Pharmacare and other policies to be maintained despite end of NDP deal, minister says – National
The Liberal government will continue to work on the policies it promised to pursue under its now-expired agreement with the government. NPDHealth Minister Mark Holland said Monday.
A week ago, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has ended the pact between the New Democrats and the minority Liberalsbefore some of the measures they had agreed to work on were implemented.
These include a safe long-term care bill that has yet to be introduced and the implementation of a pharmacare bill that is still before the Senate.
If the bill passes, the government plans to negotiate deals with the provinces to provide free diabetes medications and birth control to anyone with a health card. Singh takes credit for forcing the Liberals to accept the measure.
“These are things that we felt very strongly about and where we found an intersection with what the NDP was concerned about,” Holland said at a news conference in Toronto.
He was at the University of Toronto’s faculty of dentistry, in its largest clinic, to provide an update on a flagship policy of the NDP and the Liberals, the national dental care program.
Get weekly health news
Get the latest medical news and health information delivered to your inbox every Sunday.
Holland said nearly 650,000 people have already benefited from the dental program and four-fifths of dental providers are participating. The update comes a month after the minister announced a 75% participation rate.
Participation was in doubt earlier this summer, when less than half of dentists, hygienists and denturists had signed up to provide care and associations warned there were flaws in the program’s design.
In July, Holland revamped the process so dental practices could avoid registering in advance and process individual requests instead.
The government began accepting applications from seniors in May and has since expanded eligibility for the program to eligible children under 18 and people eligible for a disability tax credit.
Now that the NDP’s support in Parliament is no longer guaranteed, the Liberals will have to find a partner for each individual vote.
“The NDP made a political decision and it’s up to them to make it, but now we’re operating on a case-by-case basis,” Holland said.
The minister said he talks “all the time” with the Bloc Québécois and the NDP about how they can work together. Talks with the Conservatives have not been as productive, he said.
The Bloc indicated this week that it was prepared to support the minority government in exchange for measures that it considers to be gains for Quebec.
House leader Alain Therrien said ahead of a caucus retreat that his party was pleased to regain its balance of power, calling the current situation a “window of opportunity” to pursue its priorities.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
