This item is part of Watching Washington, a regular dispatch from CBC News correspondents reporting on U.S. politics and developments that affect Canadians.
What’s new?
Colorado is the latest state to apply for a licence to import medicines from Canada, the most recent development in a politically sensitive cross-border issue.
This week the state announced that it asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for permission to import 112 medicines from Canada including EpiPens and drugs for cancer, asthma, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and other ailments.
Because those drugs are cheaper in Canada, the state projects that importing them would save Coloradans an average of 65 per cent per drug.
“This exciting step means we are closer to savings for Coloradans,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement.
What’s the context?
The context is sky-high drug prices. Americans pay more than residents of other countries for medicine, in some cases multiple times more.
That’s in part due to national regulations: Other countries have stricter rules for setting maximum prices and negotiating those with drug companies.
The U.S. has taken limited steps to address this; Years ago it introduced an optional coverage plan for seniors that allowed price negotiations, and the just-passed Inflation Reduction Act includes several cost-saving measures.
The pharmaceutical sector lobbied hard against price controls. The health sector outspent every other U.S. industry in lobbying last year, with drug companies especially funding lawmakers who voted against such reforms.
Americans pay more for medicine, in some cases many times more, due in part to looser national regulations on maximum prices and negotiations those with drug companies. (iStock)
Some U.S. states have taken up another idea: free trade in medicine. Why not just import drugs from abroad?
Six U.S. states have passed laws allowing imports of medicine from abroad, particularly from Canada, and now Colorado is the second of those, after Florida, to have formally requested authorization from the FDA.
It’s applying under a process established by the FDA in 2020. But no state has received an approval yet, as the process is complicated. To help explain the rules, the FDA issued a compliance guide this year.
The reason this matters to Canadians can be summed up in nine letters: shortages.
It’s already a problem: shortages occur constantly and, particularly, at present, scores of drugs are in short supply in both Canada and the U.S.
Ottawa has intermittently voiced fears for years about the potential for the gargantuan U.S. market gobbling up Canadian supplies and clearing out pharmacy shelves.
The Paul Martin government introduced a bill in Parliament in 2005 to bolster the health minister’s ability to freeze exports in the case of a shortage. That government fell soon thereafter, the bill never passed, and the issue remained mostly dormant for years.
But talk of importation has resurfaced in U.S. states lately. And Ottawa resumed its talk of export bans: the Trudeau government, in 2020, drafted regulations to better monitor potential shortages and restrict foreign sales of affected products.
Patty Hajdu, seen here in 2020, was the federal health minister when her department wrote stricter rules for exporting medicine that year. (Blair Gable/Reuters)
What’s next?
The issue now rests with the FDA. It must approve import requests. That’s in addition to complicated requirements that would have to be fulfilled by the businesses importing and exporting.
There are complex rules for industry in both countries.
On the export side — the Canadian government says Canada’s laws require companies to retain records proving that cross-border drug sales won’t cause shortages.
Federal regulations, as well as Canadian food and drug law, allow the government to then intervene to prevent shortages.
On the import side: the current U.S. import process, introduced in 2020, contains numerous hoops American buyers must jump through.
To be eligible for import, a product requires the necessary Canadian labelling; the seller must be licensed to sell drugs wholesale by Health Canada; the seller must also be registered with the FDA as a foreign seller; and the U.S. importer must be a wholesale distributor or pharmacist licensed in the U.S.
Then there are various testing and security requirements for shipments.
The Canadian government says it’s still working with the U.S. to understand the FDA’s plans for implement drug importation.
To date, says the Canadian Embassy in Washington, no state plans have been approved by the FDA.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
