New Democrats table the Pharmacare Act, outlining the model they expect the government to meet for the public, universal system where no one has to pay for prescription drugs...
Media Release: Jagmeet Singh: We are setting our expectations for Pharmacare legislation
Media Release: Jagmeet Singh: We are setting our expectations for Pharmacare legislation
June 13th, 2023
Jagmeet Singh:
OTTAWA— Today Canada’s NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and NDP health critic Don Davies outlined their expectations for the Pharmacare legislation the government must deliver as part of the Confidence and Supply Agreement with New Democrats.
Ultimately, Pharmacare will save Canadians on average $500 a year, and it will save our public health care system billions overall, recently estimated at $1,500 per patient per year. It will bring coverage for essential medication to millions of uninsured Canadians and save lives.
“For over 25 years now, Liberals have been promising Pharmacare, but Canadians are paying the third highest prices for medication in the world,” said Singh. “Our parents, grandparents and children are paying the price for this broken promise, while Big Pharma keeps making record profits. Instead of defending the interests of Big Pharma and the insurance industry, New Democrats are standing up for people. We’re using out power to force the Liberals to bring in Pharmacare legislation as a first step to delivering free prescription medicine for all Canadians.”
Liberals have delayed price reforms of patented medication four times; they reduced their initial reforms from an estimated savings for Canadians of $13 billion to $3 billion. Last November, after his department was lobbied 126 times by pharmaceutical companies, the Minister of Health intervened to suspend even this watered-down reform once again.
Justin Trudeau teamed up with Conservatives to defeat the NDP Canada Pharmacare Act last year, but Jagmeet and the NDP didn’t stop fighting. Now, New Democrats are using their power to force the Liberals to act.
“New Democrats have used our power to force the Liberals to do something they didn’t want to do – agree to pass legislation for universal Pharmacare by the end of the year,” said Davies. “Knowing the Liberals' history of caving in to Big Pharma and the insurance industry, we wanted to introduce our clear version of a Canada Pharmacare Act today, to be transparent with Canadians about our expectations. It is crucial that the legislation be clear that the system is universal, comprehensive and entirely public, so no one will have to pay out of pocket for their medication.
Only a single-payer Pharmacare system will achieve the savings, efficiencies and fairness that is the hallmark of Canadian Medicare. Anything less will be unacceptable to Canadians and the NDP," concluded Davies.
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How your data determines what you pay!
What if the price you pay at the store is different than the person standing next to you?
Corporations can use personal data such as location, device type, browsing history, purchase behavior, login status, and loyalty cards/programs to profile consumers and determine what different people are charged for the same goods and services.
How can we stop this from happening in Canada?
Join MP Jenny Kwan, Patrick Johnson - President of UFCW 1518, Jim Stanford - Economist and Director of Centre for Future Work, Avi Lewis - NDP Leader and Benjamin Fung - Canada Research Chair in Data Mining for Cybersecurity and other experts, for a public forum and community conversation about what surveillance pricing means for consumers and workers, how technology and personal data are changing the way prices are set, and what everyday people can do to fight back.
*Scan QR code, click the image or this link to register your attendance - https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/your-data-their-price-a-town-hall-on-surveillance-pricing-tickets-1998495899032
IRCC taking 33 months to process applications in wake of 'lost Canadians' law
When Pascal Sud and Meisha Smith prepared in January for the arrival of their first child, the choice seemed simple.
Smith would give birth in her home country of Jamaica where she had family support, and then they would together return to Montreal three months later.
At the time, the wait time for the citizenship certificate that their daughter, Sofianne, needed to fly back to Canada was between four and six weeks.
But more than eight months later, they're still waiting.
Sud is back at work in Montreal while Smith and Sofianne are still in Jamaica.
"It's been very frustrating," said Sud. "I was lucky to be there for three months … but I've been missing every step since, and it's been very difficult to be apart from them."
He's not alone.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is struggling to handle a flood of citizenship applications — many of them from a change to federal law late last year that allows anyone who can prove they have a Canadian ancestor to apply.
That backlog is preventing Canadians born abroad like Sofianne from coming home.
According to the department's most recent update on Sept. 3, there are 136,000 applications waiting to be processed. Those applying for a citizenship certificate now face a wait of 33 months.
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan called on the government to restore staffing and resources that were cut at IRCC, calling the processing delays "simply unreasonable and unacceptable."
*Click image or link to read the full news story - https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-citizenship-lost-canadians-c3-backlog-9.7366981