Tom Mulcair commits $2.6B to support pharmacare plan

A New Democratic government woulduse the purchasing power of the federal government to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs and pass those savings on to the provinces and territories, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair says.

The NDP plans to spend $2.6 billion over the next four years to "work towards a plan to support universal comprehensive public drug coverage for all Canadians," if it takes the Oct. 19 vote.

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The party is not committing to implementfull coverage by the end of its first mandate, but Mulcair said he hopes to achieve average savings of 30 per centin prescription drug costs through bulkbuying.

Health careis a provincial and territorial responsibility, so an NDP government would have to negotiate precise arrangements with the other various governments. It would not have the power to impose a free coverage scheme. Someprovinces, however, have been pushing for such a scheme for some time.

The announcement follows a series of health-carecommitments made by the NDP earlier this week, amounting to nearly $5 billion in campaign promises.

Mulcair made today's pledgeat a seniors'facility in the riding of Regina-Wascana inRegina, which has been held by high-profile Liberal candidate Ralph Goodale since 1993. It is one of only two federal Liberal seats in the Prairies.

The New Democrats have suggested they believeGoodale's seat is fairly secure, but have hopes for the other two ridings in the city: Regina-Qu'Appelle,held by Conservative candidate and House Speaker AndrewScheer;and Regina-Lewvan,a new riding formed when boundaries were redrawn after the 2011 election, with no incumbent.

But a survey of the breakdown of votes within theboundaries of Regina-Lewvansuggests that,had the riding existed during the 2011 election,the NDP would have taken it by 500 votes over the Tories.

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