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17 chapters mobilize to demand that the Trudeau government implements pharmacare now



North Shore chapter activist Berta Gaulke delivers Council of Canadians materials to the office of Bill Casey, the Liberal MP who chairs the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health which is currently studying pharmacare.


 


Seventeen Council of Canadians chapters mobilized this past week to demand that the Trudeau government implements a national pharmacare program that would provide universal access to prescription drugs for everyone in this country.


 


Among the chapter actions:


  • the Vancouver-Burnaby chapter handed out a hundred fact sheets and brochures on pharmacare at a public meeting where Liberal MP Joyce Murray was a panellist

  • the North Shore chapter delivered our new pharmacare report to Liberal MP Bill Casey’s riding office

  • the Mid Island chapter met with NDP MP Sheila Malcolmson and had a letter published in the Nanaimo Bulletin

  • the Cowichan Valley chapter met with NDP MP Alistair MacGregor

  • the Victoria chapter met with NDP MP Murray Rankin

  • the Winnipeg chapter met with NDP MP Daniel Blaikie

  • the Kitchener-Waterloo chapter had an information table at the Kitchener Farmers’ Market

  • the Peterborough-Kawarthas chapter had an information table at the Dandelion Day Festival at Millennium Park

  • the Quill Plains (Wynyard) chapter had a letter to the editor published in the Humboldt Journal

The Hamilton, Peel Region, Thunder Bay, Comox Valley, Kamloops, Brandon-Westman, Prince Edward Island, and Kent County chapters also took part in the day of action.


 


In addition, our Winnipeg-based organizer Brigette DePape and Council of Canadians activist Chris Clacio met with Liberal MP Doug Eyolfson.


 


As such we provided our materials to two key Liberal members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health – Casey and Eyolfson – who will be releasing a report with recommendations on pharmacare this fall. Our Cowichan Valley chapter was also assured by their MP that our information would be passed on to one of the vice-chairs of the Committee, NDP MP Don Davies.


 


Toronto Star columnist Susan Delacourt comments, “Pharmacare is not anywhere near the top of the federal government’s to-do list at present. Health Minister Jane Philpott has been saying repeatedly that her mandate, as far as it concerns drug prices and availability, is limited to getting better deals within the status quo.”


 


Our aim is to change that – through the meetings with MPs, public leafleting, and letters to the editor, as well as with new materials (including a handimation video) and a poll we released last week.


 


That Environics poll we commissioned found that 91 per cent of Canadians would support the Trudeau government moving forward on pharmacare.


 


To read our new report, the materials produced for this day of action and to watch the handimation video, please click here.


 


To maintain pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Health Minister Philpott, please click on this online action alert that calls on them to take action on pharmacare.