Roundup: The uncertain final direction of pharmacare

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The political reality of the pharmacare legislation is sinking in with one party, but not another, and you can probably guess which. Both Justin Trudeau and Mark Holland have been fairly circumspect in talking about where the system is going, and how coverage of the two classes of drugs will wind up looking like and costing because that’s entirely up to negotiations with the provinces, and nobody wants to wake up to that fact. This programme has been oversold from the beginning, and the NDP keep doing this victory lap while sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting “LALALALALA!” whenever anyone mentions the provinces, because they don’t want to hear it, and don’t even get me started on legacy media ignoring the provinces in this either.

One of the key details as to the future of pharmacare is that the Canadian Drug Agency will be doing work on a list of essential medicines within a year of royal assent, which could be the basis of a national formulary, but this again needs to be negotiated with the provinces—yet another one of those things that the NDP keep loudly ignoring whenever it gets raise. If this is to be a cost-shared programme—and it needs to be because there is no way the federal government can pick up the whole tab on this—then provinces need a say in that formulary. The Agency can also help coordinate the bulk purchasing that is what makes national pharmacare economically viable, and is going to necessarily be the cudgel that gets the provinces on board—there is more purchasing power if the whole country does it in one fell swoop rather than each provinces or a group of them banding together, and we need to remember that this is not just over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, but those used by hospitals and in clinical settings, which is why the provinces should have a vested interest in making this happen, because they pay for those out of their healthcare budgets.

I would also point out that the federal government has been doing the actual work of making this happen for years, because they got the Agency up and running quietly over the course of several years, while the NDP were alternately screaming and preening about this framework legislation that remains a case of putting the cart before the horse. So while the NDP take turns patting themselves on the back for this bill, the Liberals have been pretty quiet about doing the actual hard work, which again, baffles me entirely because they have a good story to tell if they actually bothered to try.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russians appear to be massing a large force near the city of Chasiv Yar in the eastern part of the country, hoping to make a breakthrough in the Donetsk region, as they now have the advantage in ammunition and personnel. The Netherlands has signed a security agreement with Ukraine, and is promising more artillery funding.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau confirmed that there will be a state funeral for Brian Mulroney (as is proper for a former prime minister). Some more recollections here and here.
  • Pascale St-Onge says the government will put another $58.8 million toward the Local Journalism Initiative until 2027.
  • Chief Science Advisor of Canada, Dr. Mona Nemer, is compiling a report on UFO/UAP data, with a goal to have it released publicly by the fall.
  • The Canadian Space Agency is winding down its spacecraft research laboratory, and will close it by March 2025.
  • The CMHC is ending the first-time homebuyer incentive programme.
  • The IT consultancy run by a DND employee appears to have received $200 million in government contracts since 2015, many reserved for Indigenous firms.
  • Lucien Bouchard says that he recently mended fences with Brian Mulroney, ending their bitter thirty-year feud after Bouchard’s betrayal and departure.
  • The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that there is a reasonable expectation of privacy around the production of IP addresses, and police will need warrants.
  • One of the architects of Stephen Harper’s “tough on crime” agenda is warning Doug Ford that it didn’t work, and his plan to appoint “tough” judges won’t work either.
  • With resource revenues still an issue she is doing nothing about, Danielle Smith is mouthing the words of “fiscal restraint” instead of a stable taxation system.
  • Justin Ling laments the demise of VICE media, in large part because its owners grew too greedy to build a sustainable enterprise.
  • My weekend column decries how the release of the Winnipeg Lab documents didn’t stop the conspiracy theories, only spawned new ones to feed the far-right dystopia.

Odds and Ends:

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