44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 14, 2022 11:00AM
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question.
If I understood the question from my hon. colleague correctly, the first and most important thing we need to do to help developing countries is to get them the vaccines to make sure their populations are vaccinated, because we know we can only fully emerge from this global pandemic globally, with all countries working together. Canada continues to do that and we will continue to go along that path.
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Mr. Speaker, throughout the pandemic, we have been able to provide the provinces and territories with the necessary rapid tests, PPE and vaccines. What the provinces are asking for are additional rapid tests. This is based on the demand from provinces and territories. I myself stood in line during the holidays in the cold to get a rapid test because my family did catch COVID over the holidays, and I know that parents want to make sure they have a rapid test at home in case their child is exposed. What we are asking for is support for the provinces based on what they need.
Would the member agree that it is really important to give parents and those of us who want to visit loved ones in long-term care facilities that tool so that we can make sure not to infect someone if we become exposed?
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Mr. Speaker, I believe this is absolutely relevant. We are talking about $2.5 billion of money. What is $2.5 billion? What is $1.2 trillion of deficit that we have doubled under the Liberals? What does that mean? It is just money. It is just taxpayer money. It just puts it upon our children and their children and their children. Who cares? That is the attitude we are getting from this group.
Why am I passionate about this? It is because the Liberals are trying to ram through this bill, which we have supported. We have talked about getting rapid testing for the past year and a half. For the past year and a half, we have been bringing this forward. Now they are patting themselves on the back for getting all of these rapid tests. They are not very rapid on getting the rapid tests. It is pretty slow if they ask me.
More than just slow, it is not just the rapid tests. We need to examine this. How about vaccinations? They tell you, Mr. Speaker, that we have more vaccines per capita than others in the world. We have almost as many as there are stars in the sky.
We have vaccines, 200 million vaccines, and this does relate to the motion. It does not matter that we are paying twice as much as the Europeans or 50% more than the Americans. That is just taxpayer money. We are talking about $2.5 billion. What are we getting for that? Do Canadians not deserve to see what is in there? The Liberals say that it is an emergency and we have to pass this forward.
Maybe there is another little emergency happening right now. The fact of the matter is that we had a vote today on getting mandates lifted, and the Liberals want to shift the dial. Premier Ford was announcing that the province was lifting restrictions and their response was to ask, “What should we do?” Let us have an emergency meeting right now, tonight, Sunday night, and bring in the emergency measures act, and for good measure let us also do this bill.
Things have been serious for a while, but this is how this party works, supported by our friends in the NDP. This is serious and Canadians have a right to know.
When the pandemic began, we had daily calls with staff and it was a running joke after a while. We would give some suggestions to the public affairs people who answer the questions and give it to the end of the month. On the other side the ministers would say that it was a good idea and they would just incorporate it, whether it was a 10% wage subsidy at the beginning, increased to 75%, or a whole host of measures. The impression that we on this side get is absolute wastefulness on that side. They say it is the taxpayers but whatever.
We have doubled the amount of debt in Canadian history just in the past while here. There comes a time for accountability. There comes a time for constraint. There comes a time for thoughtfulness, and we are not seeing it over there.
I remember watching what was happening here over the past couple of years and wondering who we are being run by. Who is economically running this? Is this a group of high school students? I am sorry to high school students. I am a high school teacher by profession. However, this is ridiculous. Maybe they should not be sending these cheques to foreign addresses. Going back to high school students, maybe they should not be giving tens of thousands of dollars to students who have made maybe $5,000. Maybe a bit of thoughtfulness would have been helpful for Canadians, because the Liberals are putting us into bondage.
This is an important bill.
I would also say this on vaccinations. I will tell them where they can put the rapid tests to good use. They can maybe open up to some people they have excluded from Canada. They have made them lepers. Who are these lepers? They are the people who are unvaccinated, who happen to be, according to the Liberals' report, about 20% or maybe more of the population. Maybe people could use them so they could travel. That was the Conservative position. How about letting people travel?
In British Columbia and Canada right now, 20% of households have had COVID in the past month and a half. We are talking about millions of people. It is all over. It is endemic.
They are saying to forget about testing and treat it like you have a flu or a cold. They are saying to stay at home. I know hundreds of people who have had COVID. I had COVID three weeks ago, and my wife did also, so it is real. I know people who have died from it. I am not saying we do not need rapid tests. I am just saying that we need to show a little more thoughtfulness and respect for Canadian taxpayers.
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Mr. Speaker, maybe I should extend the same kind words to my own better half. I wish her a very happy Valentine's Day, but I doubt she will be watching us tonight. If our better halves are watching us tonight, and do not have other more important things to do, then a happy Valentine's Day to all of them.
On the issue of vaccination, obviously we know how important vaccinations are for getting through this crisis, and we know that vaccination mandates have worked in Canada. Some 99% of public servants have made the right choice and got the vaccines. They are protecting not only their own health, but also the health of their loved ones, including their better halves most likely, and the health of their colleagues at work and elsewhere.
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Mr. Speaker, I have so many things that I would like to say about the winning solutions my colleague just mentioned, which are so important.
