44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 8, 2021 02:00PM
- Dec/8/21 9:57:43 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I do not want to dispute what the member is saying in the House, but I believe that the announcement was made much more than five days before the election was called.
As of today, and I will verify this in case I am mistaken, 28 projects have been approved and many more have been submitted. There is overlap since some communities saw children taken from their families and sent to the same institution.
I would like to disburse these funds as quickly as possible because there are needs to fill, but I will follow the pace and needs of the communities. We certainly need to provide some investments in Quebec, perhaps even in the member's riding. We will be there with the communities, on an as-needed basis.
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- Dec/8/21 9:58:35 p.m.
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Madam Chair, [Member spoke in indigenous language].
[Translation]
Going back to the date, it may have been a few days before. I am not going to argue about the dates, but we can agree that the announcement was made before the election was called. However, whenever we are in an election period, nothing happens; nothing gets done.
I understand, of course, that there are a number of projects, and $320 million was mentioned. I would like to know where the approved projects are at and where we are in terms of the budget. What amounts have been allocated to the projects that have been selected so far? I realize that there are others that are still being analyzed.
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- Dec/8/21 9:59:16 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I would like some clarification. Is the member asking how much of the $320 million has been allocated, or is she talking about a supplementary budget?
The budget itself is spread across a few departments, specifically, my own, Indigenous Services Canada, particularly for mental health support and assistance, Canadian Heritage and Infrastructure Canada, for the demolition or repair of buildings, as needed.
That would have to be sorted out. If I am not mistaken, the amount is at least $50 million or $60 million, but it could be much more. I will ask my deputy minister to confirm this quickly.
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- Dec/8/21 10:00:06 p.m.
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Madam Chair, can the minister tell me the amount of funding requested by the government in the supplementary estimates (B) for the same cause?
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- Dec/8/21 10:00:25 p.m.
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Madam Chair, that funding is not reflected in the supplementary estimates (B). I would have to look and sort that out. The funds were approved and distributed by Treasury Board.
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- Dec/8/21 10:00:47 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I would like to thank the minister and ask him to provide an answer in writing.
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- Dec/8/21 10:00:54 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I will certainly do that.
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- Dec/8/21 10:01:01 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I would like to talk about another subject: the comprehensive land claims policy.
On February 14, 2018, the Liberal government announced a recognition and implementation of indigenous rights framework to replace the policy at the time, the comprehensive land claims policy. Three years on, we are still waiting for that framework, and in the meantime, we passed Bill C‑15 to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. I would like to know where we are at on the policy.
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- Dec/8/21 10:01:48 p.m.
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Madam Chair, to answer that question, I would have to go into a lot more detail than my time here permits. It is a long-term process to get rid of past policies that are clearly both racist and colonial. The framework is there, but there has to be recognition of rights based on the paradigm and the community's needs. Progress is happening across the country, and we are respecting communities' priorities. That is what we will keep doing.
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- Dec/8/21 10:02:26 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the minister is talking about colonialism as a thing of the past, but colonialism still exists today. What I heard was not a clear answer on where things stand. The minister talked about progress, but what meaningful action has been taken since 2018 with regard to reviewing the comprehensive land claims policy?
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- Dec/8/21 10:02:55 p.m.
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Madam Chair, indigenous communities are telling us loud and clear that this must not be handled by people in Ottawa only. The policies need to be changed, and this overhaul needs to be done. However, some clauses are no longer being used, including extinguishment clauses, and they need to be removed.
This uncertainty is a good thing because it is the indigenous communities who are setting the pace on this file.
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- Dec/8/21 10:03:23 p.m.
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Madam Chair, it is an honour for me to rise to speak to the estimates and then ask some questions about them.
I will speak for about four or five minutes. Then I will have some questions, in particular, for the Minister of Health and the President of the Treasury Board. The topics I want to bring up with them today specifically relate to health and our public service.
On health, I really want to understand where we are with vaccines in the country right now, but, most important, what we are doing to fight some of the misinformation on vaccines. Unfortunately, a lot of people are vaccine hesitant because of a lot of misinformation. We saw this start well before vaccines were even introduced and brought into the country, and were widely available. This has continued. This is misinformation does not just come from fringe groups, but also from some people who, in my opinion, we would not expect to hear that kind of rhetoric.
One of the key roles the government has to play in the fight against COVID is to inform people about the safety of the vaccines as well as how to treat a lot of that misinformation. The questions I have today for the Minister of Health, when I get to them, really focus on what we are doing about this and what recommendations have come forward from public health with respect to fighting the misinformation on vaccination.
