A new federal dental program is expected to help up to nine million Canadians whose net income is below $90,000 and who don't have dental insurance. NDP health critic Don Davies says this is a 'historic' day.
"If you think back to beginning, people thought there were constitutional hurdles, they thought that the speed of it was too ambitious, they didn't think that stakeholders would co-operate," Davies said in an interview Sunday evening.
"Here we are today, poised on the eve of the single biggest expansion of the health-care system in a generation."
The Canadian women told me they attended out of a sense of obligation not only to protest Canada’s absence, but to better equip themselves to push this government to live up to its promises and obligations.
This time, NDP MP Don Davies, who represents Vancouver-Kingsway, B.C., joined them at the New York meeting.
Parliamentarians from around the world are showing their support for nuclear disarmament and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). 23 elected officials from 14 countries followed ICANs invitation to the second meeting of states parties to exchange views, stategise and consider concrete steps for nuclear disarmament.
A statement from Health Minister Mark Holland's office did not say whether the Liberals believe they can get legislation passed through the House and Senate by the end of this year.
"Our goal remains to table our pharmacare legislation this year," said a statement from the minister's press secretary, Christopher Aoun.
Aoun added negotiations with the NDP are continuing and Holland and NDP health critic Don Davies "have a very good working relationship."
NDP health critic Don Davies, who introduced the motion at committee to launch the women’s health study last year, said he is asking women in his party to take his seat for the hearings.
“While the NDP has only one seat on the health committee, I have invited women MPs from our caucus to sit in my place for the purpose of this study,” he said in a statement emailed by the party. “I have also submitted a list of witnesses for this study, 100 per cent of whom are women.
“The NDP looks forward to seeing this long overdue study on women’s health unfold in the coming weeks.”
Health Minister Mark Holland's office said negotiations with the NDP are "progressing constructively" and the minister has a "good working relationship" with NDP health critic Don Davies. The statement did not commit to passing pharmacare legislation by the end of the year.
"The minister looks forward to continued conversations with the NDP as well as all parliamentarians and stakeholders to develop a universal pharmacare plan that Canadians can be proud of," the statement said.
NDP MP Don Davies, the party's health critic, said Poilievre has peddled "misinformation" about this legislation.
The bill would only ban COVID-19 mandates — but some Conservative Party literature has suggested it would prevent future vaccine mandates.
While agreeing with the Conservatives' claim that Trudeau and the Liberals "politicized" Canada's pandemic response, Davies said passing this legislation could tie the hands of the government if COVID-19 returns as a pressing public health threat.
Davies said the decision to impose a vaccine requirement should "always be based on the best available evidence, current science and advice of experts," not Conservative MPs "with little or no background in any of those things."
On Saturday, the party unanimously passed a non-binding emergency resolution that says they will cut the deal if pharamacare isn't universal and entirely a public program.
But New Democrat health critic Don Davies said the resolution has the full backing of the NDP caucus and that they will accept nothing less than the public single-payer system.
"They have to know that we take this deadly seriously," said Davies on Saturday.
“I've said it publicly, and I'll say it again, it's a red line for us. We have to have public pharmacare,” said NDP MP and health critic Don Davies, who says they’re specifically calling for “single-payer pharmacare.”
“We want all pharmaceuticals to be delivered to our public medical system, because it's the cheapest, fairest and most efficient way to do it.”