44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 14, 2022 11:00AM
Madam Speaker, my colleague raises an excellent question. What we have been seeing since the beginning of the pandemic is that the government seems to be making everything up on the fly. When it has the opportunity to make decisions for the long term, it chooses to call an election or prorogue Parliament.
Essentially, it is not really willing to delve into certain issues or do things properly. It would rather shove decisions down people's throats as quickly as possible so they do not have time to think about it, analyze it or ask questions. It is a shame that the government is taking this approach.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to wish a happy St. Valentine's day to my partner, who is lovingly supportive of my involvement in politics, as well as to my colleagues of all stripes in the House, and to all the people of Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d'Orléans—Charlevoix, especially.
We urgently need the federal government to commit to increasing health care funding for Quebec and the provinces from 22% to 35%. That would make everyone, especially seniors, very happy. That should not come as news to anyone.
There is nothing wrong with spending an additional $2.5 billion on rapid tests, but this is exactly the kind of enticement we are all too familiar with. The government often uses such thinly veiled tactics to win people over. What people really want, however, is federal health transfers that are adequate, adapted, indexed and planned for the long term.
What has happened in recent years has been a nightmare, and the nightmare only became worse with the pandemic. I keep telling myself that we are going to wake up from this bad dream. As the saying goes, everything is connected to everything else. Today we are witnessing the frustrations of a certain segment of the population here on Parliament Hill and across the country, and while we have been hit hard by the pandemic's toughest waves, it is not because Quebec and the provinces lack the leadership or the skills to maintain an effective and functional health care system. Our expertise is more than sufficient.
We are lacking the resources to get through this. What is lacking is adequate federal funding. Imagine how different things would be if successive federal governments since 1958 had lived up to their responsibilities in health care. Imagine managing health care without constant cuts, suffocating reforms and restrictive measures, which in the long run cause people to steer clear of nursing programs. Imagine that there is no shortage of home care services, no triaging in hospitals, no psychiatric departments being closed, no striking workers and no pressure tactics motivated by inadequate wages and unsustainable conditions.
It is reasonable to conclude that had past federal funding been adequate, Quebec and the provinces would have had enough money to properly maintain their health care services, implement technological development tools and use forecasting tools for recruitment, training, hospital and paramedic services, and home care for an aging population, and better prepare for a potential health crisis.
There is also a wide range of community services and supports for caregivers, the homeless, psychological support and suicide prevention that would have benefited. In short, if there is one thing that we absolutely must take away from this pandemic, it is that health is the number one priority for the public as a whole and that the government has a duty to act on the public's priorities.
Unfortunately, since 1958, all the wonderful people in health care have had to keep coming up with ways to make up for the lack of federal funding, with the help of countless volunteers who I wish to sincerely thank. These volunteers go all out to help foundations, produce telethons and organize fundraisers with spokespeople who are usually from the arts sector and are always generous. The public has also rallied to compensate for the many shortfalls that have multiplied all these years. This has all served as a stopgap to counter the inertia, denial and indifference shown by the federal government since 1958, no matter which party has been in power, I would add.
The Bloc Québécois represents Quebec's social democracy, offering hope for an education system and universal public health system that are worthy of a G7 country.
Quebec and Canadian taxpayers get up in the morning and go to work wanting to participate in society because they believe in it. They believe that it is the right thing to do. If we make them feel like their efforts are worthless, that their taxes and money are not worth anything; if, the more they are taxed and after years of taking their lumps and staying the course, they see that their efforts are in vain because they met their obligations, but the government did not do the same, then we end up in the situation we are in now: an impasse.
Not everyone is out in the streets. Not everyone sees themselves in this muddled mood with mixed messages and demands, but many are at home deeply disappointed about the current situation and the federal government's crisis management, simply because federal money is not getting to the right place in the right way. They are losing confidence, quietly disengaging and becoming cynical. Is that a shame? Yes. Is it surprising? I hope not.
Of course not everything is black or white, but there is no denying that the impoverishment, the fragility, of our health care system is directly linked to the fact that the federal government is not paying its fair share to Quebec and the provinces. There is very clear evidence of cause and effect.
I would add that the reason we have to keep maintaining, then easing, and then reimposing health restrictions is not just because a handful of individuals refuse to get vaccinated, despite overwhelming evidence of the benefits of vaccines. It is also because our health care systems are unable to absorb the unexpected number of patients created by the pandemic.
