Liberals pledge $3B in home care, medicine

But investments will be contingent on approval from provinces, territories

OTTAWA— A Liberal government would invest an additional $3 billion in health care over four years to boost home care as well as take steps to ease the cost of prescription drugs and improve mental health care.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau conceded Wednesday that the targeted investments would be contingent on the approval of provinces and territories, which have jurisdiction over health care.

But he said the promised funding would respond to needs being felt across the country.

“Every single province is challenged with an aging population and the need for better home care,” Trudeau said, adding that Canada must invest to get ready for the country’s changing demographics.

He accused Conservative Leader Stephen Harper of refusing to discuss health-care challenges with the provinces. “It’s time we had a prime minister that understood that it’s going to take leadership on health care to get our country back to where it needs to get to,” Trudeau said during a campaign stop in Surrey, B.C.

He said a Liberal government would launch discussions with the provinces with a focus on expanding access to home care. More than two million Canadians rely on home care, Trudeau said, and that number is expected to grow in the coming years.

On the issue of drugs, Trudeau said that a Liberal government would negotiate better prices for prescription medications and buy in bulk to help cut costs.

Speaking to reporters after his announcement, Trudeau said a Liberal government would act quickly on the party’s commitment to legalize marijuana.

Trudeau said changes are needed because the current system allows criminals to easily profit from marijuana sales while not doing enough to shield children.

He repeated the Liberal commitment to legalize and regulate marijuana, “controlling it in a way that will protect our kids and remove criminal elements from it.”

In a statement, Conservative candidate Julian Fantino, a former police chief in Toronto, said the Liberal plan “will make smoking marijuana a normal, everyday activity for Canadians.” NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair spent a second day in Iqaluit, where he said a New Democrat government would allow government scientists to speak out. And he promised to create a parliamentary office dedicated to providing scientific advice, according to a Canadian Press report.