Vaccines were extremely important and have been very successful. There were also the 35 million rapid tests distributed to Quebec alone in January, not to mention all of the others that will be sent.
There are treatments like Paxlovid. Canada has already received 30,000 courses of this treatment, and it is one of the first countries in the world to get it. Thousands of courses of this treatment have been distributed to Quebec and the other provinces and territories free of charge.
There is also the $63 billion that was invested over the past few months on top of the Canada health transfer.
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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, 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, because Bill C-10 is about funding rapid tests and we have been talking a lot in the House today about the pandemic, the nature of public health measures and how long they should or should not last, I want to start by recognizing how tired everybody is of the pandemic. Whether people support lifting all public health measures right now or not, we are all feeling pretty fatigued and we would like to see our way out of this. However, it is not something we can just declare an end to by fiat. If we could do that, we would have done it a long time ago.
I do not really believe anyone is happy about the restricted lives we have all had to live over the last two years. It is something we did out of necessity before the vaccine in order to protect ourselves from infection, the consequences of being infected with COVID and the severity of it from a health point of view without vaccination. Since vaccination, we have continued to live a restricted lifestyle because transmission continues and we know we are up against a virus that is adapting even as it spreads. It is one of the reasons it is so important that we get vaccines distributed to the rest of the world. Vaccinating those in Canada or in one particular country will not be enough. These variants multiply, and given how small a planet we now inhabit with the technology of travel and everything else, variants eventually come here to roost. That is why we are not out of the woods yet.
As much as the political debate has intensified in light of recent events and some provincial governments have decided to change course, we may well end up getting different advice from federal public health officials in respect of federal mandates. However, all that Dr. Tam has said so far is that it might make sense to re-evaluate them. She has not called for lifting them. I am firmly in the camp of those who believe that this debate has to be led by public health officials, who have our best interests at heart. I know they are trying to keep up to date with the emerging science of the pandemic and are giving their best recommendations for how to reduce suffering and death as a result of COVID-19. It is our job to focus on how we support people through the economic challenges that we have to face, while the health challenges are addressed by public health officials and frontline health workers who treat those who have been infected.
COVID-19 tests are going to be an important part of that and, indeed, it was not that long ago that it was the preferred solution by the Conservatives, who now seem to be of the view that we can lift all public health measures and be done with them. However, governments have tried that before, and we do not have to go outside the country to see that. We just have to look at Alberta as one example. In the summer, it decided to lift all public health measures, and it very quickly found itself in distress with high rates of hospitalization. It is pretty clear that when we take that approach, it does not work out in the way that we would all hope and wish for. We have an obligation as decision-makers to be sober-minded about these things, listen to what public health officials are saying and look at the evidence. That does not mean there is no room for debate, and the country is currently having a very lively debate. However, it does mean that we still have to let public health officials lead that discussion based on the best available evidence.
One of the important tools for public health officials, to the extent that they want to collect data about what is happening with COVID, is a testing regime, and rapid tests are important in that regard. It is difficult in Canada right now to access rapid tests. Even if we do not take the macro point of view of a public health official, there are a lot of Canadians out there who maybe want to go visit their mom and dad or granny and grandpa or a vulnerable family member who is immunocompromised. They want to take a rapid test before they head over there because they know that COVID is around and is easy to catch.
Someone may have it and not be symptomatic, so folks would like to be able to have access to tests as a best practice or an added layer of protection or reassurance in order to be able to make those visits and have some confidence that, when they visit their loved ones or their friends, they are not taking COVID-19 into their home and into their life. That is another reason, beyond the public health arguments and beyond the economic arguments in terms of testing, if we are going into a workplace, why it is important to have access to rapid tests and why this money is important.
There are some real issues around accountability with money in the Liberal government. I will spare members the list, because I certainly do not have enough time to give it all, but as the member for Vancouver Kingsway, my colleague and NDP House critic, was just highlighting, that was why when we were negotiating with the government around the swift passage of this bill, which is just a two-paragraph bill that authorizes spending for rapid tests and their distribution to the provinces, we were keen to include some better financial reporting requirements in there. That is why we got a commitment from the government to table information every six months in the House on how this money is being spent, such as how many tests and where they go. That is important. It is important, because we are talking about large sums of money. It is important, because there have been legitimate questions raised about the way the government has spent some COVID-19 funds, including around sole-source contracts. I think Canadians should get information on how this money is being spent and they should get it in a timely way.
One of the most recent reports by the Parliamentary Budget Officer highlighted the fact that the government was late in tabling its public accounts. It didn't table them until December. Normally, in the countries of most of our allies and trading partners, that happens on a six-month timetable after the end of the fiscal year, so tabling them in December was very late. I think it is true, especially when the government is spending large sums of money, that accountability and transparency become that much more important. They do not become less important because we are spending more money; they become more important as we spend more money.
That is why I am proud that the NDP has been able to negotiate some reporting requirements around this. I look forward to trying to secure a similar reporting requirement for Bill C-8, which includes another $1.72 billion in spending authority for rapid tests.
