PACP Committee Report

REPORT — CHAPTER 4

(Management of Federal Drug Benefit Programs)
Auditor General’s Report to the House of Commons
November 2004

The Bloc Québécois supports the main ideas and recommendations in the Public Accounts Committee’s Report on the Management of Federal Drug Benefit Programs. In particular, the Bloc Québécois agrees with the Committee on the importance of reframing the programs’ objectives, tightening their performance measures and increasing their ability to provide clients with effective, efficient and economical services.

On the other hand, while it approves the content of the report, the Bloc Québécois is determined to make up for its shortcomings by adding considerations that it has left out. As in many other committees over the years, the Bloc Québécois declines to give blanket endorsement to a report that glosses over the fact that its subject matter lies within an area of provincial jurisdiction. While the federal government is allowed to play a role in health care and a right to manage the programs discussed in this report, the federal presence is nevertheless an encroachment.

The respect that the federal government owes to constitutional areas of jurisdictions is an important point that this report must not fail to make to the government.

In conclusion, the Bloc Québécois wishes to note how invaluable the evidence presented to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts over the past weeks has been for the Committee's members.