Without an announcement on drug insurance by March, the Liberal-NDP agreement will be “broken”

Photo: Adrian Wyld The Canadian Press “We were clear. This is the final date and they must deliver the goods,” said Jagmeet Singh on Monday, when he was scheduled to speak with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Canadian Press in Ottawa

4:54 p.m.

• Canada

If the Liberals do not respect the new March deadline agreed by the New Democrats to announce their universal drug insurance program, the agreement between the two political parties will be “broken,” the leader warned Monday of the New Democratic Party (NDP), Jagmeet Singh.

“If the agreement is broken, all the conditions of the agreement are therefore broken,” he replied in a press scrum to a journalist who asked him if he would thus lose the obligation to support the next budget of Justin Trudeau's government.

The agreement concluded by the NDP to allow the Liberals, in the minority, to keep power until 2025 provides for the systematic support of Mr. Singh's troops in key votes likely to bring down the government . Votes on budgets are part of this.

In exchange for this support promised by the New Democrats, the Liberals have committed to accomplishing a series of things, such as launching a dental care program and establishing a universal drug insurance plan.

Originally, the agreement called for the adoption of “a Canada Pharmacare Act by the end of 2023.” It was then agreed that the National Medicines Agency would be responsible “for developing a national formulary of essential medicines and a bulk purchasing plan by the end of the agreement”.

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As this previous deadline approached, the NDP, however, agreed to give a reprieve, setting March 1 as the deadline for a bill on the matter.

“We were clear. This is the final date and they must deliver the goods,” said Mr. Singh on Monday, when he was scheduled to speak with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The main sticking point in the negotiations so far appears to be the NDP's insistence on a universal single-payer system, which was the model recommended by Canada's Advisory Council on Implementation. implementation of a national drug insurance plan in 2019.

Federal Health Minister Mark Holland has also repeatedly spoken about the need for the government to be fiscally prudent.