The upcoming 2023 federal budget will be a key measure in determining whether the NDP’s confidence and supply agreement with the Liberals has been a success or a failure, according to the party’s finance critic.
“I think the budget is going to tell the tale about whether we’re making that progress at a good rate,” NDP MP Daniel Blaikie told the CBC. “It’s going to be a very interesting few months on the Hill here … when the budget is presented.”
In March 2022, the New Democrats signed an agreement with the governing Liberals to supply them with the votes needed to pass key legislation if the Liberals agreed to advance a number of NDP priorities. That agreement will be a major topic of discussion as Blaikie and his 24 NDP colleagues attend a caucus retreat beginning Wednesday on Parliament Hill.
New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh kicks things off in the morning with a keynote address open to the media. It promises to touch on issues like health care and the inflation crisis. The rest of the meeting will be closed to the public.
During the closed-door sessions, Blaikie will be briefing his colleagues on negotiations he’s been having with the federal government as a member of a group of politicians and staff from both parties that formed after the agreement was signed to discuss progress on key commitments and priorities.
Pharmacare, dental plan expansion on NDP radar
While many of those priorities don’t have stated timelines, some do.
For instance, 2023 was supposed to be the year the Liberals passed the Canada Pharmacare Act and then follow-up with a bulk purchasing plan and a national formulary or list of essential medicines for prescription by the end of the agreement.
In 2022, dental care coverage was expanded to cover children under 12 years old from households earning less than $90,000. Expanding dental coverage for middle-income households to cover 18-year-olds, seniors and people living with disabilities was also supposed to take another step this year as part of the agreement.
“We’re expecting to see that at the beginning of 2024,” Blaikie said.
According to the finance critic, New Democrats will look to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s spring budget to determine whether the Liberals are serious about keeping the rest of the agreement.
Blaikie noted that because much of the work to prepare budgets happens months in advance, the 2022 budget was mostly assembled before the confidence and supply agreement was signed. Consequently, the upcoming budget is the one he says will “tell a lot of the story” of how the NDP-Liberal agreement looks.
“It’s going to be an important moment of reflection for our caucus as we think about the next year ahead and whether the government is doing a good enough job.”
NDP will defend public health-care system
Outside of advancing various aspects of the agreement, Blaikie said the New Democrats will be pushing the Liberals to fix the health-care system.
He said Canadians “are seeing their health-care system failed them in a time of extraordinary need.”
Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government on Monday announced its plan to expand the number and range of surgeries offered at for-profit clinics in the province.
After the announcement, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signalled he was open to ideas to “deliver better services to Canadians in health care.”
The NDP has threatened to withdraw from its confidence-and-supply agreement to keep the Liberals in power until 2025 unless they act on the health-care crisis. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is calling on the federal government to spend more money on health care and reach an agreement with the premiers.
Meanwhile, both the Ontario and federal New Democrats left no room for doubt about where the party stands on public dollars going to the private system, saying parallel systems will create competition for scarce human resources.
“An NDP government would push back very hard on provinces in respect to private delivery, and it’s something that we’re monitoring very closely,” Blaikie said.
“We are unequivocal in our message to the government that defending public service delivery should be a priority of the federal government.”
Blaikie called on the federal government to use the “levers” it has at its disposal to push back on Conservative provincial governments that may be looking to private health-care institutions for solutions.
Health-care staffing strategy needed: labour group
What Canada needs is a national strategy for staffing the health-care system, according to the country’s largest labour organization, which has close ties to the NDP.
Bea Bruske, the president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said such a strategy would help governments across Canada recruit, train and retain health-care workers.
“Our public system is in dire straits, and we’re calling on all levels of government to work together to make sure Canadians right across this country can rely on strong public healthcare,” said Bruske, who will also address the NDP caucus on Wednesday.
