The clock is ticking for the government to deliver on its ambitious promise to the New Democrats to deliver a dental care program for low- and middle-income uninsured kids by the end of the year, while cost estimates have nearly doubled.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s second pandemic budget turns Canada’s fiscal focus to making life more affordable and giving a long-needed boost to Canadian productivity.
The biggest extension to health care by far in this budget was a national dental care program. This went from obscurity to policy in a matter of months due to its inclusion in the Liberal-NDP agreement.
The federal Liberals are set to unveil their latest spending plan today, April 7, 2022, that aims to balance promises made to voters in last year's election campaign, in the pact with the NDP, and recently to Canada's global defence allies.
The NDP is watching to see that spending pledges made in a deal with the Liberals are honoured by the government in this week's federal budget, says a finance spokesman.
The spirit of collaboration the new Liberal-NDP deal brings to politics is encouraging, but aside from the pledge to provide dental care to low-income Canadians, it lacks ambition and won’t bring about the “transformational change we need,” said Green Party interim leader Amita Kuttner.
New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh could face some tough questions as the ink dries on a newly announced deal that would see his party support the Liberal minority government for the next three years.
The fifth and final week of the federal election campaign kicked off on Sunday, September 12, 2021, with the Liberals and New Democrats each questioning whether their opponent's plan to pay for the billions of campaign spending promises was based in reality.
