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I'm going to be taking her time.

Thank you very much.

I want to start with the Grief Alliance for a moment.

Nova Scotia is the province I live in, and I know there are a number of us who are Nova Scotia-based: Mr. Fisher and Mr. Kelloway. Nova Scotia has been experiencing a lot of grief, whether due to the Portapique murders, or the six people we recently lost here from the southwest in a vessel, and we just lost a couple down in our neck of the woods as well. So, it's been a lot.... Even beyond the COVID issue, there's been a lot of very public grieving—or the lack thereof.

I want to understand what a grief service might be, because we don't have one here. Beyond the community and a few community members coming together to bring families and groups together, I don't know what a grief service actually is.

We're three hours away from that, so it's a big challenge.

It's a big challenge, and since COVID is here, we're not travelling as we should be and we're not going to get the services that we should be getting, so that's adding to it.

In the three-point plan that you have, or the request you have, have you gone to governments? I'm going to guess that it's a health issue, and each province is a little different and there's a federal component. Who have you gone to and what kinds of commitments have you gotten at this point?

I have a minute left. I want to go to Dr. Lalonde for a minute.

When we talk about the transfer of doctors and locums and being able to at least transfer these experts from one province to another, does it not sometimes fall upon the shoulders of the self-regulated college of physicians or what have you? How do we deal with that as a country when we have so many of these self-regulated organizations or colleges?

Thank you for that.

Thanks for all the presentations.

I wish to speak to the main motion, please.

Thank you.

There are a couple of updates we'd like to have changed within the motion. If you'll indulge me, I think Don brought these up as well. We're all following what Mr. Davies brought forward as well.

In the second paragraph, “That in accordance with a motion previously passed by the committee”, I think they put in a date of February 1 to do the final meeting on mental health. Rather than doing that, why don't we bump that to January 29 so that we can get the mental health study out of the way? That would require that change and I think it's actually referred to further down in the fourth paragraph as well as February 1.

I move that we change the date of February 1 to January 29.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Welcome to everybody who is here today. If I forget towards the end, I want to wish everybody a merry Christmas and, of course, happy holidays as we move into them.

I want to get to an issue. We keep talking about Canada's having the highest drug prices in the world or close to the higher level of drug costs in the world. Since we have a drug company with us here today, Madame Beauchemin or Monsieur Alibhai, how does the pricing of drugs really work in a world context?

We talk about list prices, and we talk about rebated prices. How do we really rate compared with other countries in the world?

Since you're at the mike right now, when you were talking about 70 clinical trials being held, are those just the ones in Canada or are those clinical trials globally?

How many of those are nearing completion or are maybe on the list of those we're going to have to relook at because of the changes to PMPRB?

My next question will go to Mr. Adams.

You talk a lot about different programs that might not come forward. Can you give us an example within your group of partners of how many studies, research projects or drugs might not be available within your groups?

I think I just lost him. I'm looking to the clerk. I think we lost Mr. Adams.

Okay.

I know I don't have a whole lot of time. I'll move on to Mr. Frank before we get back to Mr. Adams.

Your organization is looking at these reforms as being very positive. It will save money for your members. How much of that money would go back into the hands of plan members or the like? Will it bring down premiums, or will it just keep the companies alive? I was trying to understand what you were saying in your presentation.

Thank you.

I see that Mr. Adams is back, and I'm hoping he heard the question.

With your partners within your coalition, can you give us a couple of examples of research projects or drugs that might not be available because of these changes? The majority of the presentations we have received—or at least the briefs we have received—have been very negative towards the changes. I think your group is a good representation of that.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I had a bunch of questions. I need to go back to this. Maybe this is for Boehringer, and maybe others.

We talk about the importance of drugs in our health care system, the availability of therapeutics. Why does it seem that drug companies have become the big bad wolf in all of this discussion? Why do governments seem to have to push back on pricing all the time? Is there a disconnect? What have we missed over the last number of years?

It's probably best for Madam Beauchemin or Mr. Alibhai.