Health minister says feds 'not pulling the fire alarm' on NDP deal
CTV
Health Minister Mark Holland says he has 'every confidence' his government can deliver pharmacare legislation by the promised March 1 deadline, and that the Liberals are 'not pulling the fire alarm' on their confidence-and-supply deal with the NDP over the issue.
Health Minister Mark Holland says he has “every confidence” his government can deliver pharmacare legislation by the promised March 1 deadline, and that the Liberals are “not pulling the fire alarm” on their confidence-and-supply deal with the NDP over the issue.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said this week there will be “repercussions” if the Liberals don’t table a sufficient piece of pharmacare framework legislation by next month, and signalled he’ll consider a missed deadline to mean they’ve “walked away” from their confidence-and-supply agreement.
The pact sees the NDP prop up the Liberals until 2025 in exchange for progress on key priorities, including pharmacare, for which the parties have already extended the deadline once before.
Despite Singh’s statements, Holland told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos, in an interview airing Sunday, that he will meet the deadline.
“I have every confidence it will be (tabled on time),” Holland said. “I appreciate negotiations aren't easy, and some of that spills out publicly. But (NDP health critic) Don Davies has been a great partner to work with, we've had a lot of back and forth.”
“So I'm confident that we'll be able to find a solution and that we'll have legislation tabled before that deadline,” he added.
While Holland insists the federal government can deliver on its pharmacare deadline promise, he wouldn’t give specifics about the contents of the plan.
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