NDP pressures Liberals with its own pharmacare bill: ‘Push them to deliver’
Global News
One condition of the parties' confidence-and-supply deal is for the Liberals to make progress on a universal pharmacare program by passing legislation before the end of this year.
No longer content to wait for the Liberals to make good on their promise, the New Democrats tabled their own pharmacare legislation in the House of Commons Tuesday.
The NDP and Liberals struck a confidence-and-supply agreement last year that would see the NDP support the government on key votes to hold an election off until 2025 in exchange for progress on NDP priorities.
One of the conditions of that deal was that the Liberals make progress toward a universal pharmacare program by passing legislation before the end of this year.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his health critic Don Davies have since questioned the government’s commitment to pharmacare.
“We found that with this government, even if we got things in writing, it’s not a guarantee,” Singh said at a press conference Tuesday.
“We’ve got to continually fight, put pressure, push them to deliver.”
Davies pointed to recent developments at Canada’s patented drug price regulator that saw major drug price reforms put on indefinite hold.
“The health minister suspended measures that would lower the cost for Canadians because the pharmaceutical industry demanded it,” Davies charged.
