What was left undone by the Liberal-NDP governance agreement?
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The confidence-and-supply agreement between the NDP and Liberals has ended with a number of policy accomplishments for New Democrats — but others haven’t yet reached the finish line.
The agreement struck between the two parties in March 2022 committed the NDP to supporting the Liberal government on confidence votes in exchange for legislative commitments on NDP priorities.
The deal was set to last until June of next year. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Wednesday that he had informed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that his party was tearing up the agreement.
In a campaign-style social media video, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh announced that he has ended the supply-and-confidence agreement his party with Prime Minister Justin Trudea’s Liberal government. The deal was scheduled to run until June 2025.
What was accomplished
One of the key items coming out of the deal was replacement worker legislation. The law — which received royal assent earlier this summer — bans the use of replacement workers at federally regulated workplaces during a strike.
In 2022, the government also required that all federally-regulated workplaces provide 10 days of annual sick leave to workers.
As part of the deal, the government also moved forward with passing the Sustainable Jobs Act, which is meant to support the creation of sustainable jobs and economic growth in a net-zero economy.
The government also established a roundtable of federal, provincial, territorial and Indigenous leaders to coordinate on implementing the recommendations of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
The deal included an agreement to move forward with the housing accelerator fund, which has been rolling out funding to municipalities that agree on certain requirements, such as increasing density near transit stations.
Some temporary measures were also rolled out, including a doubling of the GST rebate and a one-time rental supplement.
What’s almost finished
One of the biggest items introduced under the supply-and-confidence agreement was the national dental care program.
The goal of the program is to cover dental costs for low-income Canadians who don’t have access to private plans.
The national plan has started covering roughly 2.4 million Canadians. But the government estimates that almost 9 million will be eligible once the program is fully implemented.
As of right now, applications are open to seniors, children under the age of 18 and people who receive the federal disability tax credit. Applications for the rest of the eligible population are expected to open in January 2025.
Still in limbo
One key NDP priority that is still unresolved is a national pharmacare program.
The pharmacare issue became a sticking point between the two parties and the NDP threatened to pull out of the agreement in March if legislation wasn’t introduced by the start of that month.
Pharmacare legislation was tabled in late February and passed in the House in June. But the bill is still before the Senate.
April’s budget set aside $1.5 billion to begin covering some diabetes medications and contraception once the pharmacare bill passes.
But the plan would require buy-in from provinces and territories, because health care falls under their jurisdiction. The government won’t be able to begin negotiating details with provincial and territorial governments until the bill becomes law.
The governance agreement also included a commitment to certain electoral reform provisions. Legislation has been put forward that, if passed, would add two advance polling days for the next election. Bill C-65 also includes a plan to spread the official election day over three days and allow voters to vote at any polling station in their riding by 2029.
But the bill has only passed its second reading in the House and has yet to be looked at in committee. In order to become law, it likely would need to pass both chambers before Parliament adjourns next summer.
The agreement also called for the tabling of legislation to uphold national long–term care standards.
The government has concluded consultations on a long-term care act but hasn’t yet introduced any legislation. A Health Canada spokesperson told CBC News that the government aims to introduce a long-term care act “by the end of this year.”
