OTTAWA — A think tank is urging the federal government to abandon plans for a single-payer pharmacare program in the face of tariff-related fiscal uncertainty.

Rosalie Wyonch, associate director of research at the C.D. Howe Institute, says in a new report being released Thursday that the government should instead look to fill existing gaps in coverage.

Ottawa should “aim at universal coverage for the entire population that is fiscally sustainable and leans into the advantages of our already mixed public-private system,” said Wyonch, the report’s author.

She cited Quebec’s system, which has been operating for decades, as a model. That province has a public prescription drug insurance program that is mandatory for residents who do not have private insurance.

The report also calls on the

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