Scrapped sugar tax won't hurt glucose monitoring program, says health minister

Days after Newfoundland and Labrador Premier John Hogan promised to scrap the sugar tax, the province's health minister promised the program it helped fund will be safe from cuts.

The Sweetened Beverage Tax, also known as the sugar tax, added 20 cents to the cost of each litre of sugar sweetened beverages and brought in approximately $12-million annually.

On Wednesday in the House of Assembly, NDP MHA Jordan Brown raised concerns for the future of programs the tax helped fund, including the glucose monitoring pilot program.

Health Minister Krista Lynn Howell says that program is safe.

"There will be no cuts to programming on our continuous glucose monitoring," Howell told reporters on Wednesday.

"Actually we've had some great results from our pilot project, and stay tuned because within a week or so we're hoping to make an announcement on how we can expand that."

The Department of Health has different ways it allocates funding, and the glucose monitoring pilot program is a priority, she added.

Brown also asked if the provincial government would sign on to the federal pharmacare program.

"Will you finally sign on to the federal pharmacare program, which includes funding for medications, glucose monitoring and test strips," he asked.

Howell said she's looking forward to speaking to the new federal health minister.

"We know that pharmacare is something that will benefit individuals all across this country. Newfoundland and Labrador will not be left behind," she said.

Comments withdrawn

On another topic, PC MHA Lin Paddock withdrew a comment he made Tuesday in the House when he accused the governing Liberals of "cooking the books" and called for the firing of Finance Minister Siobhan Coady.

Paddock's comments stemmed from a CBC News story on how the provincial government used decades of future revenue from a pending settlement with tobacco companies against the province's deficit in a pre-election budget.

A point of order was later called by the Liberal Party, but Paddock withdrew his comments before Speaker Derek Bennett could announce his decision on whether or not the comment was unparliamentary.

Paddock reiterated his concerns about how the tobacco settlement impacted the province's deficit, repeatedly asking Coady to state what the deficit would have been without the money.

"Let me rephrase that question so we can possibly get a number — if the tobacco settlement revenue is not included, what would be the deficit for this fiscal year?" he asked on Wednesday.

Coady wouldn't offer a clear answer.

"You make decisions based on the information that you have, whether revenue you have, what expenses you have, what programs and services you would like to introduce," she said.

The 2025 budget, which has not yet passed in the House, projected a $372-million deficit, and the province is expected to receive a net benefit of almost $400 million from the tobacco settlement.

Without the windfall tobacco cash, the province's projected deficit could have been roughly doubled.

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