As part of his press scrums coming out of pre-sitting caucus meetings, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh declared that the party’s first private members’ bill would be to make universal pharmacare a reality. And apparently no one in the media pushed back against this, because let me tell you, it’s a whole lot of hand-wavey bullshit, and it quite literally goes against the rules of Parliament.

Seriously? How is this remotely going to be voteable and not require a Royal Recommendation, or compel the government to negotiate with the provinces (let alone force provinces to agree) given that it’s an area of provincial responsibility? #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/MGITZSIllf

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) January 23, 2020

For the uninitiated, private members’ bills have a very limited scope, and they are not allowed to spend public funds. To spend public funds, you need a Royal Recommendation, which only the government can provide. (It would have been nice if The Canadian Press article could mention that fact rather than simply say that PMBs have a tougher time passing). You can’t make pharmacare a reality without money, and given that it’s an area of provincial jurisdiction, it’s likely any bill would be unvoteable. In his release, Singh says he wants to legislate the necessary criteria by which provinces will get funding for the programme, which is a very interesting way to go about negotiating something that is in their area of jurisdiction. (Also, Singh’s constant line that Trudeau is somehow acting on the bidding of Big Pharma ignores that they are not happy with him, particularly over the changes the government made to the Patented Medicines Price Review Board – essentially, Singh is lying for the sake of a talking point he’s borrowing from the Justice Democrat crowd in the US). Singh also says that restoring the health transfer escalator will bring the provinces onside, which holy cow is a lot of money, but also ignores that the escalator was rising faster than healthcare spending, so it meant provinces were using that money for other things. But it’s only money, right?

You can’t just handwave this. I point this out over Twitter, and every NDP apologist under the sun insists that a) this is about keeping pressure on the government, and b) that the Liberals have somehow backed away from their campaign promise, which is false. The campaign promise was a $6 billion “down payment” while they negotiate with the provinces, because it’s largely provincial jurisdiction. They committed to following the Hoskins report, and already started with the creation of some of the necessary organizational tools necessary. A few days ago, the health minister said she couldn’t guarantee that it would happen during this parliament because it’s contingent upon negotiation with the provinces – provinces who are publicly reluctant, and we haven’t even broached the subject of how to negotiate a national formulary, which is a Very Big Deal and integral to any pharmacare system. And yet Singh was out promising that this could be done by 2020, because since when are these kinds of negotiations a problem? Yeah, that’s not how this works, kids, and lying about what Trudeau promised in order to justify Singh’s promises doesn’t make you a hero.

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1220070604872671232

Good reads:

• In a public speech to caucus, Justin Trudeau is urging MPs to swiftly pass the New NAFTA, and to end “petty politics.” Good luck with that one.
• Bill Morneau, Navdeep Bains and Mary Ng are all at the Davos summit to talk trade and the Canadian economy. (The piece doesn’t mention Freeland is there too).
• Patty Hajdu says the risk of a coronavirus outbreak in Canada is low, but the government is rolling out precautions nevertheless.
• Closing arguments were made in Meng Wanzhou’s extradition hearing, and the judge has reserved judgment, so we’ll see how long she takes to make a decision.
• Pierre Poilievre has bowed out of the Conservative leadership race, explaining that it would take too much time away from his young family.
• Marilyn Gladu says that the rules for the race could make it more difficult for women to throw their names into the race.
• Former Harper-era chief of staff Ian Brodie is joining Andrew Scheer’s office to become the party’s new adult supervision.
• Two more failed Green Party candidates are throwing their names in for that party’s leadership contest.
• The Canadian Press’ Baloney Meter™ tests the government line that the clean economy is worth $26 trillion over the next decade.
• Lori Turnbull explains the Conservative structure, and how the party doesn’t really have one “base” but several trying to work together.
• Justin Ling looks at the record of would-be Conservative leadership candidate Richard Décarie as a “shock jock” in Quebec, and wonders why they want him.
• Matt Gurney reflects on his SARS quarantine experience to look at how a coronavirus outbreak could have a major impact here because of capacity issues.
• Heather Scoffield continues in her interview with Bank of Governor Stephen Poloz, and delves into shared equity plans to tackle housing affordability.

Odds and ends:

Paul Wells offers his take on the unveiling of the new library design in Ottawa, and it’s a damn good read.

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