Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services regarding the development of a national pharmacare program. First, could the Minister explain what our role was in relation to the national Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare, and what our role will be going forward, especially with regard to prescription drug costs and improved health outcomes? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I know that the reason that this recommendation is here is because, in my opening remarks, I talked about how different departments had different approaches to the co-development of legislation. I am not trying to pick on anybody, but it is on the public record that the Department of Lands did not use a co-drafting process for a variety of reasons, which seemed to point to the lack of capacity of the Indigenous governments to deal with that bill, in addition to all of the other bills that were brought forward by Cabinet.

It would have been helpful for committee to know that...

Merci, Monsieur le President. In June, the National Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare released its final report, containing the recommendation that the Government of Canada work in partnership with provincial and territorial governments to establish universal, single-payer, public prescription drug coverage for all Canadians. As the only nation in the world with a public healthcare system that does not include prescription medicine coverage, this improvement is long overdue.

A universal national system would extend coverage to include the estimated one in five...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, this is just going in circles, so I think I will stop it there. It's not clear to the public, it's not clear to me, what prospecting necessarily is as authorized under this act. Somebody has to get a licence to do it. It's not clear what it is, where it can be done, whether you have to have a mineral claim to do it or not. I think this is part of the problem here. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I can certainly assure the Minister that it was raised with committee. It is in the committee report. Committee tried to work with the Minister and his staff to reach some kind of resolution, compromise on this, and we were unable to. That is why it is here again before us.

I understand that this section actually deals with written reasons for why restricted areas would be declined and this would insert municipal governments into that process. It is probably not the best place where this fits. The point is that municipal governments just were not accorded the kind of...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So the trigger is going to be set by regulation. I get that. That's the way this has been drafted. The benefits are going to be set by regulation, so there is nothing stopping a future Minister from requiring benefits right back to prospecting through the entire mining cycle. Those benefits could include requiring local hiring, spending, the sorts of things that we do now. They could actually involve setting penalties. You know, this is just far too broad, Mr. Chair. There is no certainty created by this.

What it looks like is the department, the Minister wants to obtain...

I want to thank the Minister for that. That is exactly what I said in the House earlier today. Unfortunately, it comes a little bit late, as the company is now in creditor protection. This happened again under our watch. Can the Minister tell us, though, whether there is any way we can turn the liabilities from Cameron Hills field back to the federal government under the Devolution Agreement?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Ah, now we're getting somewhere. I raised these issues right at the beginning in some of my remarks on the bill, that it is a self-reporting mechanism, and there are different reporting periods, and there are different reporting entities. Are there any reasons why we couldn't disclose the royalties paid by each mine to the public? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Remain in force until amended or repealed to the regulations. That's the case. The old system for zones which were again a tool of government to promote exploration. They all remain in perpetuity, but any zone requested by an Indigenous government will expire after 15 years. That seems inconsistent with how this clause works. In actual effect of an Indigenous government requested zone, it will operate for no longer than 15 years, and then can be renewed, but the ones that the government has created and is carrying over from the old regime, will last forever. That seems to...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I know that it has been a long day, but I need to go on the record for my constituents so that they can see, in the future, what happened here tonight. I supported carbon tax as part of a comprehensive strategy for taking action on climate change. However, I don't support Cabinet's plan.

That plan is made up of three parts: the carbon tax bill that is before us this evening, Bill 42, which imposes, basically, a surcharge, a tax on some fuels. The other two parts of Cabinet's approach on this include the Energy Strategy, and I have spoken at length about the Energy...