As the year ends, the federal NDP Leader and Burnaby South MP Jagmeet Singh is touting programs he says will benefit Canadians.
In a conversation with the NOW, Singh highlighted dental care, rental support and the GST rebate, as programs his party supported as part of the NDP-Liberal agreement keeping the Liberals in power.
Singh told the NOW he has put much of his energy this year advocating to realize those priorities.
“It hasn’t been the case that just because it’s written in the agreement that it just happens,” Singh said.
“Even though we’ve got the agreement in place, it actually is constantly something we need to fight for, for it to be achieved,” he added.
Health care a priority
Earlier this month, Singh signaled the possibility of withdrawing from the agreement, wanting to see more federal funding for provincial health care.
The delivery and management of health care is a provincial responsibility, but Singh said there is a shared responsibility of federal and provincial governments in the “overall file of health.”
The Government of Canada’s website states that the federal government is responsible for “setting and administering national standards for the health-care system” and “providing funding support” to provincial and territorial health-care services.
“It’s that shared responsibility that I’ve felt for a long time has been neglected, where the federal government has not been contributing their fair share. The initial promise was always that the federal government would contribute half of the funding for health care and the other half would be from provinces. That has eroded over the years, and it’s dropped to 22 per cent,” Singh said.
Dental care program
Singh particularly emphasized the federal dental care program recently introduced, which will pay $650 for dental care for children under 12 to families making less than $90,000 annually, who don’t have access to private dental insurance.
Singh estimated between 80,000 and 90,000 British Columbian children will be covered under the plan.
He said ultimately the NDP’s goal would be integrating dental care into the country’s universal health-care system.
The supply and confidence agreement prioritizes the program to be expanded to children 18 and under, seniors and people with disabilities next year.
Singh said creating a federal dental program would happen faster than if it were administered provincially.
“We wanted to make it happen right away,” Singh said.
“But to do that, we would have to have provinces sign on, and we would have to negotiate it. And this can take years and years and years.”