With vaccination rates close to 90%, we might have expected to be getting out of the pandemic or at least have the end in sight. However, we are missing two essential, critical ingredients: a government willing to participate actively and fairly in the global vaccination effort, and robust and well-funded provincial and Quebec health care systems. Right now, we have a health care system that is broken.
Even though the vast majority of people are not out in the streets protesting right now, it does not mean that they are satisfied. People are fed up, but they still hold out hope for something better.
To those who are disillusioned and worried, to neglected and injured seniors, I say this: As long as I am standing here in the House, I will never stop defending the French language, their values, and their interests, and supporting their plans and their brilliant ideas.
My father used to say that there is nothing harder than to wake up someone who is not sleeping. If the federal government wants to spend $2.5 billion to provide rapid tests to Quebec and the provinces, fine. However, if it is still using this fragmented and unsustainable support to justify refusing to increase health transfers to 35%, I would say that it has totally forgotten the whole point of politics, which is to serve.
I would add that the best Valentine's Day gift we could give the public right now would be to agree to have the government commit to paying Quebec and the provinces their fair share of health care funding. If the government ends up refusing to meet its obligations, I would say that there is nothing harder than to wake up someone who is not sleeping.
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Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for York Centre.
I am very proud tonight to rise and speak on behalf of our side to Bill C-10, an act respecting certain measures related to COVID-19. I am thankful for giving the bill the attention and priority that is required.
As members are aware, we have committed through this bill to continue our support of provinces and territories, workplace and not-for-profit organizations in managing the pandemic. In particular, the bill seeks to make rapid tests readily available for the purposes of early detection of COVID-19 positive cases and mitigating the transmission of the virus. I will first speak about regulatory approval of tests.
Since the start of the pandemic, Health Canada has put in place rapid, innovative and agile measures through interim orders to ensure prompt access to medical devices and to respond to the needs of Canadians. Canada has one of the most highly regarded regulatory frameworks for medical devices in the world. Health Canada's consistent approach throughout the pandemic has ensured that testing devices available in Canada have been high performing and reliable.
Health Canada has made it a priority to review applications for COVID-19 devices that meet an urgent public health need in Canada. Manufacturers of these devices must provide sufficient data to support the intended use, including the sensitivity established for the specific test. Tests that do not meet high standards of sensitivity values are not authorized for use, and Canada is one of the few countries with minimal post-market issues, including recalls.
As of the beginning of February, in fact, Health Canada has authorized 107 testing devices, including 10 self-tests and 27 tests that can be used in a point-of-care setting. Working with our public health partners, we have identified testing technologies that are the highest priority for evaluation at this time. Additionally, based on the information available to date, the authorized tests continue to be effective in detecting variants. Canada is also taking a proactive role by contacting manufacturers of self-tests that have been authorized in other jurisdictions and inviting them to submit applications for approval in Canada, and more self-testing applications are currently under evaluation by Health Canada.
To advance regulatory approval of new COVID-19 tests, the regulator has approved over 100 clinical trials for COVID-19 products, many of which benefited from flexible approaches, ultimately helping to identify promising COVID-19 therapies sooner. In addition, it has leveraged its rapport with international regulators to share information on emerging technologies in the context of the rapid evolution of the virus while aligning and collaborating on regulatory and policy approaches. As new tests become available and approved for use in Canada, Health Canada works with provincial and territorial officials to acquire and distribute them.
There is also something to be said about biomanufacturing in this country. In order to secure a better supply of testing devices, it is essential that Canada increase its domestic biomanufacturing capacity. Investments in biomanufacturing capacity will reduce our reliance on imported products, strengthen our domestic industrial capacity and increase the resilience of our nation for years to come.
Budget 2021 made the government's commitment to the biomanufacturing sector clear with a $2.2-billion investment over the next seven years. The regulator is doing its part to support this as it recognizes that the strength of our regulatory system is an important consideration for companies looking to establish a Canadian presence. In fact, as of January 14 of this year, the Government of Canada purchased 30 million rapid tests from Artron Laboratories in Burnaby, British Columbia. These tests have been procured to fulfill immediate, emerging and long-term requirements.
Rapid test delivery is also very important. Rapid tests are proving to be another useful tool in our current response to the omicron variant. Thanks to a $3-billion investment through the safe restart agreement, public health units have extensive access to PCR tests and contact tracing resources, but rapid tests provide a further layer of protection by expanding testing into a broader range of environments, making testing even more accessible to Canadians and curtailing more quickly the spread of COVID-19.
