Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, at this point I don't believe the federal government has any interest in a national pharmacare strategy. I feel that that is a mistake, but that is just my personal opinion, not a government position by any stretch of the imagination. I have had an opportunity to talk to a number of the different provinces and territories who would like to see a national pharmacare plan put in place.

Having said that, given that, prior to this current government, we didn't really have a relationship with the federal government at a provincial or territorial level, having conversations about purchasing pharmaceuticals and those types of things, this federal government has actually joined part of the Pharmaceutical Purchasing Alliance that exists between the provinces and territories. That is a group that has been established by the provinces and territories, now joined by the federal government, who is looking at making some legislative changes that should help us control costs around bulk purchasing pharmaceuticals across this country. It is not pharmacare, but it is certainly an improvement of what has existed up to this date. So we continue to be part of the Pharmaceutical Purchasing Alliance. We are seeing some benefits of that. Our purchasing compared to some of the other jurisdictions is way down compared to others. As far as national pharmacare, we are the only nation with Medicare that does not have pharmacare, and at some point the federal government may want to look at pursuing that.

In the meantime, we are going to continue to provide supplemental health benefits to seniors, and we are going to continue to provide it to Metis. We are looking for a way to, obviously, address low-income families, but we have a long way to go on those types of things. Thank you, Mr. Chair.