Wynne to push new pharmacare plan at Edmonton get-together

EDMONTON— Drugs, from lethal opioids to soon-to-be-legalized marijuana and Kathleen Wynne’s pharmacare push, will dominate the annual premiers’ conference.

Wynne will tout Ontario’s new pharmacare plan, the first provincial plan in the country, as she talks with 12 counterparts until Wednesday.

“I want to explain that to folks, tell them what we are doing . . . and hope we can advance the conversation on a national pharmacare plan,” Wynne said of the $465-million plan. It will make available 4,400 medications to people under 25 starting in January.

“I think that there’s a lot of interest among the ministers — there has been a pretty full discussion with the ministers of health across the country — so I’m interested to hear where my colleagues are at with that.”

Wynne flew west after spending two days in Providence, R.I., talking trade with U.S. governors at their national conference.

“I’ve spoken to over 20 governors now and I’ve got a pretty good sense of where we are going,” she added. Wynne noted that other premiers have also reached out to U.S. representatives about measures in several states, including New York and Texas, that urge purchasers there to “buy American;” such as the looming NAFTA talks and new U.S. tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber.

The premiers will also compare approaches on the federal government’s legalization of recreational marijuana, which is set to take effect next July 1.

The premiers’ conference began Monday with meetings with Indigenous leaders, but the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Métis Nation of Canada did not attend.

AFN Chief Perry Bellegarde said keeping leaders from provincial-federal-territorial discussion tables is an attempt to “sideline and segregate” his group, which represents First Nations governments.