I want to share the latest news on our pledge to deliver rapid tests free of charge to provinces and territories. The Government of Canada has negotiated with eight manufacturers to secure rapid antigen tests for the provinces and territories for the coming months. The Government of Canada has been buying and providing COVID-19 rapid tests free of charge to provinces and territories since October 2020 in line with its authorization of the first COVID-19 rapid test.
While the demand for COVID-19 rapid tests has increased significantly, the government has kept pace, being a reliable partner to provinces and territories, and that will continue. Since the start of the pandemic, we have procured 490 million tests, in fact.
In conclusion, testing is a critical part of Canada's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and how we adjust to everyday life. It allows us to identify outbreaks more quickly, isolate those who are sick, initiate contact tracing and support public health decisions at all levels of government. Equitable access to tests by all Canadians would help to limit the ongoing transmission of the omicron variant. It would help us to rebuild our economy and our lives. It would enable Canadians to know more quickly whether they are infected and to make choices that protect them and our communities.
As potential future waves of this pandemic come and go, we need to be able to weather the storm by using all the resources at our disposal. I trust that all hon. members of this House will agree that equitable access to testing would further protect all Canadians and help us through this pandemic. As a country we need the additional funding of $2.5 billion that Bill C-10 would provide to procure additional tests, and with members' support, we could make sure that every Canadian is in fact supported. We could unite on this point and unite in our common goal of being able to protect our health and to be able to rebuild our nation.
I will conclude by thanking health workers in my home community of London. I do not think that can be said enough. There will be disagreements in this House, and there are disagreements in this House, but one thing I hope we can unite on is recognizing the incredible contributions that they have made. Doctors, nurses and health workers of all kinds since the beginning of this pandemic have stood by members of our communities. London is a health care community and our identity in so many ways is based on that. We have world-class hospitals in our city.
Those constituents who continue to serve in hospitals, who continue to stand by my constituents, I cannot thank them enough. They know that this bill is very important, because while rapid tests are not a panacea as some think, they are a very important tool in combatting the virus. We know that from the health experts who have advised the government on the necessity of precisely this bill. That is why it is so important that we pass this. I hope we can pass it unanimously.
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Mr. Speaker, I have made a number of observations, both in my speech and in a few of the questions and comments. This would have been a great conversation to have had in September of last year. Unfortunately, the Liberal Prime Minister made a very clear and direct choice to ignore what I think was in the best interests of Canadians and plunged the country into an election during the fourth wave of what is a pandemic.
Specifically, we are talking about rapid tests. There is widespread agreement about that being an important tool in the tool belt in the fight against COVID-19. I am very curious if the member has any thoughts on how, after the Minister of Health criticized Conservatives for asking questions about standardizing border testing, arrival testing with other like-minded jurisdictions, he seemed to indicate the other day that the government would in fact be moving in that direction.
Could the member answer for his health minister's hypocrisy on that matter?
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, words like “hypocrisy” have to be used very carefully, if at all, in this House. I think it is important to maintain basic decorum. I do not know the member very well, but I would hope he would live up to the honour of the office that he holds.
The health minister is doing exactly as we would hope. He is looking at the science and listening to the health experts. On the specific matter of what is happening at the border, our policy evolves. It evolves because as the pandemic evolves, so too does policy. That is something that has been clear throughout the pandemic. At every step the government has consulted with health experts before putting policy in place.
I wish that some in this House would believe in science, listen to it and listen to the health experts. We would be in much more agreement if that were the case.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his service. I do not know him that well, but I have always known him to be someone who cares very sincerely about the work and who has done a great deal for his constituents.
On this matter, we will disagree a bit. If we look at what the federal government has done since the onset of the pandemic, it responded very swiftly. It made historic efforts to put in place policy to deal with what is, I think we can all agree, the most difficult situation that has faced this country since the Second World War. Whether it is tourism operators or small or large businesses, we will continue to be there for Canadians as we have been throughout the pandemic, putting in place a number of measures, economic and otherwise, to meet the challenges head-on.
In my own community of London, we have been there whether for tourism operators or others. There is more we can do, of course, and we can look at that, but when it is all said and done, historians will have a lot to say on what has happened, and we will have favourable judgments in the years to come.
