Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is calling on provinces and territories to start negotiating pharmacare deals as soon as possible, now that the federal legislation to enact the program has become law.
“This is real progress, but now we need the provinces and territories to come to the table and sign agreements with us that supports Canadians and takes pressure off their household budgets as soon as possible,” Trudeau told reporters on Friday as he wrapped a visit to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Laos.
The pharmacare bill that was central to a political pact between the Liberals and NDP become law Thursday after the Senate passed the bill without making any changes.
The vote was swiftly followed by royal assent Thursday evening.
The legislation will inform the creation of any future national, universal pharmacare plan.
It will also allow the government to sign deals with provinces and territories to cover diabetes and birth-control medications as part of the public health system.
“This is going to be truly transformative for millions of Canadians,” Health Minister Mark Holland said in a video posted on social media Thursday evening after the vote.
The wording and content of the bill was carefully negotiated as part of the now-defunct supply-and-confidence deal between the NDP and Liberals.
“This is something that Tommy Douglas always envisaged when he pushed for universal health care more than half a century ago,” NDP health critic Peter Julian said in an interview Thursday.
“Canada is the only country with universal health care that doesn’t have universal pharmacare.”
British Columbia has already signed a memorandum of understanding with Ottawa to launch the program for diabetes and birth control drugs in that province.
Trudeau said the program will help people who are struggling to pay for prescriptions, and said his government “not only (believes) in a woman’s right to choose, we act on it.”
Holland hopes to have all provinces and territories on board by next spring.
“Already provinces like B.C. and Manitoba have indicated an interest, which means agreements should be able to be signed rapidly, and the drugs should start to be supported,” Julian said.
The new law calls for the government to convene an expert panel within the next month that will investigate the next steps in establishing a full-fledged pharmacare program.
That committee will have one year to report their recommendations to the health minister.
