NDP still plans to 'squeeze' as much as possible from deal with Liberals: Singh

The NDP plans to “squeeze as much as (it) can out of the Liberals” before their confidence-and-supply agreement runs out in 2025, according to leader Jagmeet Singh.

On Friday, Singh told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos, in an interview airing Sunday, the NDP and the Liberals had reached a deal to table pharmacare framework legislation this week, with just days to go before the March 1 deadline his party had set.

Pharmacare is one of the key commitments included in the confidence-and-supply deal, penned nearly two years ago, which sees the NDP prop up the Liberals in exchange for progress on certain policies.

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With a dwindling list of line items that have yet to be checked off, Kapelos asked Singh whether he plans to stay in the deal until 2025 as agreed, or add to his demands of the Liberals.

“The dental care piece, which is significant, that's not yet completely rolled out,” Singh said. “So we still need to see a rollout. We want to see people receiving that care. We want to see it work.

“The pharmacare, we've locked in these important commitments, we also want to see that happen,” he added. “So there's still more work to be done, and we want to make sure that work is completed, but we're not going to let the Liberals off the hook.”

The federal government is rolling out the Canadian Dental Care Plan in phases, but it doesn’t yet include everybody.

As part of the pharmacare deal announced Friday, Singh said coverage for diabetes medication and contraceptives will roll out in the shorter term, with the broader universal, single-payer pharmacare plan implemented on a timeline yet to be determined.

“We've been very clear with them,” Singh said. “If they break their commitments, they break their promise, they don't follow through, we have repercussions that we can we can put in place.”

In the weeks leading up to Friday’s announcement, the NDP had warned that failure to deliver pharmacare framework legislation by the March 1 deadline would jeopardize the confidence-and-supply agreement.

Singh has also criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals, saying in the interview that if left to them, pharmacare would likely be delayed “indefinitely.”

He said his message to Canadians is that it’s the NDP pushing the Liberals to act on the affordability measures laid out in the confidence-and-supply deal.