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak about Bill C-10, an act respecting certain measures related to COVID-19, and how the federal government is working to ensure that Canada continues to have a sufficient supply of COVID‑19 rapid tests.
I would like to thank my colleague, the member for London North Centre, for his previous comments. I have heard colleagues throughout the House speak tonight about many other issues. However, I would like to focus my comments this evening on the bill itself, which is known as Bill C-10.
Unfortunately, COVID continues to have a significant impact on the lives of Canadians and remains an unparalleled threat to the health, social and economic well-being of Canadians. As public health restrictions ease in some jurisdictions, testing and the availability of rapid tests will take on an even higher level of importance in our fight against COVID‑19.
Ensuring that all Canadians have what they need to be safe during this critical time is a responsibility that our government takes very seriously. Since the outset of the pandemic, the Government of Canada has worked closely with provinces and territories, taking a team Canada approach to responding to the pandemic. I would like to begin my remarks today by briefly highlighting some of the key initiatives our government has taken thus far to protect Canadians and to help our country recover.
From the very beginning of the pandemic, the Government of Canada was committed to working closely with all levels of government to put the health and safety of Canadians first. The safe restart agreement was a significant element of this team Canada approach. It led to the direct transfer of $3 billion to provinces and territories to enhance testing, contact tracing and data management, with additional monies made available by the Government of Canada to procure COVID‑19 PCR tests. Thanks to the funding from the safe restart agreement, health units across Canada have been able to better identify who was infected, where that person was infected and how much the virus was circulating in communities.
As the pandemic has changed, so has the need for testing. Today, rapid tests are a more important tool in the government's arsenal than ever before. Our government has worked tirelessly, as we have throughout the past two years, in collaboration with provinces and territories to expedite the delivery of rapid tests from coast to coast to coast.
Rapid tests are safe. They are effective. They are easy to administer, and they provide quick results. Their availability empowers Canadians to make informed decisions to protect their health and the health of their loved ones and to avoid spreading the virus further. Since the onset of the COVID‑19 pandemic, all levels of government have collaborated with experts to ensure they have the best evidence, and the best science, to make informed decisions on COVID‑19 testing and screening.
In November, 2020, the Minister of Health formally established the COVID-19 testing and screening expert advisory panel. The panel provided science and policy advice to help inform decisions on innovative approaches to COVID‑19 testing and screening, including advice on the best use of tests, strategies for different settings, and emerging technologies, again following the science.
The panel consisted of highly respected professionals with a broad range of expertise in areas such as health policy, infectious diseases and the implementation of public health measures. Over the course of nine months, the expert panel published five reports, including, “Priority strategies to optimize self-testing in Canada”, which was published in August, 2021. This report provided the foundation by which provinces and territories expanded their testing programs.
Combatting COVID‑19 is about collaboration between the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada, complemented by the work of an expert advisory panel. This collaboration includes the release of updated pan-Canadian COVID‑19 testing and screening guidance, and a white paper on testing for COVID‑19 in vaccinated populations. These references underscore the importance of continued testing, especially to protect vulnerable populations, and the need for all jurisdictions to sustain COVID‑19 rapid test stockpiles for surge testing to minimize and respond quickly to outbreaks.
Getting Canadians through this pandemic did not only require collaboration among all levels of government, but also required innovative partnerships with the private sector. That is why the government also established innovative partnerships with the establishment of an industry advisory round table on COVID‑19 testing, screening, tracing and data management with members from large, critical industries.
This collaboration led to the launch of the Creative Destruction Lab Rapid Screening Consortium: a non-profit organization located at the University of Toronto, initially comprising 12 companies with national operations. The consortium aimed to develop a system capable of conducting COVID‑19 screening that could produce results within 15 minutes. Let us think about that: in only 15 minutes, we could have an answer to protect our loved ones.
In April, 2021, through the safe restart agreement, Health Canada funded the consortium to expand its program to support the rollout of rapid screening pilots for asymptomatic employees across Canada. As of January 26, 2022, Creative Destruction Lab Rapid Screening Consortium had already onboarded over 2,000 organizations from coast to coast to coast, including school boards, child care centres, long-term care facilities and an array of businesses such as airlines, couriers, banks, mines and retail settings. It was essentially every part of Canada that it could get to.
