As pharmacare deadline looms, Singh mulls a future without NDP’s deal with Liberals

OTTAWA — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is mulling what it would mean if the supply-and-confidence deal that ties his party to the Liberals should end prematurely.

The deal is poised to fall apart if the parties can’t agree on legislation that would set the foundation for a future pharmacare plan by the end of the month.

“My sense right now is I don’t know which way it’s going,” Singh said at a press conference in Ottawa on Tuesday.

The NDP signed a political pact with the Liberals in 2022 to support the government on key votes in exchange for progress on shared priorities such as pharmacare.

The Liberals agreed to table and pass pharmacare legislation by the end of 2023, but negotiations over its contents stalled and the parties extended the deadline to March 1 in hopes of reaching an agreement.

Singh’s hopes appeared to be fading Tuesday as he explained what the NDP’s relationship with the minority government will look like if the deal dies next month.

The NDP wouldn’t automatically support the passage of government bills, and the Liberals would have to negotiate with them every time they want support, Singh said.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t find ways to pass other bills that we still support. That doesn’t mean that we can’t continue to push … things like the anti-scab legislation that we want to see happen,” he said.

In other words, the other elements of the agreement aren’t necessarily doomed if the deal falls apart.

When it comes to major votes that could trigger a snap election, such as on the budget, Singh said the NDP would have to figure it out on a case-by-case basis.

“If the agreement’s not in place, we’re saying that none of our votes should be taken for granted,” he said.

Both parties have been dragged down in the polls recently as Conservatives soar to popularity, but the NDP insists electoral politics aren’t putting the deal at risk.

Instead, Singh said the divide is all about the approach to a future pharmacare deal.

The New Democrats have insisted they won’t support a bill that doesn’t reflect a universal, single-payer system.

“There is a bit of a philosophical problem here, and that’s that the NDP is committed to single-payer pharmacare and the Liberals are not. And that’s why we don’t have legislation,” said NDP health critic Don Davies, who has been leading the negotiation for his party.

Health Minister Mark Holland has raised concerns about committing to the future cost of such a program, even if the government doesn’t need to launch it immediately.

The anticipated annual cost of a full-fledged program is roughly $38.9 billion, which would be offset by economywide savings, the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated in a report released in October.

The NDP have suggested the plan could be phased in incrementally if it only covers certain essential drugs first.

Davies said he expects to sit down with Health Minister Mark Holland this week, adding they’re in almost daily communication.

The Liberals know very well what they committed to and will meet their obligations under the agreement, Liberal House leader Steven MacKinnon said Tuesday.

Pulling support from the Liberals if they don’t meet the March 1 deadline is “not well thought out strategy,” Liberal MP Hedy Fry chimed in on social media Tuesday.

If that triggers an election and the Conservatives win, there will be no pharmacare for the next four years for sure, she said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Laura Osman, The Canadian Press