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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Dec/6/21 6:14:06 p.m.
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It is time for questions and comments, but before we go there, I would like to remind the hon. member to perhaps think before accusing certain members of the House of certain things. Questions and comments, the hon. parliamentary secretary to the government House leader.

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Members' remarks

Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.)

Dec/6/21 6:14:23 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, I will stay away from what the member might be trying to impute with his comments. Within the legislation, we have the 10 days of paid sick leave, and no doubt there are a number of questions regarding that. We are hopeful it will go to committee, where those questions will be posed and responded to. It is important that we recognize that Ottawa plays a strong national leadership role on this. In British Columbia, I understand the provincial NDP government is now proposing five days of paid leave. Does the member not recognize or see the value in Ottawa implementing legislation such as this, and the positive role and impact it could have on other jurisdictions?

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Mr. Damien Kurek

Dec/6/21 6:15:17 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, if that member can clearly articulate some of the questions I have expressed about this particular part of the legislation and is willing to see it split up and sent to both committees to be studied, he is absolutely right: Ottawa plays a role. I also hear daily from constituents, who are quite frankly sick and tired of hearing an Ottawa-knows-best strategy about all aspects of public policy within this country. There certainly is a great deal of frustration with how the Liberal government seems to only call for a team Canada approach when it has failed. I am fearful that is exactly what we are starting to see as this legislation goes through the process.

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Ms. Marie-Hélène Gaudreau (Laurentides—Labelle, BQ)

Dec/6/21 6:16:12 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, we have heard a lot about urgency, about the importance of various issues. We heard about it during the election campaign and we prepared for 65 days. Considering the legislative agenda of election promises, I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on whether Bill C-3 has come at the right time, when there are other emergencies.

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Mr. Damien Kurek

Dec/6/21 6:16:38 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, my colleague from the Bloc is absolutely right. In fact, I find it tragically ironic that the day of the election was meant to be the day the House was back in session. That took weeks upon weeks, let alone the administration required to set up committees and whatnot. Even at this point, that sees us with only a few committees being set up and months of delays. This is in addition to the prorogation the Prime Minister promised he would never do and all of that, but the Liberals will say that is simply old news and it was different because they are Liberals. Delays have cost Canadians and have probably cost Canadians' lives. I would suggest that Canadians demand leadership. They certainly have not seen it from the Liberal government.

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Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)

Dec/6/21 6:17:33 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for recognizing his own family. It is really important to recognize the service of people serving the public. My colleague talked about urgency, and he talked about people's lives being lost. Medical health professionals, again, have decided that people need to get vaccinated and governments need to implement paid sick leave. We have not heard from the Conservatives when it comes to whether they support paid sick leave. Are they going to stand up for workers or are they going to let them continue to go to work sick and make that difficult choice? When it comes to vaccines, we still have not received a clear answer from them on that, either.

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Mr. Damien Kurek

Dec/6/21 6:18:16 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, I find it very troubling that we would have the Liberals' coalition partners, the NDP, playing into the divisive vaccine politics we saw during the election. This caused a level of division and, quite frankly, mistrust when it comes to such an important issue and is something that should have been the definition of not political. The government decided it was more important to play politics than to do what was right for Canadians. When it comes to the reality faced by so many Canadians, including workers, I find it rich that the NDP is standing up and saying it supports workers. Thousands of workers within my constituency are having their livelihoods shut out because of the activism of a Liberal-NDP coalition. In fact, more Canadians decided Conservatives would be a better option than any other party in this country when it came to a plan that would get our economy working again. It is unfortunate that the Liberals would rather play politics and put people out of work than stand up for what is best for Canadians.

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Ms. Elizabeth May

Dec/6/21 6:19:37 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I was listening attentively to my hon. friend from Battle River—Crowfoot, and I thought I heard him say something very unparliamentary. I did not interrupt the course of questions and comments because I was not sure I had heard it. I would ask you, Madam Speaker, to check the record. If our hon. colleague referred to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change as a criminal, then that does violate our rules. It is not only inaccurate; it is spurious. I do not know if it is possible at this point to get a ruling or if the Speaker heard it. It certainly was unparliamentary.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Dec/6/21 6:20:17 p.m.
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I thank the hon. member for the point of order. I did actually call upon the member, right after his speech, concerning the subject.

