Translation of "Régime d'approvisionnement " (French → English) :

Mr. Speaker, could the minister tell us in the government's view, is it or is it not the responsibility of the federal government to do two things: one, to ensure there is an adequate supply of necessary drugs across the country; and two, if the voluntary system is so patently not working, to provide a regulatory framework to ensure there is accountability for the supply of drugs?

The particular geographical situation and the remoteness of the French overseas departments impose additional transport costs in supplying essential products for human consumption, for processing and as agricultural inputs. In addition, objective factors arising as a result of insularity impose further constraints on economic operators and producers in these islands that severely handicap their activities, as do other factors such as the impossibility of economies of scale, limited water and energy resources and particularly high production costs . This is true particularly in the case of the supply of cereals, which are not and cannot be produced in the overseas departments, rendering them dependent on external sources of supply. These han ...[+++]dicaps can be alleviated by lowering the price of these essential products. It is therefore appropriate to introduce specific supply arrangements with a view to ensuring supply to the overseas departments from local production and to mitigating the additional costs of the remoteness and insularity of these departments.

The particular geographical situation of the French overseas departments imposes additional transport costs in supplying essential products for human consumption, for processing and as agricultural inputs. In addition, objective factors arising as a result of insularity impose further constraints on economic operators and producers in these islands that severely handicap their activities. This is true particularly in the case of the supply of cereals, which are not and cannot be produced in the overseas departments, rendering them dependent on external sources of supply. These handicaps can be alleviated by lowering the price of these essential products. It is therefore appropriate to introduce specific supply arrangements with a view to en ...[+++]suring supply to the overseas departments from local production and to mitigating the additional costs of the remoteness and insularity of these departments.

They say it is tempting to put a regime in place that would reduce dangers associated with water systems, but exactly the opposite might happen because not only would a regulatory regime take time to create and enforce but also the attention and money would be better directed to systems and operators, management and governance.

The regime, he said, has been designed in such a way as to ensure that the Community market is adequately supplied and that these supplies come from traditional sources.

As Mr. Kroeger has pointed out on the issue of procurement, we have made some dramatic changes in the federal government on procurement issues over the last two or three years that have materially changed the way in which it functions, to a large extent because everything is now on the public record.