Healthcare, Pharmacare and Dental Care

HANSARD: Debating Conservative's Private Members Bill to Limit Access to Medical Assistance

MEDIA RELEASE: New Democrats Force the Liberals to Act: Wins for Everyday Canadians

Whether it’s sky-high rent and housing costs, gas pump gouging, or record-high grocery bills – working families are feeling the squeeze of inflation as big box stores and CEOs earn massive profits. At the NDP caucus retreat in Halifax last week, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh reiterated ​urgent calls for inflationary relief measures ​to address the affordability crisis.
New Democrats used their power in the minority parliament to get wins for everyday people, forcing the Liberals to finally agree to ​take action on a historic expansion of Canada’s healthcare system through the establishment of a dental care program for families earning less than $90,000 without insurance and an increase to the Canadian Housing Benefit – real measures that will help household budgets. 

MEDIA RELEASE: New Democrats Force the Liberals to Act: Wins for Everyday Canadians

Whether it’s sky-high rent and housing costs, gas pump gouging, or record-high grocery bills – working families are feeling the squeeze of inflation as big box stores and CEOs earn massive profits. At the NDP caucus retreat in Halifax last week, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh reiterated ​urgent calls for inflationary relief measures ​to address the affordability crisis.
New Democrats used their power in the minority parliament to get wins for everyday people, forcing the Liberals to finally agree to ​take action on a historic expansion of Canada’s healthcare system through the establishment of a dental care program for families earning less than $90,000 without insurance and an increase to the Canadian Housing Benefit – real measures that will help household budgets. 

MEDIA RELEASE: NDP MPs fighting against toxic drug related deaths, while Liberals ignore expert advice

"Families in Vancouver and across British Columbia have experienced the devastating toll of the toxic drug crisis. Thousands of families have lost loved ones – these are preventable deaths," said NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East). "Successive Medical Health Officers in BC, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and family members have called out Canada's current drug laws. They are ineffective, do not give people the help they need and disproportionally harm marginalized communities. The cost of inaction is people's lives – we need to act now."  

 

"Over the last two years, we've seen a drastic increase in toxic drug-related deaths and hospitalizations across Canada," said NDP MP Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway). "The status quo is clearly not working. Substance use and addiction are health, not criminal matters. It’s critical that we follow the evidence and shift to the health-based approach that Bill C-216 is proposing."  

 

“I am proud to support Gord John’s Bill C-216 and thank him for putting it forward. The criminalization of drugs has had an unfathomably negative impact on the health and well-being of far too many people in this country,” said Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart. “It unfairly targets those who are homeless, experiencing mental health issues, and racialized and Indigenous communities. This bill is a chance to take a more compassionate approach - ensuring drug users end up in health care, not handcuffs.”

IN THE NEWS: Global News - Advocates rally in support of abortion rights in Vancouver

Vancouver-Mount Pleasant NDP MP Jenny Kwan also addressed the crowd.
She told Global News that while what is happening in the U.S. is “horrifying,” Canadians should remain focused on the right to access safe abortion here.
“While it is true that abortion is legal here in Canada, the reality is that many communities do not have access to abortion services, and sexual health services for the LGBTQ2+ community, for the trans community is also not available if you happen to live in a remote community, in a rural community,” she said.

Kwan argued the Liberal government is not doing enough to ensure abortion services are available to Canadians everywhere, pointing to the battle in New Brunswick over Clinic 554.
New Brunswick’s provincial government refuses to fund abortions at the clinic, the only facility in the province providing surgical abortions outside of a hospital.  In response, the federal government withheld some health transfers to the province, but the clinic’s operator was forced scale back services.

IN THE NEWS: Star - Jagmeet Singh’s NDP has tied itself to the Liberals. Is the party ready for what happens next?

“Is it enough? No. Is it what a New Democratic government would do? No. But it is using the power we have to make real change for people, and to do the things that we have run on for decades.”

IN THE NEWS: CTV - The day after the deal: MPs voice their views on the Liberal-NDP agreement

NDP MP Jenny Kwan said that while the deal doesn’t include all of the policies the NDP want progress on, “it is about getting as much as we can for the people who need the supports and services,” and she and others will continue to fight for more.

“That’s what this agreement is about, getting as much as we can,” Kwan said. “Imagine—if 25 New Democrats can get us this far—what a majority New Democrat government can do.”

NEWS: CBC - How the Liberal-NDP agreement will work and what it might mean for Canadians

The "supply-and-confidence" agreement struck between the governing Liberals and the opposition New Democrats could affect the kind of legislation Canadians can expect to see pass through Parliament between now and 2025.

According to the deal, those key policy areas are climate change, health care spending, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, economic growth and efforts to make life more affordable.

IN THE NEWS: Global News West Block - Opposition MPs say Auditor General report highlights failures of border safety measures

The Auditor General found the Public Health Agency of Canada does not know whether 75 per cent of air arrivals followed quarantine rules in early 2021. ‘The West Block’ guest host Abigail Bimman is joined by Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman and NDP MP Jenny Kwan to discuss the government’s response and reinstated travel rules due to the Omicron variant.

IN THE NEWS: Hill Times - New House set to return as Liberal government faces unfinished legislative business with potential NDP ally

Ms. Kwan, who insisted that the NDP will press the Liberal government hard to move on a myriad of issues starting with seniors who received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit during the pandemic and who have now either seen their Guaranteed Income Supplement payments reduced or lost leaving some of them unable to pay rent.

“Housing affordability is a paramount issue—whether it’s someone who is homeless or those trying to get into the market for the first time,” said Ms. Kwan, the NDP’s housing critic.
She explained that the affordability issue touches health care too, where one of her constituents recently told her of being unable to cover the cost of cancer medication—a shining example, in Ms. Kwan’s view, of why her party will continue to press the Liberal government on universal pharmacare.

The Liberals will have an eager and unrelenting ally in the New Democrats to pursue action in addressing “the climate crisis before us,” said Ms. Kwan, a former NDP cabinet minister in British Columbia. “Canada has yet to meet a COP target since Paris in 2015.”

In her opinion, she said Mr. Trudeau also missed an opportunity to advance reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples this year by both vacationing in Tofino, B.C. on the country’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (Sept. 30), and later by his government filing an appeal of a Federal Court decision upholding a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling on Indigenous child-welfare compensation, while continuing to negotiate an out-of-court settlement.

In her role as federal NDP critic for immigration, refugees and citizenship, Ms. Kwan has another issue she will hammer home when the House resumes sitting.   “Immigration is in complete chaos right now. The backlog for every stream is mind boggling,” she explained.

“There was already a backlog before the pandemic, and with the pandemic, immigration processing was severely debilitated. Amidst all of that, the Liberals decided to call an election on the day [Aug. 15] when there was a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.”