Additionally, the Canadian Red Cross has been an important partner, providing surge support to provinces and territories for direct patient care. Complementing the work of the consortium, the government partnered with the Canadian Red Cross to support testing and screening in the non-profit sector. In 2021, approximately 300,000 tests were provided to the Canadian Red Cross for this initiative. Through this innovative partnership, 234 non-profit organizations across the country have launched testing programs, receiving support, guidance and test kits directly from the Red Cross. Over 1.6 million tests have been distributed so far through this initiative.
I would like to talk about our northern, remote and isolated communities program. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the spirit of truth and reconciliation, the northern, remote and isolated communities initiative was established in early 2020 to ensure equitable access to health care for people living in northern, remote and isolated, NRI, communities across Canada. This initiative prioritizes distribution of point-of-care diagnostic testing supplies, including molecular tests, to communities and to the homes of many first nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. Led by the Public Health Agency of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory, and in collaboration with Indigenous Services Canada, the program has included training for the installation and use of COVID-19 tests.
To date, the National Microbiology Laboratory has provided more than 230 training sessions for non-health-care professionals to implement point-of-care testing in NRI communities. As of January 16, 2022, over and above the supply provided to provinces and territories, a total of 651 testing instruments and 1,196,039 tests had been deployed to support testing in more than 300 NRI communities.
In conclusion, we have done much as a country to fight this pandemic, and Canadians should feel encouraged by the progress we have made, but it is without question that the months ahead of us will continue to be full of challenges and that we need to do even more to support our country. I ask all of my colleagues to join me and those of us on this side of the floor in supporting the adoption of this bill, so that we can continue to provide critical and timely support to provinces, territories, workplaces and Canadians through this ongoing procurement process and timely distribution of COVID-19 rapid tests that will help keep us all safe.
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Mr. Speaker, the member is a physician, so I think he would appreciate the science that goes with this and understand that all of this work and all of this testing and research and discussions and consortiums and collaboration between the private and public sector and science has been the reason we have gotten this far in the pandemic in protecting Canadians. The tests help protect our loved ones. These tests are an important tool that have shown time and again how we can control the spread of COVID-19.
To remind my colleague, at the beginning of the pandemic, his side of the aisle, and this was before I was a member of the House, screamed for tests, demanded tests and wanted nothing more than for us to get more tests. At the time, the tests were not all that accurate and that is why we did the work with the consortium, with science and with researchers to improve the quality of testing in this country so that as we move forward now through omicron we have the tools and we have the capability of keeping our population safe as we start to move through this phase of the pandemic.
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Mr. Speaker, I am obviously very happy to rise this evening, during the 44th Parliament of Canada, to support Bill C‑10, which would give Health Canada the legislative authority to spend up to $2.5 billion to purchase and distribute rapid tests across the country.
This bill will help the provinces and territories meet their needs for COVID‑19 rapid tests and will continue to support the national program for COVID‑19 workplace screening, in addition to federal workplace testing and screening initiatives.
It is a critical time in our fight against COVID-19, and we need every tool at our disposal. Testing plays a key role in our effort to contain and mitigate the pandemic by identifying infected individuals—
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Mr. Speaker, I forgot to mention that I will be splitting my time with the member for Winnipeg North.
Testing, as we all know, plays a key role in our efforts to contain and mitigate the pandemic. Identifying infected individuals helps to prevent further person-to-person transmission of the virus.
As everyone knows, health care services are struggling to meet the demand for polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests, because the omicron variant has a very high infection rate. Provinces and territories across the country are now relying on rapid tests to help fill this significant gap.
Rapid tests are a screening method that can more easily and quickly detect COVID-19 in a variety of settings such as schools, workplaces and other high-risk environments including long-term care facilities and hospitals, to name a few.
Using rapid tests in new settings can help detect the spread of COVID-19 and support measures to break the chain of transmission.
Not everyone who has COVID-19 will show symptoms. In fact, the prevalence of asymptomatic infection is probably a significant factor in the high rate of transmission of omicron. Rapid testing allows a person to detect the virus in as little as 15 minutes, which makes it a powerful tool that Canadians can use to help curb the spread of the omicron variant.
Since the introduction of Bill C-8, which provided additional funding for the purchase and distribution of rapid tests, Canada experienced an exponential increase in the number of cases and hospitalizations. The spread of omicron also led to an abrupt increase in demand for rapid tests. This is putting pressure on global supply, where supply chains are very tight, so clearly we need to get more of these tests, and we need to do it now.
