OTTAWA — The federal Liberal government is committed to signing pharmacare deals with all provinces and territories, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday, ending months of speculation about the program being cut short.

Carney said those deals will be finalized “as quickly and as equitably as possible.”

“Those are clear commitments and we will keep them,” he said at a press conference in Edmonton on Thursday.

The government launched the first phase of the pharmacare program last year, which provides what it calls “universal, single-payer, first-dollar coverage” of contraceptives and some diabetes medications at little or no cost to patients.

The pharmacare law was passed last fall as part of the supply-and-confidence agreement the minority government struck with the NDP.

As a start

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