Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he’s unsure whether the solution to address the shortages of children’s medication would be to start producing them domestically, with the issue now dragging over several months.
“I don’t know offhand if it is the right thing for Canada to be starting producing these particular pills or whether it’s just a question of getting more reliable supply chains and agreements out there,” Trudeau said in an interview with The Canadian Press published on Dec. 21.
The prime minister made a comparison with another product to express the way he perceives the dilemma.
“If we had a big orange shortage in Canada, people might be shouting, ‘Okay, we need to make them more greenhouses so we can grow more oranges in Canada,’” Trudeau said.
“That might not be the best way to spend our money.”
Health Canada has been importing medicine from overseas to address the shortages, with nearly 1.9 million bottles having been brought in so far.
Mark Johnson, a spokesperson for the department, told The Epoch Times that all tools are being used to work on the issue, with companies being solicited to facilitate the imports.
Johnson says proposals to import foreign-authorized product undergoes careful review and the product information needs to be available in both official languages to mitigate potential health risks.
“To be clear, the work of reviewing proposals is being done in parallel to obtaining additional supply. Language requirements will not cause any delays in getting these critical medications to parents and caregivers,” said Johnson.
Now the Conservative Party’s health critic, MP Stephen Ellis, has raised the issue of a shortage of oral antibiotics commonly used to treat upper respiratory tract infections in children.
He says that based on the website Drugshortagescanada.ca which tracks shortages of medication, every brand of oral antibiotics is in short supply.
The Liberal government has “fallen asleep at the wheel and allowed our pharmacy shelves to go empty at our time of need,” said Ellis in a statement, noting that the availability of those antibiotics would alleviate the burden on hospitals over the Christmas season.
The NDP has also seized on the issue and says that part of the solution would lay in the government getting involved in the production of medicine.
“Do we want to be vulnerable to the vagaries and vulnerabilities of global supply chains and decisions made by the private sector?” MP Don Davies said, who is also his party’s health critic.