Bill C-10 will allow Health Canada to purchase and distribute hundreds of millions of rapid tests across the country and help ensure equitable access in all jurisdictions. It also builds on commitments made in last December's economic and fiscal update, which included an additional $1.7 billion in funding for the procurement and distribution of rapid tests across the country.
Bill C-10 would also allow Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada to continue supporting provinces and territories by securing the rapid tests that they need to keep Canadians safe and healthy, including through expanded schoolplace and workplace testing programs.
Finally, Bill C-10 would allow us to continue supporting businesses of all sizes by providing rapid tests for workplace screening programs through direct delivery and partners such as chambers of commerce and pharmacies.
Throughout the pandemic, the Canadian government has worked closely with its provincial and territorial partners to ensure they have the tools they need to manage outbreaks and ensure the safety and health of everyone.
The federal government starting buying and providing rapid tests free of charge to the provinces and territories in October 2020. The Government of Canada delivered more than 35 million rapid tests to provinces and territories in December 2021, and 140 million additional tests were delivered to Canada in January alone.
The Government of Canada also supports the Canadian Red Cross in its delivery efforts.
Companies with 200 employees or more, including federally regulated companies, can receive rapid tests free of charge directly from the Government of Canada. Small and medium-sized businesses and other organizations can also receive and have access to rapid tests through one of the Canadian government's delivery partners.
The Canadian government has spent the past two years enhancing its ability to respond quickly and efficiently to the many challenges associated with the pandemic.
Working with the provinces, territories and other partners, we are delivering the tools we need to protect Canadians in our health care system from the most serious outcomes of COVID-19.
As my colleagues know, this year started out with a marked increase in the number of COVID-19 cases when there was a surge in the omicron variant in Canada and around the world.
Recent modelling has shown that the increase in omicron infections has probably peaked. However, the number of daily admissions to hospitals and intensive care units is still high and many hospitals in Canada are under intense pressure.
Therefore, we must continue to do everything we can to limit the spread of COVID-19 and its variants.
In the short term, that means vaccines, boosters and strong adherence to public health guidelines.
Because nearly three million eligible Canadians have yet to get a first or second dose of the primary series and many other Canadians are also eligible for a booster, we want to improve our individual and collective protection with the COVID‑19 vaccines. This will help us keep fighting the omicron wave and any potential new waves and variants.
Looking ahead, Canada will need to continue to tackle future waves, which may or may not be smaller than the omicron surge depending on how the virus evolves.
Screening tests, combined with individual public health measures and vaccination, play an important role in protecting Canadians and reducing the risk of outbreaks, swiftly identifying and isolating cases, and limiting the spread of COVID‑19 and its variants of concern.
We are all tired after living with the COVID‑19 pandemic for the past two years and the most recent omicron wave. We all want to know when the pandemic will be over, but we cannot simply snap our fingers and decide that COVID‑19 is over.
We are at a critical juncture in the pandemic. We must do the right thing and act responsibly, and we need to do it now. We know that rapid tests will help us slow the spread of omicron. They will also help manage outbreaks and, ultimately, they will help keep Canadians safe and healthy.
That is why I urge all members of the House to support Bill C‑10.
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Mr. Speaker, I would also like to wish my lovely wife Sheryl Palm a happy Valentine's Day, since I do not want to be left out in this. She is my sweetheart.
We have known from the beginning of the pandemic that testing and tracing are critical components of dealing with it, and I think that is still true today. We know that the authorization for $2.5 billion would purchase about 400 million tests because that is the information I got when I asked the minister's staff at a briefing.
Dr. David Juncker, department chair of biomedical engineering at McGill University, estimates that with the omicron variant, Canada could require 600 million to 700 million tests a month and then two tests per person every week once the wave subsides.
Does the the minister think that 400 million tests are going to be anywhere near enough? If not, how many tests do Canadians need for the rest of 2022 to deal with this virus?
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to wish all members a happy Valentine's Day, and I hope they will have a bit of time to celebrate later tonight.
I would like to ask the minister a question. First of all, in his speech, he talked about working closely with Quebec and the provinces and territories to find solutions and get through the pandemic. However, they unanimously stated that one of the measures that should be taken is to increase health transfers. We are saying yes to rapid tests and ad hoc support, but I would like the minister to explain his thinking, since all of the provinces have come up with a winning solution.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking my colleague from Winnipeg North for his speech. I always find him very entertaining.
I would like to ask him a question.
