Federal budget will determine survival of NDP-Liberal agreement, NDP finance critic says

The upcoming 2023 federal budget will be a key measure in determining whether the NDP's confidence and supply agreement with the Liberals has been a success or a failure, according to the party's finance critic. 

"I think the budget is going to tell the tale about whether we're making that progress at a good rate," NDP MP Daniel Blaikie told the CBC. "It's going to be a very interesting few months on the Hill here … when the budget is presented." 

In March 2022, the New Democrats signed an agreement with the governing Liberals to supply them with the votes needed to pass key legislation if the Liberals agreed to advance a number of NDP priorities. That agreement will be a major topic of discussion as Blaikie and his 24 NDP colleagues attend a caucus retreat beginning Wednesday on Parliament Hill.

New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh kicks things off in the morning with a keynote address open to the media. It promises to touch on issues like health care and the inflation crisis. The rest of the meeting will be closed to the public.

During the closed-door sessions, Blaikie will be briefing his colleagues on negotiations he's been having with the federal government as a member of a group of politicians and staff from both parties that formed after the agreement was signed to discuss progress on key commitments and priorities. 

While many of those priorities don't have stated timelines, some do.

For instance, 2023 was supposed to be the year the Liberals passed the Canada Pharmacare Act and then follow-up with a bulk purchasing plan and a national formulary or list of essential medicines for prescription by the end of the agreement. 

In 2022, dental care coverage was expanded to cover children under 12 years old from households earning less than $90,000. Expanding dental coverage for middle-income households to cover 18-year-olds, seniors and people living with disabilities was also supposed to take another step this year as part of the agreement. 

"We're expecting to see that at the beginning of 2024," Blaikie said. 

According to the finance critic, New Democrats will look to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's spring budget to determine whether the Liberals are serious about keeping the rest of the agreement.

Blaikie noted that because much of the work to prepare budgets happens months in advance, the 2022 budget was mostly assembled before the confidence and supply agreement was signed. Consequently, the upcoming budget is the one he says will "tell a lot of the story" of how the NDP-Liberal agreement looks. 

"It's going to be an important moment of reflection for our caucus as we think about the next year ahead and whether the government is doing a good enough job."

Outside of advancing various aspects of the agreement, Blaikie said the New Democrats will be pushing the Liberals to fix the health-care system.

He said Canadians "are seeing their health-care system failed them in a time of extraordinary need."