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Mr. Damien Kurek

Dec/6/21 6:20:28 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, if I said anything that was not true, I unreservedly apologize.

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Mr. John Brassard (Barrie—Innisfil, CPC)

Dec/6/21 6:20:45 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to rise on Bill C-3 this evening. It is a very important piece of legislation that requires not just the attention of Parliament, but also committee scrutiny. Let me begin by saying that I believe that Bill C-3 should have been split into two separate bills. We are dealing with two separate issues here, one as it relates to health care workers and protests outside health facilities, the other as it relates to federally regulated sick days and the provision of 10 days for federally regulated workers. I am hopeful that, when this does get to committee, it is going to get the scrutiny that it deserves. Let me also say that we are so fortunate in central Ontario to have an incredible regional health facility. The Royal Victoria Hospital is world class in its ability to provide care, not just acute care but all kinds of care led by Janice Skot, who is the CEO of the hospital. She recently announced her retirement next year and I wish her all the best. She certainly has seen the transition of the Royal Victoria Hospital over the 17 years that she has been there into this world-class facility. In fact, just recently I was fortunate that we were in Innisfil to talk about the expansion of the Royal Victoria Health Centre into the southern tier of our municipalities of Barrie and Innisfil. It is expected that, by the time it is fully functional, it could service up to 250,000 people a year. This is an important part of our community. It is an important part of all of the regions of central Ontario and does a great service to our communities. I consider many of the people who work there friends of mine; doctors, nurses, great people who do terrific work and have been there on the front lines since this pandemic started with great adversity, great anxiety. I cannot imagine, at the height of the COVID-19 situation, these doctors and nurses and all of those who work in this health care facility not only having to worry about looking after the patients coming into the facility, but also having the anxiety about how to protect themselves and their families. I heard many stories of health care workers going home and changing in the garage. They had moved their washer and dryer into the garage so that they would limit the risk of potentially transmitting COVID-19 to their family members. When vaccines came, it was a sense of relief for many health care workers. There was a challenge in the beginning. I recall having a discussion with the then minister of health, in fact I would call it an emergency meeting, when our community was running out of vaccines, not just for health care workers, but also for long-term care facilities. We can talk about anxiety. Many health care workers who were in the process of getting their second vaccine were told that their appointments had been cancelled. I called the health minister to ask her on an emergency basis if we could get the vaccines that were needed within our community not just for health care workers, but also for the long-term care providers as well. Let us not just look at the health care workers and the work that they have done and how they should be free of intimidation and harassment in their workplace, but let us also acknowledge the long-term care workers within those long-term care facilities because they had equally anxious times during the height of COVID-19. I want to focus on a couple of things, not the least of which is the divisive rhetoric that has gone on. We saw this at the height of the election campaign when there were not just protests in front of health care facilities, but there were also protests on the political front as well. We saw some of those protests play out on the nightly news. We saw them in health care facilities. I believe that every health care worker should be free of any form of harassment, particularly when they are going in to do the job. How did we get here? There is this divisive rhetoric, and we are now in a position where we are talking about implementing legislation to protect health care workers when we have never been in this point before. Obviously, we have heard through other speakers today that we have criminal legislation on the books for dealing with protests, much of which is dealt with at the local level. Regarding this divisiveness that has gone on, I certainly saw it through the election campaign. There has been misinformation, and I would suggest that there has not been enough information on the part of government to allow people to make an informed decision on the issue of vaccines. I happen to think that everybody should be vaccinated. I am vaccinated; in fact, I have my booster shot scheduled for December 19. Vaccines are an important tool in the tool box in ensuring that people are safe. However, there are many people out there, almost five million Canadians over the age of 12, who have not received a vaccine at this point for various reasons. I have been dealing with this in my office, with people calling. They are not anti-vaxxers; they are just concerned about their health and the potential risks associated with vaccines. Perhaps they do not have enough information to make an informed decision. This is where the role of government comes in, to provide as much information as we can to people so that they make the right decision, to get vaccinated. Many of them right now are in a position where they are at risk of their lives and livelihoods being lost and actually being unable to provide for their families. A year ago, when we did not have vaccines, we had lots of other tools in the tool box. We were talking about rapid testing, physical distancing, wearing a mask and washing our hands. Rapid testing seems to have fallen off a cliff right now. To accommodate those who perhaps still have that vaccine hesitancy and are not getting a vaccine, it is an important tool in the tool box that we need to be using. I talked to someone in my riding about this recently. His entire family is vaccinated at this point, but he still has that hesitancy. I am using this example among many that I have received. He was told recently by his employer, after working there for 25 years, that as of this past November 1, he would have lost his job because he was unvaccinated. He has actually been extended now to January 29, and the reason he was extended is that his company is entering into a very busy Christmas period, so it cannot afford that loss of employment. In the meantime, the company has told him that it is going to rapid test him throughout that whole process. Therefore, he is living with the backdrop of losing his employment and, quite frankly, he is scared, because he has family, including grandchildren. That reasonable accommodation that I spoke about still needs to happen today when it comes to making sure we are reasonably accommodating those individuals who at this point have vaccine hesitancy. We can do a much better job of educating and encouraging people to get vaccinated. The other part of this legislation relates to the federal regulation on providing up to 10 sick days. I would agree with my hon. colleagues that people should never have to choose between going to work and staying home without pay when sick. Making sure we can accommodate those people who are in the unfortunate position of making that decision needs to be addressed as well. As it relates to federally regulated industries having this requirement, there are many collective agreements that cover sick leave, but a small percentage do not. Those collective agreements can speak for themselves when dealing with this issue, but I will be interested to see, when this goes to committee, what we hear from all the stakeholders as it relates to the sick days. In conclusion, a tremendous amount of anxiety still exists among everyone in this country, whether they are vaccinated or not. We have to tone down the divisive rhetoric. We have to make sure that in all cases, unequivocally, we are supporting our health care workers, who are doing such tremendous work to keep us safe. However, we also have to tone down the rhetoric and make sure we educate people that it is important to be vaccinated in order to deal with this crisis.

