NDP needs to decide whether 4 million Canadians deserve dental care: minister

Procurement Minister and newly appointed Quebec lieutenant Jean-Yves Duclos is warning the NDP that the dental care program it helped put into place will be in jeopardy if it pulls its support from the governing Liberals.

"Four million adults between 18 and 64 will only become eligible in the first six months of 2025," Duclos told CTV's Question Period host Vassy Kapelos, in an interview airing Sunday. "The NDP needs to decide whether these four million Canadians deserve dental care, that's a serious question, which the NDP needs to answer."

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When pressed by Kapelos on whether his comments should be perceived as a threat that the Liberals will scrap dental care expansion plans if the NDP votes non-confidence in the government and triggers a snap election, Duclos said "it's not a threat."

After two and a half years, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh announced earlier this month he had ended his party's pact with the Liberals, which had been inked in 2022 to keep the government propped up in exchange for progress on certain policy priorities.

One of those cornerstone policies was dental care, which began rolling out coverage last spring, but has yet to be fully implemented for all eligible Canadians.

Meanwhile, with the Liberal-NDP deal thrown out, and a looming non-confidence motion to be tabled by the Conservatives, the balance of power has shifted in the House of Commons.

In order for the non-confidence motion to pass, the majority of the current 336 MPs — of which only 334 are eligible to vote on this week's motion — would need to vote to say they no longer have confidence in Trudeau.

Right now, the Liberals hold 153 seats, and the Conservatives have 119. After Monday's byelections, there are now 33 Bloc MPs and 25 New Democrats. The Green party holds two seats and there are also four Independents.

That means the Liberals need either the Bloc or the NDP to vote with them this week to quash the Conservatives' motion.

The Bloc Quebecois, for its part, is leveraging its new voting power to push the Liberals to vote in favour of expanding and increasing pensions for seniors. Duclos would not commit to the Bloc's asks.

"We'll have conversations with the Bloc," he told Kapelos, when asked whether the Liberals will concede to the Bloc demands. "We also need conversations with the NDP, because they worked with us to put dental care into place."

Pressed again, Duclos wouldn't say whether his party would vote to expand Old Age Security, calling it a "complex budget process," of which he's not the only decisionmaker.

"I cannot answer now," Duclos said. "We saw the Ottawa bubble explode in the last few days, so that's obviously something that we need to keep under control to serve Canadians."

"We don't want the political game in the House of Commons to distract anyone," he insisted. "It's not going to distract us, certainly, from the objectives of serving Canadians every day."

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Also in an interview for CTV's Question Period, Kapelos asked NDP House Leader Peter Julian whether his party is willing to continue propping up the government to ensure dental care has the chance to be fully rolled out, to which Julian responded that his party will make decisions "vote by vote."

In ripping up the deal with the Liberals, and since, Singh has called the Trudeau government "weak" and "selfish." He also said this week that the Liberals "don't deserve another chance."

Despite that, both Julian and Singh signalled this week that the NDP will vote against the Conservatives' non-confidence motion, and in support of the Liberals.