That was not the only thing negotiated around the passage of this bill. We in the House all know and Canadians listening may well know that the government made a choice to claw back the CERB benefits from working seniors who were on the guaranteed income supplement.
We were talking about it as New Democrats before the last election. We talked about it during the election. We have talked about is since the election. The government finally, just as a result of public pressure, felt an obligation to say something about it in the fall economic statement. They said money would be coming, but then it seemed it would not come until May. Then we heard maybe June. Then we heard maybe July. As part of the negotiations around swift passage of this bill, earlier today we were able to secure a commitment from the government that those seniors who have had their GIS clawed back would be paid no later than April 19, and for some of those in the most desperate need, that help may flow as early as mid-March.
That is a real concrete benefit for Canadians who were hurting. I have talked to seniors who have already been evicted from their homes. We have heard reports of seniors who have taken their lives because they had no sense of hope when they heard it would be so long until the GIS clawback was rectified. We have heard stories of seniors who have had to pass up on medication or are going hungry. This demanded swift action. It was something we were hoping to see the government do around Bill C-2, and we finally got it done.
To get Canadians access to more rapid tests and to get some of our most financially vulnerable seniors the help they need in order to stay in their homes or to be rehoused after being evicted all in one go I would say is a good day's work for a parliamentarian, and I am proud of that work.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciated listening to the member's speech tonight. The fact that she is a physician gives her an opportunity to explain a number of things to Canadians. Of course, saving lives is key to any physician and I really appreciate her passion for that. Could she explain something?
She said omicron was less infectious, but spread more. I wonder how the member would answer this. The nature of a virus is that it wants to survive. What is the member's understanding of the role of a virus that initially comes out very strong, then eventually becomes far more contagious but less dangerous? That is what has happened here.
I would like the member to speak to the fact that emergency vaccines are required only when it is determined that there are no available early treatments to prevent people from getting to the place where they are in ICUs and on ventilators. What is her view of the importance of recognizing how a virus mutates?
I would also like to hear her view on natural immunity. Before we provide vaccines, should that not be determined and find out how many people have very strong T cells and natural immunity capability?
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Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to answer that question. Viruses are unpredictable, as we have seen with this virus. Omicron wants to get to as many people as it can to spread itself. Its spread has been decreasing with vaccinations. Fewer and fewer people are getting it. Its spread therefore has become more mild mostly because a lot of people are already vaccinated and have had booster shots. Therefore, they have some degree of immunity and are not getting as sick as they could have. That is the first reason.
Omicron right now is spreading rapidly, but is milder in certain people, but we do not know whether that is only because of vaccines or whether it is the next iteration, B.1. I do not know whether that comes up. Maybe it is far more lethal and it has a lot of problems. We do not understand that, because we do not know and we cannot predict that until it happens.
The other thing is are we going to wait to see if people have natural immunity? This is a case of saying I am going to roll the dice and if someone does not have natural immunity and they happen to die from omicron because they are 80 or older and they die from it, then that was a mistake. I thought that person had immunity. The bottom line is to give—
Mrs. Cathay Wagantall: That is a good use of a vaccine.
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Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to finish that thought. Vaccines do convey natural immunity. Where do people think immunity comes from? Someone gets antibodies in response to an antigen. In this case the RNA of the virus will actually cause someone to develop antibodies. Our bodies develop antibodies.
The point is there are many people who are immunocompromised. There are many people with chronic illnesses who do not how susceptible they will be. I, as a physician, am not prepared to roll the dice on whether someone has natural immunity or not. The bottom line is to try and make as many people as immune as we possibly can so we can decrease the damage done.
We still do not even know the long-term effects for people who are getting omicron. We may be getting milder forms. We do not know what is happening long term. A lot of countries are now saying there may be chronic long-term problems.
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Mr. Speaker, I think that vaccines are an important tool in the fight against COVID.
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague could not have summed it up better. There are big trust issues in this country with our institutions and with the way the government has operated. We have heard right from the mouths of Liberal MPs how the government has used the pandemic and vaccines to divide and drive wedges between Canadians.
Rapid tests were something Conservatives called for early on. They are not a replacement for vaccines, but an alternative to things the government brought in to mandate vaccines or encourage vaccination. Rapid tests were also more widely available early on than vaccines. They took less time to build and to test, and they are not nearly as invasive as a vaccine. There would have been widespread adoption very early on and they were something we called for, but that seemed to have been ignored while the government put all of its eggs in the vaccine basket.
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Mr. Speaker, it is good to see my hon. colleague from Yorkton—Melville, and I look forward to seeing her in person again.
I do not think we can gamble with a virus this dangerous based on the opinion of a minority of scientists. I do not doubt there are people who are reputable. I have seen them and I have read their literature. If I could find peer-reviewed studies published in renowned medical journals that would confront the basics of what I shared with the member and the House today, I would love to be wrong.
This is dangerous, and I do not think we can gamble with the health of the entire planet. We need to get vaccines to developing countries. We need testing, tracing and social distancing. We need to maintain our public health protocols as best we can and work to eliminate the virus. We cannot live with it. It feeds on us.
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