New Democratic Party (NDP) Leader Jagmeet Singh says working with the Liberals on the bill to create a national pharmacare program was like trying to catch eels covered in oil.
At a town hall meeting in Edmonton, where NDP MPs are holding their pre-sessional retreat, Mr. Singh admitted Thursday that it was “not much fun” dealing with the Liberal government. He believes that the Liberals “do not respect their promises” and are evasive.
When the House of Commons resumes its work on Monday, NDP MPs say they will continue to put pressure on the Liberal government to get this bill drafted – with Mr. Singh even calling it “the next big fight.”
As part of its agreement with the minority Liberals in Ottawa, the New Democratic Party (NDP) is calling for a national plan that would cover prescription drugs for Canadians.
A first draft of the bill was rejected by the New Democrats in September. Since then, other proposals have been exchanged between the two parties, but the NDP is not giving further details — it says it will not negotiate in public.
Mr. Singh told the town hall that he had borrowed the image of the elusive eel from his party’s health critic, Don Davies, who was negotiating the framework bill with the government.
Mr Davies said he would leave that picture to his leader, and is hopeful a bill will be introduced before the deadline of 1er March — in five weeks.
The NDP is currently awaiting a response to its most recent proposal, said Mr. Davies, who plans to resume discussions with Health Minister Mark Holland next week.
The party said the government’s first draft left the door open for a mixed public-private system in which the pharmaceutical industry would continue to make “huge profits”.
“We’re struggling to find the right way to get prescription drugs to Canadians, and that’s through our public system,” Davies said. “The NDP has been very clear on this. We have drawn a very clear line in the sand. »
Last October, delegates to the NDP political convention agreed to make pharmacare a sine qua non condition in their agreement of support and confidence with the Liberals. Activists voted for the party to withdraw its support for the Liberal government in key votes in the House if it does not get what it is asking for on this issue.
If the NDP pulled out of the agreement, it would not necessarily trigger an early election: rather, the party would manage each vote in the Commons on merit.