OTTAWA — As the nation’s premiers gather in Winnipeg, NDP Health Critic Don Davies is calling on Prime Minister Trudeau to defend Canada’s public health care system against an increasing number of Conservative premiers pushing private, for-profit delivery which would increase wait times, deepen staff shortages and force Canadians to pay out of pocket for care.
NDP MPs Don Davies and Heather McPherson organized a ‘Create Your Canada’ contest in their respective ridings, where students can propose ideas that are tabled in the House of Commons as private member’s bills.
OTTAWA -
No longer content to wait for the Liberals to make good on their promise, the New Democrats tabled their own pharmacare legislation in the House of Commons Tuesday.
The NDP and Liberals struck a confidence-and-supply agreement last year that would see the NDP support the government on key votes to hold an election off until 2025 in exchange for progress on NDP priorities.
The minister has defended his actions, stating he does not provide direction to the board but does participate in consultations before new guidelines for drug prices are issued. On Tuesday, Duclos’s office said it was the minister’s “duty to work with all actors, from patients and … the industry, to make sure Canadians have access to the medication and vaccines they need.”
Even so, there’s “no doubt that Minister Duclos and the Liberal government are being pressured by other forces,” Davies said.
“What we want to do is add some pressure on the other side of this. Do I trust them? Yes. And I hope that they will do the right thing.”
Recent testimony at the House Heath Committee by the health minister and former members of an organization that regulates drug prices in Canada has left members grappling with “two thoroughly contradictory versions of events,” says NDP MP Don Davies.