New Democrats pledge $1.8B for seniors' health care

The NDP is promising to expand home care support for 41,000 seniors should the party assume government, Tom Mulcair announced today in Vancouver.

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Mulcair said the NDP would invest $1.8 billion over four years to help provinces improve seniors' care including expandedhome care, morenursing home beds and better palliativeend-of-life care.

He also said the NDP would help provinces build 5,000 more nursing beds and establish a $30-million fund to improve access to end-of-life resources, services and support.

TheNew Democrats would increase the Canada HealthTransferto the provinces, Mulcair told reporters. He didn'tspecifyby how much, but said he would sit down with the provinces and territories to work out the formula. He said more details would be released ahead of Thursday's leaders' debate in Calgary.

"In the next 25 years, Canada's senior population is expected to double," he said.

"We must ensure that our seniors are able to age with dignity and enjoy the benefits they have earnedin a lifetime of building this country."

Today's is the first of a series of expected NDP announcements on health care.

The NDP leader is in thekey election battleground of British Columbia today where the party couldwin 21 of the province's 42 seats, according to latest projections from CBC's Poll Tracker. The party is going into the election with 12 seats in the province.

On Friday in Edmonton, Mulcair promised an NDP governmentwouldspend billions to ease urban gridlock and speed up commuter times,pledging $1.3 billion in funding annually over 20 years, and another $1.5 billion in annual transfers to municipalities for four years.