NDP Leader Tom Mulcair makes a campaign stop at Mid-Main Community Health Centre in Vancouver, B.C. on Monday, September 14, 2015.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
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NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair continued to roll out expensive health-care policies Monday, announcing funding to deal with Alzheimer's and dementia as well as half a billion dollars to build clinics and hire health workers.
The pair of campaign promises, made during stops in British Columbia, followed a seniors-care announcement a day earlier worth $1.8-billion.
Mr. Mulcair attempted to cast his party as the only one with a fresh approach on health care, contrasting it with what he suggested were the failed policies of the current Conservative government and the Liberal one before it.
"Problems with wait times and access to health services started under the Liberals, and Stephen Harper has done no better," Mr. Mulcair told a news conference.
"And let's not forget that it was the Liberals before that who cut billions of dollars in health transfers starting in the 1990s."
Mr. Mulcair started the day off on Monday at a non-profit clinic in Vancouver's Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, where he promised to spend $300-million over four years for the clinics and $200-million to help recruit doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses and other health-care professionals.
He said an NDP government would also focus its efforts to improve health-service access in communities and neighbourhoods facing doctor shortages.
Later in the day, in the southeastern B.C. community of Cranbrook, Mr. Mulcair rolled out a $40-million strategy to deal with Alzheimer's and dementia.
The dementia money would be spent on screening, early diagnosis and treatment to slow the advance of the devastating conditions, as well as on helping families access care for afflicted family members. Funding would also go to research.
"Stephen Harper has left important health issues like dementia and Alzheimer's disease without resources or leadership, just as the number of Canadians living with the conditions is expected to double," Mulcair said in a news release.
A year ago, the Conservatives announced a $31.5-million plan to partner with public and private sector groups over five years to tackle dementia.
The Alzheimer Society of Canada says 747,000 Canadians had the disease in 2011 – about 15 per cent of people over 65. The figure is projected to rise to 1.4 million by 2031 if nothing changes.
Ottawa has been increasing health transfers to the province and territories by six per cent per year since 2004. The Conservative government announced in 2011 that after 2016-17, future increases would be tied to the growth in the nominal gross domestic product – a measure of real GDP plus inflation.
All three main political parties are jostling for position in advance of a leaders' debate on economics on Thursday in Calgary.
The NDP will release a full costing of its platform on Wednesday to get out ahead of the debate. But before it rolls out its numbers, the party is announcing key details in its health-care platform – a central theme of NDP campaigns for decades.
And in Vancouver on Sunday, the NDP leader announced plans to invest $1.8-billion over four years to expand home care for 41,000 seniors, create 5,000 additional nursing beds and improve palliative care services.
Party officials say they intend to focus on health care all week, suggesting there is more to come.
Still, questions remain about how or when Mulcair will make good on a long-standing promise to use a budget surplus to preserve the six-per-cent annual increase in health care transfers to the provinces. Under the Conservatives, the increases were set to be scaled back starting in 2017.
Monday was the second straight day for Mulcair in British Columbia, where the NDP hopes to double its seat count to at least 24.
With files from The Canadian Press
Ian Bailey