What Social Programs Are the Parties Promising?

Millions of Canadians already cast their ballots during advance voting over the weekend, even without seeing the Conservative Party’s costed platform, which came out Tuesday of this week. 

For those who want all the facts before they make their final choice, here are the three main parties’ social programs promises, stacked up and ready for you to compare. 

Liberal Party platform: build, baby, build

Mark Carney’s Liberals are running on a platform of ambitious nation-building infrastructure projects and measures to assure Canada’s territorial sovereignty — and some tax cuts, marking a break from his predecessor. Another difference between this Carney-led platform and past Trudeau platforms is the relatively small number of social program promises.

For healthcare, the Liberals are promising to defend Canada’s public system, working with provinces to hire more doctors. That kind of promise has to be taken with a large grain of salt, especially in Quebec, as healthcare falls under provincial jurisdiction and Quebec doesn’t like it when money from the feds comes with strings attached. A $4-billion investment to build and renovate hospitals and clinics is also promised to improve healthcare access.

They’re also promising to honour the planned expansion of the dental care program, which would open up to another 4.5 million low-income Canadians this May. Over 3.4 million Canadians have already been approved for dental care through the program. And, they’re planning to honour previous pharmacare announcements to get Canadians coverage for diabetes medications and contraceptives. 

As for mental health care, Carney’s Liberals are promising to “Provide 100,000 young people a year with mental health care by establishing a permanent Youth Mental Health Fund.” How that would look is not specified, except that money would go to community-based mental health services.

The Liberals’ 2025 platform includes an acknowledgement of the link between housing and mental health outcomes, promising to invest in “deeply” affordable housing (without specifying what that is), supportive housing, and shelters — but zero reference to funding social housing. 

Finally, the jewel in the crown of the last Liberal decade, the $10-a-day childcare program, would be expanded under an incoming Liberal government, adding another 100,000 spaces by 2031. 

Conservative Party platform: social programs, what are those? 

The Conservative Party is promising multiple tax cuts, and its platform for this election is light on promises for social programs — and by that, we mean almost empty.

What is promised are programs to help Canadians find and remain in employment, like the $3-billion Keep Canadians Working Fund, which would help businesses affected by the trade war with the United States keep their employees on the payroll. Another similarly work-oriented promise is to double “the reach of the Ready, Willing and Able program, helping 4,000 Canadians with autism or intellectual disabilities find and keep jobs.” 

Poilievre’s platform does not include any mention of the childcare, pharmacare and dental care programs that were launched under Trudeau. His campaign has previously stated that a Conservative government would not scale back the childcare or dental care programs, saying that anyone already approved for services under those programs will continue to benefit from those services. The same was not said for pharmacare, and it can reasonably be expected that the program would be scrapped.

New Democratic Party platform: healthcare, pharmacare, dental care — and social housing

It’s important for the NDP to remind Canadians whenever possible that it’s thanks to them that 3.8 million Canadians are now approved for coverage under a public dental care program, and may soon receive diabetes medications and contraceptives for free. They effectively agreed to keep the Liberals out of an election in exchange for dental care and pharmacare, with the Supply and Confidence Agreement that lasted from 2022 to 2024.

The NDP platform pushes for universal coverage in these programs, and includes a promise to ensure every Canadian has a family doctor — which, again, is not a promise that any federal government, regardless of party, could achieve on its own. 

New democrats are also promising measures that could actually bring some relief for the country’s renters, whereas other party platforms are focused almost exclusively on home ownership. An NDP government would use “federal crown land to build over 100,000 rent-controlled homes by 2035,” and federal funding for social housing construction. 

Of course, an NDP government is looking next to impossible. We can expect the NDP to return to parliament with a mandate to push the governing party for wins in healthcare, pharmacare and dental care, as the party’s housing-related promises are sure to go unfilled. 

The Rover has more issue-by-issue coverage of the party platforms coming your way. Stay tuned!