Libby in the News

VICTORIA — The Harper government’s health plan is often said to divide booming western provinces and poorer eastern provinces. But, more accurately, it pits Alberta against everyone else. Alberta would be handed about $810 million more under Ottawa’s new per capita transfer model if it were in place today, calculations by The Chronicle Herald show. Every other province would lose out...The federal NDP has gone so far as to say Prime Minister Stephen Harper designed the system to pit the provinces against each other in a divide-and-conquer strategy. "This is a very calculating prime minister," said federal NDP health critic Libby Davies. "I’m sure he knew full well that just slapping down one formula was going to create divisions. I just don’t think there’s any two ways about that."

On the eve of pivotal health care meetings between Canada's premiers, with critics calling on provinces to unite against Conservative cuts, B.C. premier Christy Clark and five other provincial leaders toured a new Victoria hospital wing, speaking to reporters of medical innovation and inter-provincial cooperation...Following a roundtable on public health care held yesterday, Libby Davies, Vancouver-East Member of Parliament and the New Democratic Party (NDP) health critic, said Canadians expect more leadership from Ottawa. “The Canada Health Act is a federal act,” Davies told the Vancouver Observer. “There is a key federal role that has to be adhered to.

Despite recent statistics showing HIV/AIDS on the rise in Canada, AIDS service organizations say the government has made it more difficult to access federal funds. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) released its guidelines for funding proposals for Canadian HIV/AIDS groups on Dec 2, giving groups just 28 days to make their cases for more federal funding. Funding criteria has also changed, and funding is now open to groups that had not received past monies. Applicants must now also include more information from partners, and the funding envelope is for two years instead of the usual four...NDP health critic Libby Davies says it’s disrespectful. “I hate to be cynical, but I feel like there is a pattern where for funding, they like to create this sense of uncertainty, and it creates almost a dependency, where people don’t dare speak out,” Davies says of the government.

OTTAWA—Roy Romanow is 72, though he hardly looks it. He has earned the right to sit this one out, but, of course, he can’t. As the future of health care in Canada elbows its way onto centre stage in 2012, the former Saskatchewan premier will be marking 50 years of fighting for a publicly administered, single-payer health-care system in this country....“Very early on in my thinking, I came to the conclusion that the most efficient and most ethical form of delivery is predicated on the assumption that we are all together on this short journey in life and we owe it to each other to look after each other the best that we can,” he said...Under the proposed Ottawa scheme, says NDP deputy leader Libby Davies, good years will mean sustainable health care, but the bad years will mean, “sorry, you are out of luck.’’

OTTAWA — Vancouver's controversial supervised-injection site should stay open indefinitely, the country's top court ruled Friday, calling the federal government's move to shut it down a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms...Shortly after the decision was released Friday morning, Davies said she felt "an incredible sense of relief and victory." "It's always been about saving people's lives," she said. "It's always been about a very important medical intervention to help people and the relentless opposition from the Conservative government has been just an incredible thing to take on. I feel so proud of all of the people who came together — whether they were academics, police officers, front-line activists, health professionals, and most of all, the drug users themselves — who were willing to stand up and have the courage to say they would fight all the way to make sure Insite continued its important work."

New Democratic Party deputy leader Libby Davies, described Wednesday as the "heart" of the party's left flank, has decided she won't be a candidate in the contest to replace Jack Layton. Davies, a key player in an attempt, a decade ago, to replace the NDP with a new party, said she had cross-Canada support, but concluded that her inability to speak French was too great a barrier to overcome...Davies said that in the past, she focused on a candidate's policy views, but she'll now back a candidate with strong leadership skills who can follow in Layton's "pragmatic" footsteps.

OTTAWA — The B.C. government is honour-bound to repay the $1.6 billion it received from the federal government to bring in the harmonized sales tax, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told the House of Commons Tuesday. He was responding to a demand from New Democratic Party deputy leader Libby Davies that the Harper government drop its plan to "punish" British Columbians who voted in a summer referendum to axe the combined federal-provincial sales tax.

Imagine moving from one province to another and finding that the costs of your prescription medications aren’t covered in your new home. While the Canada Health Act provides for comparable levels of medical care from province to province, the same is not true when it comes to paying for life-saving medicines, including HIV meds...NDP health critic Libby Davies says if the Martin government had attached funding conditions for a pharmacare strategy back in 2004, the Harper government wouldn’t be dragging its feet now. Still, she says, the Conservative government should move forward on the matter now. “I think it’s very unfair, and in fact one could argue that it’s very discriminatory and completely contrary to the Canada Health Act, that depending on where you live or on your income, that you may or may not get the drugs that you need for HIV/AIDS,” says Davies. “To me, that’s structural discrimination. It’s more evidence of why we’ve got to fix this, and we shouldn’t be waiting until 2014.”

OTTAWA - The Conservative government will fund clinical trials of a controversial multiple sclerosis treatment -- often referred to as the "liberation treatment" -- after it heard new scientific information this month...NDP health critic Libby Davies said she expects public and political pressure to mount because people want more details about when trials will begin.

Opposition parties are criticizing the Harper government’s latest budget, which contains few changes from the fiscal plan introduced before the federal election this spring...“I really feel like they’ve kind of ignored these very basic quality of life issues that more and more people are facing and struggling with.” The Vancouver East MP said health care and housing are among those key issues. “I’m hugely disappointed and actually hopping mad that they just don’t get it about housing,” said Davies. “It’s not like the money isn’t there, because they’re giving away billion in these corporate tax cuts,” she added. “It’s all about how the pie’s made up and how it’s divided.”

