Pharmacare ultimatum: NDP gives Jagmeet Singh permission to kill deal if Liberals don't deliver

New Democrats have resoundingly urged their party to stand firm on negotiating pharmacare, even if it means ending their political agreement with the Liberals.

Party members gave leader Jagmeet Singh and his MPs resounding support to use all the leverage the party has through its confidence-and-supply deal with the Liberals to obtain the party's vision of pharmacare, even if it means walking away from the agreement and possibly triggering an election. 

The directive went to the floor on Saturday at the party's policy convention in Hamilton. It was the top-ranked emergency resolution, outranking two motions on Israel's war with Gaza.

It passed unanimously.

The motion, now official NDP policy, cannot force Singh to back out of the deal. But it signals that the NDP caucus would have the backing of the party's membership to walk away from the arrangement if the Liberals won't agree to a public, universal, single-payer system.

According to the resolution, the "continued confidence-and-supply is contingent on government legislation that commits to a universal, comprehensive and entirely public pharmacare program."

NDP health critic Don Davies supported the motion Saturday, criticizing the Liberals for watering down a yet-to-be-introduced bill that's supposed to be passed by the end of this year. 

"They are weaselling out. Now, we have been crystal clear. Nothing less than public pharmacare delivered through a single-payer system will do for us," Davies told NDP convention delegates. 

"It's time to send a message to Liberals. We want single-payer pharmacare right now," Davies said on the convention floor. 

The federal NDP holds the balance of power in the House of Commons. The Liberal minority government relies on New Democrats' votes to pass legislation through a formal agreement that both parties signed. Under the terms of that confidence-and-supply agreement, the NDP agrees to support essential government legislation in exchange for the Liberals advancing several NDP policy priorities.

According to the wording of that agreement, one of those policy priorities is to pass "a Canada Pharmacare Act by the end of 2023 and then [task] the National Drug Agency to develop a national formulary of essential medicines and bulk purchasing plan by the end of the agreement."

The issue could come to a head soon with about two months left in the House of Commons sitting calendar. The NDP rejected the bill's first draft, Davies said, because it did not commit to a single-payer system. 

While New Democrats have drawn a line in the sand, Davies said the NDP is willing to compromise on the timing of the pharmacare rollout. The party, he said, could accept an interim system that covers all essential prescriptions and expands over time.

In addition to pushing for legislation on pharmacare, Davies is continuing to negotiate the expanded rollout of dental care for low-income Canadians.