Cooperation in Ottawa achieved progress for public health care
The nearly three-year-old agreement between the Liberals and NDP, which ended today, improved public health care for millions of people.
NDP party leader Jagmeet Singh declared in a video that he was “ripping up” the agreement signed by him and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in March 2022.
In an email to supporters, Singh accused the Liberals of not doing enough for working people, “Canada is at a crossroads, and we need to decide what kind of country we want to be: a country where we take care of our neighbours, or a country that caves to the interests of big corporations and their rich CEOs?”
The deal between the parties included a list of policies and programs the minority government would deliver in return for NDP support in Parliament on key votes. The Canadian Health Coalition responded to the agreement by launching its Health and Hope 2025 campaign, vowing to help achieve the health care commitments in the three-year agreement which was set to expire in June 2025.
Health care promises
The four key health care commitments in the agreement have been largely accomplished, as well as many others. The Liberals have provided an additional $195.8 billion over ten years in health transfers to provinces and territories, and launched the Canadian Dental Care Plan. The Canada Pharmacare Act is poised to pass the Senate next month and Budget 2024 committed $1.5 billion to launch the program – the first federal budget to include pharmacare. The last remaining piece is the introduction of the Safe Long-Term Care Act, legislation the Liberals already promised in their 2021 election platform.
Don Davies, MP for Vancouver-Kingsway, led negotiations with his Liberal counterparts to design the Canadian Dental Care Program and the Canada Pharmacare Act as the NDP’s Health Critic.
Is an election imminent?
The end of the Liberal-NDP agreement does not mean that a federal election is imminent, but makes it more likely because of the unpredictability of confidence votes in Parliament – especially anything related to federal spending.
The Liberals will have to move forward seeking support from an opposition party for key votes issue-by-issue, just as the previous minority governments under Paul Martin and Stephen Harper did in recent memory.
For the Canadian Health Coalition, it means our work for public health care becomes all the more important. We will continue to hold the Liberals to their health care commitments and work with all Members of Parliament and Senators to defend and expand Medicare.
