NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Wednesday he does not expect to see legislation to create a national pharmacare system in next week’s fall economic statement because negotiations with the Liberals are “ongoing.”
Singh made the remarks in Toronto, where he was outlining what he wants to see in Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s fall economic statement, which will be presented on Nov. 21.
Under the confidence-and-supply agreement between the Liberals and the NDP — which sees New Democrats support the Liberal minority government on confidence votes in exchange for progress on NDP policy priorities — the Liberal government committed to passing pharmacare legislation by the end of 2023. Parliament is only sitting for another four weeks between now and the end of the year.
“I don’t think that we are going to get to the point where we need to get on pharmacare next week, so that’s going to be an ongoing negotiation. So I’m not worried about next week in terms of pharmacare,” Singh said.
He said the NDP will keep pushing the Liberals to craft an agreement it can live with. He said New Democrats won’t accept a pharmacare plan that fails to help everyone.
Singh said he’s seen a draft of federal pharmacare legislation. He said his party sent it back to the Liberals because it could not agree with one of the major elements of the proposed bill.
“The Liberals want to leave the door open for some form of mixed public-private, where the pharmaceutical industries continue to make huge profits,” he said.
“We don’t care about them. We don’t want to appease them. We want to make sure Canadians can afford their medication.That’s our priority.”
First draft of pharmacare legislation was ‘insufficient,’ NDP leader says
Featured VideoNDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says the federal government is now working on ‘some amendments’ to pharmacare legislation.
Singh was asked several times if he would pull out of the confidence-and-supply agreement with the Liberals if pharmacare legislation is not passed by the end of the year. He sidestepped, saying he’s confident the NDP and Liberals can find common ground.
The NDP says it wants a public, universal, single-payer pharmacare system, rather than one that permits private medical plans with drug coverage.
Groceries and rent
Singh said he wants the economic statement to include measures to lower rents and bring down the cost of groceries.
“I want to see real investments in building affordable housing,” he said. “Places where people can afford to rent, ways to bring down the cost of rent. That’s what I want to see in this economic statement.”
Speaking in Mascouche, Que., Freeland pointed out that she and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne met with the CEOs of major grocery chains to ask them to come up with plans to stabilize prices. She added there are other ways to get prices down.
Singh says NDP will ‘keep pushing on pharmacare’
Featured VideoRosemary Barton speaks with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, about his party’s call for more help on Canadians’ home heating costs, voting with Conservatives on their carbon tax motion, and the future of the confidence-and-supply agreement with the Liberals.
“We need to make a major change in Canadian competition law,” she said. “A very important way to bring prices down is through competition.
“We need to bring more competition into the Canadian economy, particularly in the grocery sector.”
Freeland said she and Champagne are working on that approach and are looking “forward to bringing some meaningful advances forward.”
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
