Liberals pledge $3 billion for home care, prescription drugs, mental health

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau conceded Wednesday that the targeted investments would be contingent on the approval of provinces and territories, which have jurisdiction over health care.

Thestar.com
Sept. 30, 2015
By Bruce Campion-Smith

A Liberal government would invest an additional $3 billion in health care over four years to boost home care as well as take steps to ease the cost of prescription drugs and improve mental health care.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau conceded Wednesday that the targeted investments would be contingent on the approval of provinces and territories, which have jurisdiction over health care.

But he says the promised funding would respond to needs being felt across the country.

“Every single province is challenged with an aging population and the need for better home care,” Trudeau said, adding that Canada must invest to get ready for the country’s changing demographics.

Yet he accused Conservative Leader Stephen Harper of refusing to discuss health-care challenges with the provinces.

“Harper has simply refused to discuss the future of our health-care system. In fact, he has refused to sit down with the provinces to talk about it,” Trudeau said during a campaign stop in Surrey, B.C.

“It’s time we had a prime minister that understood that it’s going to take leadership on health care to get our country back to where it needs to get to.”

He said a Liberal government would launch discussions with the provinces with a focus on expanding access to home care. More than two million Canadians rely on home care, Trudeau said, and that number is expected to grow in the coming years.

On drugs, Trudeau said that a Liberal government would negotiate better prices for prescription medications and buy in bulk to help cut costs.

Speaking to reporters after his announcement, Trudeau said a Liberal government would act quickly on the party’s commitment to legalize marijuana.

Trudeau said changes are needed because the current system allows criminals to easily profit from marijuana sales while not doing enough to shield children.

He repeated the Liberal commitment to legalize and regulate marijuana, “controlling it in a way that will protect our kids and remove criminal elements from it.”

“We’re going to get started on that right away. We will learn from the best practices of jurisdictions around the world who have moved forward,” Trudeau said.

In a statement, Conservative candidate Julian Fantino, a former police chief in Toronto, said the Liberal plan “will make smoking marijuana a normal, everyday activity for Canadians.”

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair spent a second day in Iqaluit, where he said a New Democrat government would allow government scientists to speak out. And he promised to create a parliamentary office dedicated to providing scientific advice, according to a Canadian Press report.

The office of the parliamentary science officer would help restore respect for the country’s scientists and put scientific evidence at the core of the fight against climate change, Mulcair said, according to CP.

“At a time when the prime minister should have been fighting climate change, Stephen Harper created a climate of fear within our scientific community,” Mulcair said.

Harper was scheduled to appear at a Quebec event Wednesday.