Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces agreement with NDP to support Liberals until 2025

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has formally announced an agreement with the federal NDP with effect from Tuesday, it would allow the Trudeau Liberal to remain in power until 2025.

“This means that in this uncertain time, the government can function with predictability and stability, presenting and implementing budgets and things done for Canadians,” the prime minister told reporters Tuesday morning.

“I have thought long and hard about this. It was not an easy decision with so much instability around us that Canadians need stability. We are different political parties. We stand for different things, but where we have common goals, we can not let our differences stand in the way of delivering what Canadians deserve. “

The agreement, known as the Confidence and Supply Agreement, will prompt the NDP to support the liberal minorities in forthcoming confidence polls – like the next four federal budgets – in exchange for NDP-friendly measures until June 2025.

The Prime Minister said the agreement was about “improving the way we do politics”, while providing space for debate and disagreement, rather than “compromising the core beliefs” of both parties.

The event is “not a destination, but a starting point,” NDP’s Jagmeet Singh said on Tuesday, adding that his party also has the option to “withdraw” its agreement.

“We will continue to fight, we will not let the Liberals get off the hook,” the leader told reporters.

A press release from the NDP outlined more details about the event, which came about after Trudeau and Singh identified their common political goals after last year’s election.

According to sources in both parties, dental care is the great measure that Canadians will feel almost immediately.

The proposed dental care program for low-income Canadians would first become available this year for those under 12, before expanding in 2023 to all under-18s, seniors and disabled Canadians. The program will be fully implemented by 2025 and limited to families earning less than $ 90,000 per year.

Work towards a national drug program is also on the cards, with plans to adopt legislation by the end of 2023.

The Liberals and NDP are committed to promoting reconciliation through further investment in indigenous housing and rapid tracking of the implementation of the federal path to address missing and murdered indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA + people, among other steps.

As part of the agreement, both parties also promise to improve justice in the tax system and remove barriers to voting and participation in elections.

Managing affordable housing, providing childcare, tackling climate change and securing more support for workers are among other policy goals shared by the two parties.

The arrangement means that Singh’s NDP will not put a no – confidence vote or a no – confidence vote while the agreement is active.

“Other votes that prevent the government from functioning may be declared trustworthy by the government, in which case the government will undertake to inform the NDP as soon as possible if a vote will be declared confidence and the NDP will inform the government of their vote. intentions before publicly declaring to allow discussions about trust to take place, “reads a statement from the NDP.

Each party has also agreed to attend a series of standing meetings going forward, including both Trudeau and Singh, which meet at least once a quarter, regular meetings between homeowners and whips, and monthly “status statement” sessions led by a oversight group.

This group will be composed of staff and politicians and will discuss “overall progress on key commitments and future issues”.

Sources told Star Talks with the mediator that the agreement has been underway between both leaders since January, and continues even though Ottawa was under occupation by the convoy protest and a war started in Ukraine.

The interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen seized that point after the Prime Minister’s press conference on Tuesday.

“Nobody knew they were doing this … we have a war going on in Ukraine, we had the law on emergency measures declared (and) supported by the NDP. One has to ask oneself, when did these negotiations start?” Bergen told journalists.

“These are important issues that go into the heart of our democracy. Democracy and openness have been replaced by backroom agreements, ”she said.