44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 14, 2022 11:00AM
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, the member opposite mentioned a lot of numbers and a lot of supports about all these tests that have been done and all these interesting organizations. It is interesting. Just because something is numerous and noisy does not make it right, and I think that is an important thing we should all consider.
That being said, I need to make something clear. In asymptomatic people who use rapid antigen tests, the sensitivity is about 44% in some studies, which would mean massive numbers of people actually have COVID who are told they do not. The math is simple: 44% of people would say they have COVID, but there would be a whole bunch of people who we would have missed.
Again, if these things are as important as the science these Liberals keep talking about, would it not make sense to simply send this bill to the health committee to be studied before we pass it?
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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 would like to thank my hon. colleague from British Columbia. It is where much of my family lives and I miss them terribly.
I am tired. My kids are tired. Many members of the House are tired, but the truth is that our ICUs are still struggling with the numbers. We are seeing the cases stabilize a little, but the reality is that we have many Canadians who are immunocompromised, who have other vulnerabilities and who need tools to move forward safely.
A constituent in my riding is a kidney transplant recipient. He cannot go outside. He is waiting for more tests so that he can move on with his life. I hope the members of the House understand that the science and the tools that we need to move forward for Canadians include the procurement and distribution of rapid tests equitably, safely and fairly for every Canadian who needs them.
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- Feb/14/22 7:52:45 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, what the member is talking about has nothing to do with the topic at hand of securing rapid tests for Canadians. I know in my province of Manitoba rapid tests are severely needed. Manitobans need them, so could the hon. member get back to the topic at hand?
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Mr. Speaker, I must say that was entertaining. When we follow the debate of the Conservatives today, we have to wonder where they are on the issue of tests.
We have some members who stand up to ridicule it. It is almost as if they do not believe rapid tests play a valuable role at all in society. They are asking why we are spending this money. Then there are other members who stand up to say they are going to vote in favour of the legislation.
I guess the question to ask the member is whether he will be be voting in favour of the legislation. Is he against the legislation? Where is the Conservative Party today, Mr. Trump? Oh, I meant that for the member.
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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, that is a great question, and I will answer it in two ways. First, obviously these are large numbers of tests, and we hope the House will support this so we will be able to start delivering them directly to Canadians either through the networks and partnerships I mentioned earlier or through the provinces and territories. These large numbers of tests have been added to the 140 million from January and the several million in 2020-21. That being said, it is entirely correct for me to monitor this situation and keep working with our partners in the provinces and territories to see how to equip them to protect the health and safety of Canadians as we move forward.
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Mr. Speaker, I listened to my colleague's speech. He is talking about the lateness of getting the rapid tests now. When I was on the health committee, we hounded the Liberals in the House of Commons in question period for weeks, for practically the whole month of September in the fall of 2020, before the government finally said it would allow rapid tests. Then the provinces could not even buy them because the federal government had a control on them.
Now that they have that, they are getting them out late again. We did not have any at Christmas and New Year's when omicron was in a big outbreak. It reminds me of exactly what happened when the Liberals put all their eggs for vaccines in the CanSino basket in China and never even bothered to try to repurchase more vaccines for three solid months. They lost time.
Could the member for Winnipeg North, who knows these to be facts, explain why his party is now late to the party with rapid tests?
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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, I will be splitting my time with my colleague, the member for Fort McMurray—Cold Lake.
I rise this evening to speak to Bill C-10, an act respecting certain measures related to COVID-19. Specifically, what Bill C-10 does is allocate $2.5 billion toward rapid testing.
Since the outset of the COVID‑19 pandemic, Conservatives have consistently and repeatedly called on the government to make rapid testing a priority. It has now been more than two years since COVID arrived and throughout that time the government's record when it comes to rapid testing has been precisely the opposite of that. For more than two years, the government has repeatedly and consistently dropped the ball when it comes to rapid testing.
The numbers speak for themselves with respect to the government's failure when it comes to rapid testing. The government very recently made a commitment to deliver tens of millions of rapid tests to the provinces in January. It has failed regarding the promises it made to the provinces.
Take the province of Ontario, for example. The government promised the Province of Ontario 53.3 million rapid tests. It has delivered 17.6 million rapid tests. In other words, it has delivered less than a third of the commitment it made to the Province of Ontario for January.
In my home province of Alberta, the government promised 16 million rapid tests for January. It turns out it has delivered less than five million rapid tests, barely 30% of what it committed to for January.
Similarly, the Province of Manitoba has stated it has received only 2.5 million rapid tests, less than half of what the government committed to for January.
Those are the numbers. Talk about a failure.
Early on in the pandemic, business, small business owners and leaders of key sectors of the Canadian economy, including tourism and hospitality, urged the government to come forward with a comprehensive, robust rapid testing strategy to acquire and distribute rapid tests so their doors could remain open safely and they could avoid the kinds of lockdowns and restrictions that have shut down businesses and cost Canadians hundreds of thousands of jobs. What was the government's response to those calls? Very simply, the government ignored them.
