Last week, the federal government announced the members of the Committee of Experts tasked with shaping Canada’s national pharmacare program—and it’s great news.
Thanks to our collective efforts, the committee is free of corporate interference. This is a critical victory in ensuring a program focused on people’s health, not private profits.
Pharmaceutical and insurance lobbyists fought hard to secure seats on the committee to undermine pharmacare from within. But our voices prevailed. In recent weeks, Council of Canadians supporters – people like you! – sent nearly 7,000 letters to Health Minister Holland and his top advisors, demanding a committee free of corporate conflicts.
Together, we shut Big Pharma out.
To learn more about who’s on the committee, read my update here.
Among the members, you might recognize: Dr. Nav Persaud, a strong proponent of public, single-payer pharmacare who spoke at our Toronto town hall in May 2023; Prof. Steve Morgan, leading expert and advocate for public, single-payer pharmacare who spoke at several of our BC pharmacare town halls; and Linda Silas, the head of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, who the Council worked closely with in the fight for national pharmacare.
This is a win we should all celebrate, but the fight isn’t over. We’ve seen how corporate interests have derailed progress in the past. What’s more, the provinces still need to sign on to make national pharmacare a reality, and we must keep up the fight.
Will you help us keep up the pressure? If you haven’t already, please consider making a contribution today to help us build on this momentum and push provincial leaders to commit to pharmacare.