To hear him speak, one would think that PCR tests are the greatest thing since sliced bread. He kept going on about how important it is to take action now. Meanwhile, we hear a conflicting message from the official opposition and the other opposition parties. When it comes to acting quickly, members will recall that the government called an election in the midst of the pandemic, and then it waited two months before recalling the House. Now the government is talking about PCR tests when it has not done anything about health transfers.
Could my hon. colleague provide some clarification and talk about health transfers, since they are basically the only way to get through this crisis?
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Mr. Speaker, during the pandemic there were many different elections across Canada, and in fact in North America with even the U.S. election. I believe that through our election there was a very clear mandate given to not only the government, but all members of this House, saying that the coronavirus was still there and we needed to continue to invest resources in the issue, which is what we are seeing today, substantial financial resources, that we needed to look at and implement mandates, and to continue to follow and listen to science and health experts. Ultimately, I believe we are on the right course.
What I am most proud of is the greatest tool: the vaccines. It is the positioning of Canadians and the uptake that has allowed us to see Canada do exceptionally well in comparison to other countries around the world. Canadians understood the importance of being double vaccinated.
In regard to the issue of financing of health care, whether it is mental health, long-term care, vaccines or the rapid tests we are debating today, the federal government has been there in a very tangible way with the expenditure of additional billions of dollars during the pandemic over and above historic amounts through equalization payments and direct payments in regard to the health care program.
I think that, as a government, over the last six years we have done exceptionally well in supporting health care. We know that health care is important to each and every Canadian from coast to coast to coast.
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Mr. Speaker, to my hon. friend for St. Albert—Edmonton, I am troubled. It is not by him alone, obviously, but by the notion that human beings, Canadians, parliamentarians and governments are in charge, and we can accurately predict what this virus is going to do next and therefore we should be able to provide a road map and timeline.
I would ask the hon. member for St. Albert—Edmonton this: Is he confident that the pandemic is over, and that restrictions should be abandoned everywhere?
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands, for that question.
No, the pandemic is not over. We will be living with COVID for a long time, but we are entering a new stage. COVID is endemic, and we need to come up with ways to live with COVID. That is why governments are lifting restrictions around the world. That is why provinces are lifting restrictions, and that is why public health officials are saying that vaccine mandates and other restrictions need to either be lifted or re-evaluated. If this government was following the science, it would move forward in that regard.
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Mr. Speaker, I will start this evening along the same lines as some of my colleagues. I wish my husband Niall a very happy Valentine's Day. I am very lucky to have him in my life, and I am sure that if he is not watching he will be following up with a clip later on. I thank my sweetheart, and I love him.
I believe that rapid tests are an important public health tool. I do not think that is a debate that I am willing to have. I am definitely not a scientist and I am not an expert, but I am a new mom. As a new mom, I was keen to seek out rapid tests when they became available in my community, and they were not easy to come by because the provinces were not getting their shipments in a timely manner, so there were some struggles. When my family did end up getting some rapid tests, we were pretty excited.
My family, like many families with young kids, came down with colds a couple of weeks ago. Having access to the rapid tests really protected our mental health because they allowed us to rule out COVID. Both my husband and I were symptomatic. We used our rapid tests, and they came up negative a few times. That allowed us to have some peace of mind as we were caring for our sick son.
Having a baby be sick for the first time is pretty scary, especially for new parents. It did not change our behaviours, and I want to make that clear. We did what we would have done had we had colds before COVID. We isolated, we stayed home, and we had friends and family bring supplies to our house to help us get through those times.
We did some things a little differently, but we were confident to treat it like a common cold. The phrase “know better, do better” came to mind in our case. Because my husband and I were both COVID-negative, we knew that likely meant that Eoghan, our little son, was also COVID-negative. When his breathing got to be a bit wheezy, we were more comfortable staying at home because we were pretty confident that it was a cold, so we treated him for a common cold. I am confident that had we not had those rapid tests available to us, we would probably have rushed to the hospital, which would have likely cost the health care system more money.
I share this as one small anecdote in a pile of stories as to why rapid testing can be a very useful tool, especially for people who are symptomatic. I am going to put this on the record, not that we necessarily need it, because everybody knows it at this point. If people are feeling sick, they should stay home. This was true 100 years ago, this was true 50 years ago and this is true today.
Having this bill pass today would not make any difference in how many rapid tests are available to Canadians tomorrow or this week, nor would it somehow end this pandemic. Parliamentary oversight in debates such as these, and having bills go through committee, are fundamental aspects of our parliamentary democracy and our democratic process as a whole. I fail to understand the urgency.