I also want to talk specifically about the people in our public service and the incredible work they have done. Our public service has stepped up. Quite often, these people are in the background, doing the work that has been set out through the direction of the government and this Parliament on behalf of Canadians. We saw the way they stepped up at the beginning of the pandemic.
I really hope we take the opportunity to reflect back on March 2020, when there were so many unknowns out there. We did not know how the pandemic spread. We did not know what tools or resources would be needed time to fight it. However, the people in our public service went above and beyond at the time to ensure that they did everything they possibly could to support Canadians throughout the pandemic, both from the various financial programs that were put into place and made available, but also through the reassurances that the government had the backs of Canadians, that the government would be here to ensure that vaccines were available despite some of the misinformation that was spread by the other side of the House.
I think back to when the member for Calgary Nose Hill said that we would not have vaccines until 2030. I cannot imagine how that would make any Canadian feel good when a person in a position of leadership stands up and makes those kinds of comments. Back then, we were really looking for a team Canada approach, of everybody coming together to help fight this pandemic, along with the requirement and the need for everybody to work together, to have information like that.
My first question is for the Minister of Health. Could he elaborate on what we have been doing as a government to help fight and combat the false information that is out there that vaccines are not safe and that people should not be taking them?
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- Dec/8/21 10:07:37 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I visited the member's beautiful riding of Kingston and the Islands some time ago and was able to taste the beauty of the riding's landscape, its people and their hospitality.
The member is right. Canadians have been informed, but also misinformed over the crisis, informed by the incredible input of experts and scientists. Many of them were little known prior to the crisis. Now, not only do we know them, but we appreciate their work and their guidance.
Unfortunately, there has been some misinformation as well that has, as the member said, led to a lack of confidence not only in our execution, but in our ability to protect each other. This was minor thing, however. For many months now, Canada has been at the very top of the vaccination league in the world. This has been the case for many months. We are still leading the world and showing it the way forward.
If I have time later, I might indeed come back to some statements made by our colleagues on the other side, including our colleague from Calgary Nose Hill.
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- Dec/8/21 10:09:01 p.m.
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Madam Chair, could the minister inform the House how many Canadians, in terms of percentage perhaps, have been vaccinated?
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- Dec/8/21 10:09:11 p.m.
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Madam Chair, these are great percentages. Talking about everyone of all ages in Canada, approximately 80% of the population has received at least one dose and 76% of the population has received two doses, making us again a leader in the world when it comes to vaccination.
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- Dec/8/21 10:09:33 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I can only imagine that it is extremely important, as we encourage people to get vaccinated, that leadership is taken from those who are in a position to do that. When there are groups trying to promote misinformation and trying to suggest that it is against our civil liberties to encourage people to be vaccinated, such as the liberty caucus that has been formed on the other side of the House, how do those groups that aim to question science and question the validity of the health professionals contribute to the misinformation and to the overall objective of trying to get people to get vaccinated?
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- Dec/8/21 10:10:24 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I was not aware of the term “liberty caucus”, but I find that to be a strange caucus and a strange way of thinking about liberty. The liberty to transmit the virus to others and to infect a community is an unusual definition of liberty and I would take the liberty to signal that yes, the member for Calgary Nose Hill has a right to her views, but she did say not long ago that Canadians would be the last people on earth to be vaccinated and that it would not be before 2030.
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- Dec/8/21 10:11:05 p.m.
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Madam Chair, on the same topic, I am curious if the minister, his predecessor or anybody in the Public Health Agency ever actually thought that it would not be until 2030 that people were vaccinated.
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- Dec/8/21 10:11:24 p.m.
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Madam Chair, that is indeed quite a funny story, because we have been leading the world concerning vaccination for many, many months. I am sorry to say that I have heard that perhaps the last to be vaccinated in Canada, and perhaps not before 2030, would be some of our Conservative MP friends.
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- Dec/8/21 10:11:46 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I was going to ask the minister if he knew the percentage of Conservatives who were vaccinated, but I did not want to get overly rhetorical in my discussion today, so I sidestepped that one despite the fact that I had written it down.
I will shift to the public service now and to the President of the Treasury Board. As I said in my preamble, our public service has really stepped up, not just in taking care of Canadians, but in showing leadership themselves by being vaccinated. I am wondering if the President of the Treasury Board can expand and let us know how many of our public servants have been vaccinated, as well as perhaps a broader update on the mandatory vaccination of our public service.
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