NDP Lays Out Fiscal Plan For Pharmacare, Dental Care, More Affordability for Families

OTTAWA – With the NDP’s New Deal for People, families will get the medicine and dental care they need, lower cell phone bills, homes they can afford, an end to interest on student loans, and concrete advances on the climate crisis. And to pay for it, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and the NDP will stop letting the super-wealthy get away with not paying their fair share of taxes.

“The system is rigged. And the NDP is going to un-rig it to work better for everyday people,” said Singh. “With Justin Trudeau in charge, the economy works great for the big pharma companies who are making record profits, but it’s not working for families paying sky-high prices for prescription drugs. It works great for the rich and the powerful who got a $14 billion tax break, but not for people struggling to find an affordable place to live. And it works great for the big polluters, but not for the young people who are worried about what kind of earth they’re being left to live on. I’m going to fix that. My plan is all about changing who Ottawa works for, and I choose you.”

On Thursday, Singh revealed the NDP’s six priorities the NDP will ensure the next government delivers.

• A national universal pharmacare plan and a national dental care plan, delivering affordability and better health to Canadians.
• A home people can afford, including massive investments in housing, real action on money laundering and a tax on foreign speculators.
• Beginning to tackle student debt, by taking all interest off of student loans, current and future.
• Lower cell phone and internet bills, by capping prices.
• A bold plan and concrete action to fight the climate crisis, ending the subsidies to big oil companies, committing to science-based targets and helping workers during the transition from fossil fuels.
• Ensuring the super-wealthy are paying their fair share by introducing a super wealth tax, closing tax loopholes, and ending giveaways for the richest companies and individuals.

Singh’s platform includes a Super-Wealth Tax on fortunes over $20 million; an end to offshore tax havens, legally used by the wealthy to avoid paying Canadian taxes; ending all fossil fuel subsidies; and ending tax loopholes. These measures raise progressive new revenues and ensure a declining debt-to-GDP over the four-year plan.

Quick Facts

• Everything in the NDP plan is additional to existing spending and programs.
• The NDP plan does not raise taxes on middle or lower-income Canadians.
• The Parliamentary Budget Officer has costed all the NDP’s revenue measures.
• Debt-to-GDP ratio falls every year under the NDP’s four-year plan.
• The NDP plan includes a Contingency Fund, equal to 15% of revenues every year. This is to make up for any shortfalls in revenue.