Carney switches gears on pharmacare
The Liberals have put forward four different positions on pharmacare since the election in April.
The Hill Times has penned an editorial today, Sept. 15, with a somewhat unusual lead: “One has to wonder if the Prime Minister’s Office is playing ‘eeny meeny miny moe’ on whether to negotiate bilateral pharmacare agreements with interested provinces and territories that do not have them.”
Yes, maybe, maybe, yes
The Carney government is back to yes, and is now committed to signing pharmacare deals with all provinces and territories, responded Prime Minister Mark Carney to a question from senior national reporter Glen McGregor in Edmonton.
The federal government’s most recent decision to go ahead with pharmacare talks “is a positive move,” said Canadian Health Coalition’s National Director for Policy and Advocacy Steven Staples to The Hill Times.
This is the fourth policy position on pharmacare by the Carney Liberals since the spring election campaign.
But that message continued to evolve earlier this month when iPolitics published an interview with Health Minister Marjorie Michel on Sept. 2 where she said that “everything is still on the table.”
“It is surprising that [the federal government’s stance] has changed so much,” Staples told The Hill Times on Sept. 11.
Carney was wrapping up speaking to the media at the end of the federal Liberal caucus retreat in Edmonton last Thursday, when McGregor asked him about pharmacare and mentioned a demonstration organized by Friends of Medicare and the Canadian Health Coalition outside the meeting site, specifically concerns of people with diabetes.
Go to McGregor’s question at 48:43 –
“We are committed to keeping the project, that process going—pharmacare for diabetes and for birth control—and achieving the agreements with the outstanding provinces, if I can put it that way, as quickly and as equitably as possible,” responded Carney.
“Those are clear commitments, and we will keep them,” Carney told reporters.
$1.5 billion was set aside for pharmacare by the Trudeau government in the 2024 federal budget. The Carney government is planning to spend $9 billion on new military spending and more on tax cuts.
During the federal election, the Liberal platform said pharmacare would be protected, calling it a critical service and part of a “strong public health system that Pierre Poilievre would cut.”
So far the federal government has made agreements with Manitoba, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island and Yukon. That is four out of 13 jurisdictions across the country.
During the federal election, the Liberals said they would protect the program that was launched by the Trudeau government, in cooperation with the NDP and spearheaded by former Health Minister Mark Holland. But that changed this summer when new Health Minister Marjorie Michel said they would honour the four agreements but would not say anything about future agreements.
On September 10, Michel’s office said it was watching the current deals and wasn’t making any decisions.
And then on September 11, Carney said the government is committed to getting deals with all provinces and territories.
Pharmacare advocates will continue to maintain pressure to advance this much needed program.
