The supply and confidence deal, slated to remain in place until 2025, secured NDP support for the minority Liberal government in exchange for progress on key policy priorities.
The supply and confidence agreement signed by the Liberals and NDP to keep the minority Liberals in power until 2025 has yielded some wins for the NDP and, in some cases, for seniors. We talked to the NDP's critic on seniors' issues for her take.
March 2024 will mark two years since the federal NDP and Liberal parties signed a supply and confidence agreement that was designed to keep the Liberals in power until 2025 in exchange for delivering on a list of NDP priorities. As we head toward the end of 2023 and as NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh looks ahead at the legislative agenda for 2024, he is no doubt calculating the number of wins he’s realized from that agreement and determining whether there are enough to risk trying to trigger an election.
Lori Turnbull, professor of political science at Dalhousie University, says it’s unlikely we’ll see an election anytime soon as the NDP, while on the road to solvency, is still paying off debt.
“And the Liberals don't want to go to the election while the economy is still a mess,” Turnbull says, “so rather than any success in leveraging one another, this is just an agreement that works for both of them at this time.”
Cameron Holmstrom, founder and principal of Niipaawi Strategies and a former adviser to the NDP, agrees it makes sense for the NDP to stay for now.
“As long as the downside risk doesn't get too great, and the government keeps delivering on the promises [in the agreement], it makes sense to stand in and keep going,” he says.
Holmstrom says every indication he gets is that party members will support it staying as long as it’s close to realizing a pharmacare program.
“That's something the NDP’s been pushing for 60 years,” Holmstrom says. “To actually bring home part of Tommy Douglas’s vision, and to make it reality — that’s generational kind of stuff, which makes it worth standing in for.”
That said, Holmstrom says the NDP is still ramping up for an election behind the scenes. Given that possibility, we look a list of promises from the agreement — specifically those that speak to Federal Retirees’ priorities. Some have been realized, some are still on paper only, and not in practice.
Pharmacare
According to the agreement, the Canada Pharmacare Act is supposed to be passed before the end of this year. But Singh recently admitted he rejected the Liberals’ first draft of the act and soon after an NDP source told the Globe & Mail that the party was willing to let that deadline slide into 2024 if it meant getting better legislation. While the act hasn’t even been tabled, the NDP — and ultimately Canadians who need this — could still count this as a win.
“I’m really excited about it because I know across this country, there’s just far too many people who cannot take their medication because they simply can’t afford it,” says Rachel Blaney, NDP critic on seniors’ issues.
Dental care
The agreement stipulates that a new dental care program for low-income Canadians without a dental plan should start by benefitting children under 12 in 2022, then expand to 18-year-olds, seniors and persons living with a disability in 2023. Full implementation was to take place by 2025. Although the parties are behind on that schedule, an interim Canada Dental Benefit came in this year with a tax-free payment of $260, $390 or $650 for each eligible child, depending on family income. Seniors are next in line.
“We have a lot of seniors calling our office, telling us they’re putting off serious dental care because they know this is coming,” Blaney says. “When you've met seniors who are literally blending and drinking their food because they have hardly any teeth, you realize the impact this will have.”
Housing and homelessness
The agreement stipulates that the rapid housing initiative, introduced in 2020, be extended for an additional year, which it has been. The agreement also says the two parties would launch a housing accelerator fund, which took place in 2023. And the Liberals committed to an additional $1 billion in spending on affordable housing in the fall economic statement.
Safe Long-Term Care Act
The agreement stipulates that the two parties will table a Safe Long-Term Care Act, which is something that remains elusive. This wasn’t an NDP-specific ask, however. It was also something the Liberals had identified.
The government carried out a public consultation during summer and early fall, and the Association submitted a brief outlining members’ priorities.
Tackling the climate crisis
This section of the agreement is more of a mixed bag. The Liberals’ exemption of home heating oil from the carbon tax for three years and doubling of the rural supplement to encourage oil users to switch to electric heat pumps met criticism from the NDP, which wanted the feds to remove the GST on home heating fuel and invest in cleaner energy sources.
“We have seen a little bit of a decrease in payouts that are going to the big oil and gas industry, but they're still not where we want to have them,” Blaney says. “We put motion forward on removing in GST off home-heating because of course, that is the only tax federally that meets the standard across Canada. B.C., Quebec and Northwest Territories have their own carbon pricing mechanism. [But] the Liberals and Conservatives voted against it, so we see where our work is and we’ll continue to push. As a [British Columbian], climate is top of mind because we’re watching communities burn to the ground.”
A better deal for workers
The NDP claimed a win in December 2022 when the Liberals announced 10 days of paid sick leave for all federally regulated workers. Further, and also part of the agreement, Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan tabled legislation proposing a ban on the use of replacement workers (“scabs”) when a union employer in a federally regulated industry has locked out employees or is in a strike. Both of these were included in the supply and confidence agreement, and the anti-scab legislation was one the NDP pushed.
GST rebate
The NDP is also claiming victory on the GST rebate, which the Liberals doubled under pressure from Singh in March 2023.
“To me, that's going to impact a lot of people who are at the lowest income branches and give them a little bit extra in their pocket, which is really important,” Blaney says.