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Mr. Mark Gerretsen (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons (Senate), Lib.)

Dec/6/21 6:30:53 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, the member asked how we got here, and he seemed to imply that the reason there is a lot of misinformation out there has to do with the lack of ability or desire of the government to share information. I will be the first to say that information sharing is critical, and we should always do as much as we possibly can. However, the member seems to have completely glossed over the fact that there are a lot of people who are providing misinformation and who are questioning the science. With all due respect, he gave a very reasonable speech today, and I am so glad he got vaccinated and he is getting ready for his booster shot, but there are so many people within his own caucus that feed this misinformation. I am wondering if he has had the opportunity to look inward and have these conversations with some of the members who, quite frankly, are in his caucus and spreading— Some hon. members: Oh, oh!

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Dec/6/21 6:32:02 p.m.
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Could members please give other members the opportunity to ask their questions? The hon. member for Barrie—Innisfil.

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Noise/conversations/heckling, interrupting Member speaking

Mr. John Brassard

Dec/6/21 6:32:10 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, to my point about this divisive rhetoric, there is no greater example than what we just saw. I will go ever further. The Prime Minister has fed into this divisiveness. Members may recall when earlier this year the Prime Minister said that there would be no requirement for mandatory vaccines. Then, the day before he called an unnecessary election, he said there would be a requirement for mandatory vaccines. One thing I have found out in my life is that, the more we push people, the more they lean back. Instead of the divisive rhetoric, which we just saw a perfect example of, why are we not working with people to better educate them and encourage them even more? If they are still hesitant, why are we not accommodating them? Why are we not accommodating them even more?

