the commitments outlined in Bill C-64, which is now before the House. The CDA will assume a leading role in the pharmaceutical system to ensure Canadians have better health outcomes and are well informed about the medications that they need now and into the future.
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Mr. Speaker, since 2015, when I was first elected to this most honourable House, my focus has been on helping and ensuring the success of the residents of my riding of Vaughan—Woodbridge and of all Canadians, and that is what we continue to do. We continue to implement policies that strengthen our social system, including what is contained in Bill C-64, specifically for folks with diabetes and individuals in need of contraceptives.
Obviously, the rare disease strategy is something near and dear to my heart as I have a nephew who suffers from a rare genetic disease. I understand the issues that my brother and sister-in-law go through in taking care of my nephew. The issue of expanding pharmacare, expanding our national system and strengthening our social safety net is very near and dear to my heart.
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- May/6/24 8:23:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, leadership is about having the confidence to invest in Canadians and invest in Canada. We continue to work with all the provinces. We have signed all the agreements for the national early learning and child care agreements across the country with all the provinces, Conservative, New Democrats or Liberal. We have done the same on health care.
As I said in my speech, I was there with the Prime Minister and the Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, the morning we signed the bilateral health care agreement of injecting $3.1 billion as part of the agreement with the Province of Ontario. That is real leadership. That is not hot air. That is real leadership, which is providing real solutions to individuals in the province of Ontario and across this country that we call home.
We will continue to introduce measures that I know make a real difference in the lives of everyday Canadians, including the ones who live in my riding of Vaughan—Woodbridge.
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Mr. Speaker, we know that almost four million Canadians have a form of diabetes, and we want to prevent their condition from deteriorating and their ending up in the hospital, which costs our hospital system even more. We want to prevent that, which is a big piece in Bill C-64.
Obviously, with contraceptives, we know that there are women out there who may not be able to afford the cost. We would be there to assist those individuals, especially the most vulnerable, in our country.
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