OTTAWA - Pumping more cash into the health-care system won’t fix it without better planning and clear goals, the Health Council of Canada said Tuesday. Its latest report card on the health accords struck by the feds and the provinces in 2003 and 2004 indicates gains made in the past seven years can be tied directly to governments setting specific targets and following through on those commitments...NDP health critic Libby Davies is encouraged by gains highlighted in the report, but says the Conservatives have dropped the ball on pharmacare. “The glaring issue is the lack of leadership and participation of the federal government,” she said.

OTTAWA - Opposition leader Jack Layton rolled out his starting lineup Thursday -- a squad he says can compete against Prime Minister Stephen Harper's front bench...The NDP says its shadow cabinet mixes "new energy with experience," but the party is relying heavily on members of its old guard to manage high-profile positions. As House leader, Mulcair oversees the party's day-to-day operations in Parliament. With 59 MPs under his watch, the Quebec lieutenant is also co-deputy leader alongside veteran Libby Davies. Layton says Davies' health file is very important because negotiations for a new health accord are set to get underway in 2014.

After all the drama and tension of a landmark election, Canadians probably needed a little comic interlude. The NDP provided one, although quite unintentionally. They served up the whimsical story of Pierre-Luc Dusseault, 19, whose upset victory in Sherbrooke, Que., made him the youngest MP ever, and meant he’d have to forgo his summer job on a golf course. Then there were the three McGill University students who will have to suspend their studies after surprising even themselves by capturing Quebec seats...Layton spent much of his first post-election news conference fending off questions about the scant experience of these and other rookies in his much enlarged Quebec contingent. With the collapse of the Bloc Québécois, an astonishing 58 NDP MPs from the province were elected on May 2, up from just one, Montreal’s Thomas Mulcair, before the election. But if all the attention on Layton’s youth brigade suggested an NDP caucus characterized by dewy-eyed campus idealism, that’s a misleading impression. In fact, the front benches of the second party in the House—traditionally seen as a government-in-waiting—will feature many tough-minded former union leaders. “We have some pretty major labour folks,” says veteran Vancouver NDP MP Libby Davies. “That’s a connection to a very solid base of activism, an understanding of politics and how it works."

"This is going to change so many things," veteran New Democrat Libby Davies said in the aftermath of her party's breakthrough on election night. "I think it's a whole new ball game. It's going to be a whole new kind of politics." That could be true (please let it be true), but a number of things have to change radically, starting with the way the media leap on every unscripted comment, from every politician, declare it a gaffe, then set about finding other politicians to denounce it.

Davies said she was honoured to be Vancouver East's MP and proud of NDP leader Jack Layton's successful campaign. "Who can believe it? We are the official opposition," she said during her victory speech. "And who can believe what's happened in Quebec? It's incredible. Change is taking place. I think it is about new politics. Canadians are so sick and tired of the scandals and the games and the insider stuff. They wanted a leader they could trust. They wanted a leader that they know will follow through on commitments and hold the Conservatives to account. I can commit to you today that we will be the best official opposition that you've every seen in this country." Davies added that the election results highlight "more than ever" that the electoral system needs to change to better reflect the will of voters.

OTTAWA - The Harper government has lost two key rulings by the Speaker, who ruled it has breached the privileges of MPs. The political setback delivered by Speaker Peter Milliken stood in the House Wednesday afternoon is bound to heighten partisan tension and increase speculation about a spring election..."We're going to look at the budget when it comes forward," said NDP House leader Libby Davies on Wednesday. "If there are confidence motions that come forward we'll obviously discuss that very seriously in our caucus."

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper leads an anti-democratic government that cannot be trusted, his political opponents charged in the wake of a pair of key rulings Wednesday that could precipitate a general election that could be called as early as March 23...NDP deputy leader Libby Davies said her party will also attack the Conservatives for abusing the democratic process in a spring election."Whenever the election is, (this) really strikes at the heart of the credibility of this government and whether or not you can trust Stephen Harper," Davies said.

OTTAWA - Which federal political party speaks up most for Canadian women? The NDP will make its case this afternoon, when women MPs will ask all the party's questions in the House of Commons. NDP Leader Jack Layton usually asks his party's first question of the government in Question Period. With Layton on the shelf after hip surgery, deputy leader Thomas Mulcair has been doing the honours. But on Tuesday, Libby Davies will lead off the party's questions, followed by Carol Hughes, Irene Mathyssen, Linda Duncan, Niki Ashton, Jean Crowder, Chris Charlton and Megan Leslie.

NANAIMO, BC - Residents along Hammond Bay are lobbying city council members to create new regulations to restrict cellular phone towers from being erected within 500 metres of any schools...Several parents vowed to pull their students from the school if the RDN reached an agreement with Telus because of their fear of the possible negative effects of long-term exposure to high-frequency radiation waves. Studies have shown health implications for long-term close-range exposure, but a large part of the scientific community disagrees with the research. Council questioned its ability to regulate where towers can be erected, considering the federal government's jurisdiction over this issue. Vancouver East MP Libby Davies has a private members bill that urges Ottawa to take more of an active role in determining where the towers are installed. She also calls for more consultation with municipal governments.