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Mr. Martin Champoux (Drummond, BQ)

Dec/6/21 6:33:15 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, I am also confused by my colleague's comments, especially on what we should do with people who are still hesitating. I am in favour of dialogue, and I think that we must have discussions and educate people. There are scientifically proven methods for dealing with the COVID-19 virus, including mask wearing, vaccination and ventilation systems. The COVID-19 vaccine is the most tested vaccine in the history of vaccination. More than 7 billion doses have been administered around the world. The numbers from the scientific community, reliable scientific sources, show how effective the vaccine is against COVID-19. At this stage, I do not see what more it will take to convince those who are hesitating to get the vaccine. In a way, I wonder if it is a lost cause. What does my colleague think we should do with those who are going to reject the vaccine no matter what? We are putting ourselves at risk.

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Mr. John Brassard

Dec/6/21 6:34:22 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, I made it very clear in my speech this afternoon just how important vaccines are. It was important for me in terms of my community and my family. I believe in the efficacy of vaccines, but the difficulty lies in the fact that there are still people who are unconvinced. I do not know what their reasons are. I use Scott as an example. His whole family is vaccinated and yet he is still a little concerned from a health standpoint. Why are we not encouraging those people with more information, encouraging them to get vaccinated with proper information instead of this divisive rhetoric. That is the point I am making. There is too much divisiveness. Let us work to encourage people to get vaccinated. That should be the role of leaders in this country.

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Ms. Lori Idlout (Nunavut, NDP)

Dec/6/21 6:35:17 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Uqaqtittiji, qujannamiik. It is clear now that my whole focus in my line of questioning has been to find ways to ease the burden on the health system. Nunavut has three main regions. Kitikmeot is one of them. With Kitikmeot, Cambridge Bay is the regional hub. Outlying those communities are Qikiqtaaluk, Kugluktuk, Kugaaruk and Gjoa Haven. They all rely on visiting doctors. There are no full-time doctors available to them. They do have available to them on-call physicians, who are available by phone to assist the nurses. This bill, the amendments to the Canada Labour Code, would give the employer the power to require the employee to provide a medical certificate for any paid sick leave, regardless of the number of days—

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Dec/6/21 6:36:12 p.m.
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I apologize, but I have to give the hon. member the chance to reply, and we are already over time.

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Mr. John Brassard

Dec/6/21 6:36:35 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, there has been growth in the ways in which medical assistance has been provided. We have certainly seen that through COVID, where we have seen more online or phone call assessments. Those things have played a very important role throughout COVID.

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Mr. Charlie Angus (Timmins—James Bay, NDP)

