The Nova Scotia government expects 35,000 children will be covered under an expanded Pharmacare drug program announced Wednesday.

As of Oct. 1, families who earn less than $21,000 a year and receive monthly child benefit cheques will pay $5 for a child's prescription.

Currently, Pharmacare is only available to seniors or families who receive social assistance.

Premier Rodney MacDonald said the expanded Pharmacare program will cost $1 million this year and $2 million next year.

"It's a great program," he told reporters Wednesday. "The applications are being mailed out this week."

Liberal MLA Stephen McNeil called it a good first step, but he worries the $5 dispensing fee will quickly add up for families with medical issues who only make $15,000 a year.

"One hundred dollars a year makes a lot of difference," McNeil said, "so that is something they should have looked at."

The Opposition New Democrats wonder how the government will pick up the tab for the expanded program without raising fees or deductibles for those who are now covered.

"For many years, the government was saying we just couldn't afford to continue to finance the Pharmacare program," NDP Leader Darrell Dexter said Tuesday before the announcement.

Expanding Pharmacare was a key promise of the Progressive Conservatives during the last provincial election.

The Tories said they would make Pharmacare available to any family without a drug plan and that a new plan for low-income working families would be in place by Oct. 1.

MacDonald said Wednesday a larger provincial program will be implemented next year.

"The reality is you have to have a cut-off," he said. "You can only do so much all at once."