Not only that, the government attacked the very people, including members on this side of the House, who were calling on it to prioritize rapid testing. In answer to a question posed by my former Conservative colleague, the then member for Cloverdale—Langley City, I can recall the Deputy Prime Minister, in this House in November 2020, saying that those who were promoting the use of rapid tests were selling snake oil. The Deputy Prime Minister and future leader of the Liberal Party of Canada was equating rapid tests to snake oil.
While the government was attacking those who were calling on it to come up with a plan to get rapid tests out, other countries took the opposite approach. They were procuring and distributing rapid tests. Many jurisdictions, such as Germany and such as London, England, were getting rapid testing kits out to their populations at little or no cost so that businesses could stay open. There is a long list of jurisdictions that did so successfully, but not Canada.
After more than two years of failure, now all of a sudden rapid testing is a priority for the government. All of a sudden, it has seen the light. All of a sudden, it is saying we have to ram through Bill C-10 with limited scrutiny and debate. I say, when it comes to Bill C-10, it is too little, too late. If anything, what Bill C-10 demonstrates is the complete and utter incompetence of the government and complete failure to come up with a plan with respect to rapid testing.
Speaking of incompetence and a failure to come up with a plan on the part of the government, today the Liberals, along with their NDP coalition partner, voted against a very reasonable Conservative motion simply calling on the government to come up with a plan to lift federal restrictions and mandates.
In fairness, the best that could be said of the Liberals is that they did something that they have not done in a long time, and that was to be honest. They admitted that they do not like plans, that they cannot plan, and that they have not had a plan throughout COVID. If the government did have a plan, we would not be debating Bill C-10 tonight. There would not be tens of millions of shortages with respect to rapid testing, and the $2.5 billion that the government is requesting would have been out the door a long time ago.
This is not about a government saving the day. This is about a government that is in a state of panic and scrambling to cover up its record of failure. After more than two long years, Canadians deserve a plan from the government when it comes to lifting restrictions and mandates.
With more than 90% of Canadians vaccinated, what is it going to take the government? What is the government's exit strategy? How much longer are Canadians supposed to wait? Canadians deserve to know when it is that they can expect to take back control of their lives. They deserve an answer from the government now.
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Mr. Speaker, there is a fundamental flaw that the member has in his argument. It is quite simple. The member says that we were too late with the rapid tests, yet when the federal government provided the provinces and the territories with the rapid tests, they sat on shelves for months. They only started to be utilized in any serious number in November and December of last year. There was a huge surplus nationwide of stock. It was the variant that ultimately caused the demand.
Is the member saying that the provinces messed up, and that they should have been using the rapid tests? Is he pointing a finger at the provinces for not doing their job in using the rapid tests months and months ago?
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Mr. Speaker, what I am saying is that the government has messed up. The government has failed to provide leadership when it comes to getting rapid tests out the door. The government has dropped the ball repeatedly.
Is the hon. member proud of the fact that his government delivered a third of the rapid tests that it committed to delivering to the province of Ontario? Is he proud of the fact that this government delivered fewer than a third of the rapid tests it committed to the province of Alberta? The numbers speak for themselves when it comes to this government's track record on rapid testing. It equals a total and complete failure, and the parliamentary secretary knows that.
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Uqaqtittiji, I appreciated the Minister of Health agreeing today that we cannot fight what we cannot measure. In Nunavut, out of the 25 communities, there is only one community equipped with lab technicians. Back in November, of the said eight lab technicians, five had resigned. Also, in January, the Government of Nunavut had decided to ration its testing for COVID-19 to only health care providers in Nunavut.
Does the member for St. Albert—Edmonton not agree that Nunavut residents deserve to have access to rapid tests? Qujannamiik.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for Nunavut for that question. I think she speaks to some of the serious problems that we have, in Nunavut specifically but also across the country, in terms of the lack of availability of rapid tests, which are a critical tool in managing COVID. In short, yes. I absolutely agree with her.
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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 also heard from many constituents in my province when omicron became a very grave situation at the end of December, prior to the holiday period, that the availability of rapid tests was an issue. The province had just started to give them out to citizens.
I know for a fact that many citizens went and got those tests. They stood in line in -10°C or -30°C weather to get those rapid tests because the holidays were coming and they wanted to make sure they did not infect anybody. They wanted to take the necessary precautions. They also said that they did not want to be in that kind of a situation again.
I also know that in about three weeks, in my home province, it is going to be spring break. I know that things are loosening up in my home province. People are going to want to have those rapid tests in the event that they become symptomatic. They are going to want to have them. Are we supposed to tell them we are sorry but we needed to study a piece of legislation that is literally two lines?
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Mr. Speaker, I wish I had been able to have tests before Christmas. I really wish I would have. Many of my constituents and people across my province of Alberta wished they could have had them. Quite frankly, it was not always possible. I know we did not find availability for rapid tests in my home community of Fort McMurray until sometime in early January. I would have happily waited in -40°C in a line to get them, but it was not even an option.
We are not debating whether we should have stuff. What we are debating right now is simply having a little extra oversight. The bill is retroactive to January 1, 2022.
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