Health Canada’s reform of the pricing mechanism for new drugs could delay their introduction.

Interview (in French) with Mathieu Bédard, Economist at the MEI, about Health Canada’s reform of the pricing mechanism for new drugs and how it could delay their introduction. Broadcast on April 18, 2019, on the LCN Mario Dumont show.

Health Canada’s reform of the pricing mechanism for new drugs could delay their introduction.

The Canadian government is planning to change the way prices are set for new patented drugs and cut the maximum prices at which these drugs can be sold by up to 70%. But this reform could prove very costly for patients. If it goes forward and fails to take into account the adverse effects of reference pricing systems, which have been well documented by various international bodies, Canadians could see their access to new drugs slowed down or even compromised.

Interview (in French) with Kevin Brookes, Associate Researcher at the MEI, about the Canadian tax system that has become much too complicated and costly to administer. Broadcast on April 10, 2019, on the LCN Mario Dumont show.

Presentation by Vincent Geloso, Ph.D., Professor of Economics, King’s University College, and Associate Researcher at the MEI, and Germain Belzile, Senior Lecturer, HEC Montréal, and Senior Associate Researcher at the MEI, as part of the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, in Quebec City.

The Canadian tax system has become much too complicated and costly to administer.

Taxpayers always meet the months of March and April with some apprehension, as they will have to devote precious hours of their time to completing their income tax returns, or pay someone else to do it for them. Is it possible to make life easier for taxpayers by simplifying the tax system?

The debate over the nationalization of drug insurance.

We are constantly told that there is a shortage of labour in Canada. In 2018, the economy added 163,000 full-time jobs, and the unemployment rate fell to 5.6%, a historic low that can be qualified as full employment. The participation rate for people of prime working age, 25 to 54 years, is 87%. The winds are shifting on the labour market. Employers used to have the upper hand; now, it’s workers who have it.