NDP vows to press Liberals on fulfilling deal as MPs gather for caucus retreat – National | 24CA News
At a three-day retreat in Ottawa this week, New Democrat members of Parliament are anticipated to focus discussions on getting extra wins out of their confidence-and-supply settlement with the federal Liberals.
Under the deal reached final March, the NDP agreed to help the minority authorities on key votes within the House of Commons to keep away from triggering an election earlier than 2025.
In alternate, the Liberals promised to make progress on NDP priorities, together with pharmacare.
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“We’ll absolutely be watching very carefully to see where the government is at, and whether or not they are going to honour their word,” NDP caucus chair Jenny Kwan mentioned Monday.
Before the vacation break, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh threatened to drag out of the settlement if federal motion isn’t taken to enhance well being care, which the celebration sees as a nationwide disaster.
Kwan mentioned pulling out of the settlement stays an possibility.
“We’re going to have to wait and see how things unfold. I mean, our agreement is very clear to say what are the items that the government needs to deliver on,” Kwan mentioned.
Cost-of-living insurance policies the Liberals handed final fall, together with dental-care subsidies for youngsters underneath 12 in low-income households, one-time rental dietary supplements for low-income renters and a brief doubling of the GST tax rebate, had been NDP priorities.
When NDP MPs collect for a caucus retreat starting on Wednesday, they may look to construct on these insurance policies to “ensure life is more affordable” for Canadians this yr, Kwan mentioned.
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She mentioned that may embrace searching for to broaden dental protection to extra Canadians and pushing for extra funding in Indigenous housing.
The caucus can be eying payments it hopes shall be introduced ahead this yr, she mentioned, after Parliament returns on the finish of the month: a “just transition” invoice for power staff whose jobs might be affected by environmental coverage, and a Canada Pharmacare Act committing the federal government to publicly fund pharmaceuticals.
“The pharmacare piece will require legislation. That’s part of the agreement, and so legislation will certainly come forward,” Kwan mentioned.
The confidence-and-supply settlement stipulated {that a} pharmacare invoice have to be tabled by the tip of 2023, and {that a} “National Drug Agency” could be tasked to “develop a national formulary of essential medicines and bulk purchasing plan by the end of the agreement.”
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In 2020, the NDP’s House chief, Peter Julian, had proposed a personal members’ invoice outlining a common pharmacare program. It was defeated within the House of Commons in February 2021, with the overwhelming majority of Liberals, Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois voting in opposition to.
Kwan is hopeful that such a invoice can have extra help a second time round.
“There is a framework we can build on,” she mentioned, including that the NDP’s well being critic, Don Davies, is “working very hard.”
The NDP caucus retreat wraps up Friday, and the House of Commons is scheduled to renew Jan. 30.
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