Dec/6/21 6:37:02 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, it is a great honour, as always, to stand in the House, representing the people of Timmins—James Bay, and to be here in the House tonight as we, from all parties, attempt to pass legislation on what is coming close to the second anniversary of the pandemic. If someone had said to me in March 2020 that we would be in the House debating the need to get 10 days of paid sick leave or to have laws in place to stop the harassment and threats of medical professionals by people who are our neighbours, I would have said it was simply impossible. COVID has taught us, and COVID is a very hard teacher, but it has been clear from the get-go that it is something bigger than anything that was within our human imagination. Our generation has never seen anything like this. Throughout COVID, I find myself going back to Albert Camus's The Plague. I have been reading it and rereading it. He wrote: Our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves. He went on: They disbelieved in pestilences. A pestilence isn’t a thing made to man’s measure; therefore we tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogey of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away. But it doesn’t always pass away and, from one bad dream to another, it is people who pass away, [especially those who] haven’t taken their precautions. When we are talking about the need to have 10 days of paid sick leave two years into a pandemic, I feel like we have found ourselves in some kind of dark, dystopian Groundhog Day, that what we are repeating again and again are the same mistakes, and we are still having difficulty learning the lessons of a pandemic. The pandemic does not care whether we believe in it or not; the pandemic does not care if it is fair, and the pandemic certainly does not care about the short-term goals of various political leaders like Jason Kenney, who decided to announce that last summer was going to be the greatest summer ever, because he was simply going to ignore health protocols in order to make his party look good. He plunged Alberta into medical chaos and caused the deaths of too many innocent people. I think of Doug Ford. As people were dying in warehouses in Peel, Brampton and the 401 and 905 areas, he was not willing to put paid sick leave in. In fact, he recently said he believed that come January there would be no need for vaccine mandates. This is a man who is still refusing to learn lessons. We know here of the culpability of the Canadian government in fighting at the WTO against the right of the global south to create vaccines. Did anyone think that omicron would not happen, and that we would allow ourselves first-wave and second-wave boosters and protect ourselves but not ensure adequate vaccination in other parts of the globe, and that somehow the pandemic would not go there and come back? Now we are dealing with omicron. Camus says that we have learned that the pandemic has made us all share the same collective fate. It is a hard lesson we are learning. I remember how everyone rose up in the first wave and how hopeful it was. People took up hobbies and people were going to get themselves physically fit. Camus said, “At first, the fact of being cut off from the outside world was accepted with a more or less good grace, much as people would have put up with any other temporary inconvenience that interfered with only a few of their habits. But now they had abruptly become aware that they were undergoing a sort of incarceration.” I think, in the isolation and difficulties, the vast majority of people carried on. This morning, when I walked through the snowstorms in Ottawa, I saw almost every single person wearing a mask. The vast majority of people have taken up what they know is going to be a difficult and maybe long-term issue. Sure, they complain. They have a right to complain, but they carry on. In the first and second waves, people phoned our offices daily. We tried to help, we tried to give them answers and we tried to keep businesses going. Those people had legitimate fears, fears about the future of their business, fears about health care, fears about all the disinformation and falsehoods. They were all legitimate questions because we were dealing with something bigger than ourselves. I found by the fourth wave that things had shifted to a sullen tiredness in the vast majority of people. However, a small minority of people had gone to a different place, a kind of radicalized sense of self-isolation and self-entitlement, a belief that somehow the government, the medical institutions and their neighbours were all against their right to go and do what they had always wanted to do. They were not doing their share, so the rest of the population was doing it. Then we started seeing these terrible images that compared the mass murder of the Jewish families in Ukraine with the fact that Buddy could not go to East Side Mario's because he refused to get a vaccine. Then they began to turn on front-line medical workers. I talked to paramedics who said to me, “What is it about us?” These paramedics were out in the middle of the night on the highways at accidents, or were helping during the opioid crises, or were on the front-lines at the hospitals. They wanted to know why they were being targeted. In my region, a doctor was harassed and gave up her practice. There is something deeply wrong when we have to come here at this point. Finally, after two years, we recognize the fundamental medical principle that if people are feeling sick, they should not go to work. That is the most common-sense way to stop the spread, particularly now with omicron variant. The fact that we need to have a law to protect workers from harassment is deeply concerning. We will stand up for the medical workers and we will bring that law in. However, in doing that, let us not forget and let us not diminish the fact that there is incredible fortitude among the Canadian people. I was very disheartened to hear my Conservative colleague talk about how we had to accommodate people who denied science, people who denied the need to have a collective responsibility for their neighbours, as opposed to saying no, that we stand for the right of people to go to work and be safe, that when people go to work, school or the hospital, they can go home at the end of the day even in these hard and uncertain times because they know their government is taking every step possible. That is part of what we are here to do tonight. We need to address the need to change the TRIPS waiver. Canada has to stop being a laggard on the international stage. It has to show leadership. We are, as Camus says, all collectively in the same boat when it comes to the pandemic. I would like to end by quoting Camus again, because what isolation has taught me is the power of family, the power of community and certainly, for me, the power of live music, which I hope comes back. Camus writes about the people in the village and says, “They knew now that if there is one thing one can always yearn for, and sometimes attain, it is human love.” He said that out of the plague that affected the people in his town, that he realized there was so much more to admire in people than to despise. Finally, and I find this so powerful because I am so tired and disheartened and hurt by what COVID has done to the fabric of our communities and our sense of confidence and our ability to see each. Camus says, “What's true of all the evils in the world is true of the plague as well”, because it helps people “rise above themselves.” We are in the fourth wave or the beginning of a fifth wave, I do not know how many waves, but we are not out of the COVID pandemic. It is with us now, but we do not have to give in to it. We do not have to give in to fear and we do not have to give in to stupidity. There are smart ways. It is the only way we can take on COVID and restore that sense of human community and the bond that keeps us together. I urge my colleagues to support the legislation.

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