Doctors, drugs and dental: where each federal party stands on health care

CITYnews halifax / By Manoj Subramaniam

Among the more memorable moments from last week’s debates between the leaders of Canada’s four major political parties was a dust-up involving a fifth person: the moderator.

During the French-language debate, moderator Patrice Roy rebuked NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh for repeatedly bringing up health care during a discussion on identity and sovereignty.

Singh’s persistence ultimately resulted in his microphone being briefly cut off. Roy had warned at the beginning of the debate he reserved the right to do that.

At his next opportunity to speak, Singh explained his insistence was based on his belief that universal health care was inherently linked to being Canadian. “Canadian identity is about taking care of one another. We need our universal public health care,” he said.

In national survey last year by OurCare Initiative, one-in-four Canadians said they did not have a family doctor (in Quebec, it was closer to one in three). Nearly all respondents of that survey (97 per cent) said all Canadians should have access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner.

READ: Canadians worry about quality of health care, have little faith it will improve: poll

Access to care is expected to get worse in Canada, with the government estimating a shortage of 78,000 doctors by 2031 and 117,600 nurses by 2030.

So how do the federal parties stack up in their proposals to tackle the health-care crisis?

Tackling shortage of health-care professionals

The Liberals said they would work to train more family doctors and nurse practitioners in Canada and recognize foreign health-care credentials so physicians from outside of the country can practise here.

On the campaign trail, Liberal Leader Mark Carney also appealed to Canadian health-care professionals practising in the United States. “If you’ve been thinking about coming back to Canada, there’s never been a better time,” he said, “It’s time to come home.”

The Liberals are calling for improved mobility of health-care workers through a pan-Canadian licensing program.

The Conservative Party platform proposes a unified licensing program called Blue Seal National Credentialing Plan modelled after the longstanding Red Seal program for regulated trades, which they believe would add 15,000 doctors by 2030. Provinces can opt in the program, which will allow a doctor or a nurse licensed by one province to practise in any other participating provinces.

The Conservatives also call for fast-tracking the recognition of foreign-trained health care workers. “There are 34,105 foreign trained nurses and 18,900 foreign-trained doctors in our country who are not working in their chosen profession.” The party proposes for foreign-trained professionals to get tested and get a response within 60 days under the Blue Seal program.

The New Democrats’ health-care platform promises a doctor for every Canadian by 2030. Like the Liberals and the Conservatives, the NDP also proposes a pan-Canadian licensing program for health-care workers to increase mobility. The NDP says it would work with provinces to reduce administrative workload.

During the debate last week, Singh said his party would tie health-care transfers to provinces to their performance on hiring and retaining health-care workers. That drew immediate criticism from Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, who called it interference in provincial matters. The NDP’s platform says it would boost federal health-care transfers by one per cent to provinces that publicly reported on their progress on hiring more health-care workers.

The Bloc Québécois in its political platform is calling for increased health-care transfers to provinces to the tune of 35 per cent, while the Green Party calls for investments in public health care by training and hiring more workers for improved access and reduced wait times.

The People’s Party of Canada was perhaps the only outlier with its call for the repeal of the Canada Health Act, the 1984 federal legislation that guarantees public-funded health care. In its place the party would like the provinces to create “mixed-public universal systems.”

Dental plans and pharmacare

On April 21 at a campaign stop in Nanaimo, B.C., Singh repeated that NDP will push for universal pharmacare for “essential medicines by year’s end” and the party’s platform promised to have a universal program within four years.

Singh took shots at Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre for voting against pharmacare and dental-care legislation in the House of Commons, and at Carney for not committing to expanding pharmacare beyond the early stage covering diabetes medications and birth control. The Greens supported expanding universal health care to cover medications as well.

The Liberal platform says they “are committed to making sure that Canadians can get the medications they need, no matter where they live or ability to pay,” with no specific promises about expansion plans. However, it describes the current program under the Pharmacare Act, which provides access to diabetes medicine to 3.7 million Canadians and contraceptives to women, as the “first phase of pharmacare.” It also said it would protect the dental-care program.

Poilievre has said on the campaign trail that no one currently with access to dental and pharmacare coverage through government programs will lose their coverage. However, he said last fall he opposed the single-pay prescription plan, calling it “radical.”

The Bloc called for the federal dental care program to be transferred to the provinces, claiming administration of the program by provinces will save costs compared to it being run by private insurer Sun Life.

Mental health and drug crisis

The Bloc Québécois platform describes fentanyl use in Canada as a public-health crisis and said it would support a massive expansion of health care through increases to healthcare transfers. “It is the only way to improve the lack of mental health care, rehabilitation centre spots, rapid access to emergency care, social workers, supervised consumption centres and harm reduction programs.”

The Liberal platform promises to provide $500 million to the Emergency Treatment Fund that funds municipalities and Indigenous communities to respond to “toxic drug and overdose crisis.”

The NDP is calling for expanding funding for crisis and addiction care.

The Conservatives took a different approach to dealing with the addiction crisis by proposing to close safe consumption sites, and calling for more powers for judges to order mandatory treatment and to require rehabilitation programs for prison inmates.

They also promised to sue pharmaceutical companies seeking $44 billion in damages for their role in the crisis, with the proceeds to be used in treatment and recovery.

The Conservatives and Bloc Québécois also wanted action against criminal organizations engaged in drug trafficking.

When it came to expanding mental-health support for all Canadians, the Liberals promise to make the Youth Mental Health Fund program permanent and reach 100,000 youth per year. The program was originally announced in 2024 as a five-year program. They also said they would continue to fund the 988 suicide crisis helpline that offers confidential support by phone and text.

The NDP and the Green Party also called for ensuring universal mental health-care, covering psychotherapy and counselling.

Reproductive and gender-affirming care

The Liberals have committed to make permanent the Sexual and Reproductive Health Fund introduced in the 2021 budget. The fund supports community-based organizations to improve access to abortion or other sexual health-care needs such as gender-affirming care for transgender Canadians and other underserved communities.

The Conservative Party platform pledges to not restrict abortion access in any form.
When it comes to gender-affirming care, Poilievre was reported to be opposed to puberty blockers for children under 18. He also said he was “not aware of any other genders than man and woman,” in a CP24 interview last year.

The PPC also opposes puberty blockers, calling for outlawing gender-affirming care for minors. It also welcomed a debate on abortion and called for “reasonable restrictions on abortion.” It also called for repealing Bill C-4, which criminalized conversion therapy.

While the NDP, the Greens and the Bloc do not have specific positions on their platforms regarding reproductive care, historically the parties have supported abortion rights.

The Greens have criticized the use of the notwithstanding clause by provinces to restrict anti-trans legislation. The NDP issued a statement in support of transgender Canadians on the International Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31.

Caregiver support

The Liberals promise to provide personal support workers with up to $1,100 a year and to advance the National Caregiving Strategy that was announced in the 2024 budget to recognize and support those providing care to family members.

Conservatives vowed to make the caregiver tax credit refundable and to fund 1,000 Autism Support Worker training spots annually to better support students, families, and schools.

Meanwhile the NDP proposes a new Canadian Health Care Workers Tax Credit of $5,000 to nurses and personal support workers.

The Greens are promising to help more people train and support caregivers, including those who offer care services for seniors.

–With files from The Canadian Press