Working with the Liberals on pharmacare legislation has been like wrestling eels covered in oil, as NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh describes it.
Singh told a town hall meeting in Edmonton, where the New Democrats are holding a caucus retreat, that dealing with the federal government is “not fun.”
“They’re just slimy and break their promises,” Singh said this week, getting laughs from the crowd.
“They say one thing and then try to get out of it, but we’re not giving up and we’re not backing down.”
When the House of Commons returns on Monday, NDP members of Parliament say they will continue to press to get the bill drafted, with Singh calling the effort “the next big fight.”
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The NDP has been pushing for a system to cover Canadians’ prescription medicines as part of its deal with the minority Liberals.
A first draft of the bill was rejected by the New Democrats back in September. Since then, more proposals have been exchanged between the two parties, but the NDP is withholding details and saying they will not negotiate in public.
Singh told the crowd that he took the eel description from his party’s health critic Don Davies, who has been negotiating with the government on a framework bill.
He said the entire caucus agrees with the characterization.
Davies said he will leave those descriptions to Singh, but he is optimistic a bill will be tabled by the March 1 deadline.
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The NDP is currently waiting for a response to its most recent proposal, said Davies, adding he expects to resume talks with Health Minister Mark Holland next week.
The party said the government’s first draft of the prospective legislation had left the door open for a mixed public-private system in which the pharmaceutical industry would continue to make “huge profits.”
“We’re battling for the proper way to deliver prescription medicine to Canadians, and that’s through our public system,” Davies said.
“The NDP have been very clear on this. We set down a very clear line in the sand.”
In October, delegates at an NDP policy convention agreed to make pharmacare a red line in their confidence-and-supply agreement with the Liberals. They voted to withdraw their support on key House of Commons votes if the minority Liberal government doesn’t adhere to their demands.
Should the NDP pull out of the deal, that won’t necessarily trigger an election. The party would instead handle each parliamentary vote on a case-by-case basis.
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