I understand that the member for Winnipeg has gotten up and shared about the busy parliamentary system. I appreciate that we have a lot of important bills that we need to discuss, and there are a lot of critical things that we want to try to get through before the end of this parliamentary week, when we go back to our constituencies for constituency week.
However, having a bill studied at committee is absolutely important, especially a bill for this amount of spending. We are talking about $2.5 billion. That is not a small amount of money, and it is not a small amount of money to my constituents. They expect that there is accountability, especially for a sum of money this large. They also expect that they are getting the best possible legislation from parliamentarians.
I have so many questions about this legislation that I would love to know the answers to. For example, is this too much? Is this not enough? Are the tests here? Who are the suppliers of these tests? Where are they being manufactured?
There are so many more reasonable and rational questions that deserve to be asked and deserve to be responded to in a committee setting. While I understand that Canada is currently in a struggle space, on this side of the House we want to see at-home tests available to Canadian families, Canadian families like mine. That would put us at ease.
However, we have seen failure after failure from the Liberal government on the COVID file, whether it be closing borders, opening borders, vaccine procurement, testing capacity and at-home test procurement, just to name a very few. Forgive me for wanting to push the pause button here for the sake of my hard-working constituents.
Canadians expect Canada's Conservatives to take our role as Her Majesty's loyal opposition seriously and to serve the public by applying a critical eye to all proposals and actions of the governing party. This is not something that we do simply to be difficult or obstinate. It is the role Canadians have conferred on us. Let that sink in. We are responsible to ensure that Canadians have the very best legislation available to them and that we are looking at both the intended and unintended consequences of the legislation.
We very well might not agree on what the path forward would be, but we deserve to at least be able to have the conversations to ensure that we have the best legislation. What I am asking for, and I would implore, is to slow things down just the smallest bit and give us an opportunity to have further study on this bill. Give us some time to hear from expert witnesses. As has been stated multiple times, the Senate does not return until Monday. We have the capacity to give this some further study.
Furthermore, this bill is retroactive to January 1, 2022. Even if this was delayed, I am not quite sure how that would impact this bill, compared with a bill that only comes into force upon proclamation.
I am imploring everyone in the House to just hit the pause button and allow some additional oversight to ensure that we are providing Canadians with the best possible legislation, because they deserve our attention and our care.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.
I would say, essentially, that jurisdictions must be respected. In other words, trust the expertise of each province when it comes to what services are needed.
When we talk about health transfers, obviously they must be unconditional, because it is the provinces that have the expertise, not the federal government. The provinces have everything it takes when it comes to both education and health care.
I tell people that it is important for everyone to mind their own business. It is often when we do not have enough to do that we interfere in other people's business.
In the context of a pandemic where there are global challenges and a critical situation, I think we all need to mind our own business.
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague raises something very important, which is that health policy in this country should and must be driven by data, science and evidence. It should not be driven by political interests or wedge issues. I was very disappointed to see members of the Liberal caucus stand up and accuse the Prime Minister of using the COVID pandemic as a partisan wedge issue. I think members of the Conservative Party, who are flirting with insurrectionists in this country, are also engaging in politicizing this pandemic. Canadians can see that, and this should have nothing to do with how we deal with it.
We need data, and I want to point out, as I said in my speech, that when we do not have enough tests, we do not get an accurate view of how many people are testing positive or negative. When we do not have that data, we cannot create the kinds of public health responses we need, or target them in the right regions or areas, to respond appropriately.
We need to get this legislation passed right away. We need to get testing and every other public health tool into the hands of Canadians as soon as possible.
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Mr. Speaker, I am glad my hon. colleague called my speech “great”.
There are a number of reasons for this. I think I speak for all Canadians when I say that we are entirely fatigued by COVID. Everybody wants to see a return to normal as soon as possible. However, we in the NDP believe that should be based on science and data, not on politics. We saw the interim leader of the Conservative Party move a motion in the House to get rid of mandates right after she was out publicly cavorting with the convoy and the people who are calling for an insurrection in this country. They are anti-vaxxers. They are flying swastika flags and Confederate flags. It shows the Conservatives are playing politics with this matter. The truth is that we are still in a pandemic, and we need public health officials to be guiding policy in this country, not politicians who are playing politics with the pandemic.
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