Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend the hon. member for Vancouver Centre on her speech, which allows us to continue the debate and ask the Minister of Health some very important questions.
Although the Minister of Health continues to repeat that this issue falls under provincial jurisdiction, the federal government also has responsibilities, including the responsibility to ensure sufficient regulation, as the hon. member said so well, in order to prevent shortages like this one from happening again.
The Minister of Health said earlier that it would take two years to establish a regulatory system; however, if we do not establish one, we will never have one. We will always be reacting to problems as they occur instead of implementing a long-term solution by creating a mandatory registry and diversifying supply sources in co-operation with the provinces. In order to do so, the federal government must speed up the approval process for the various supply sources. The current drug verification process is very long; even the Auditor General has said as much. Verification can sometimes take over two years. I would like to know what the Liberal member thinks about this.