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Mar/24/22 3:59:15 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his question. At this point in time, what the motion suggests is not immediate; it is only a plan. It is an important suggestion for Canadians to maintain hope for a plan for the future. It is not immediate or for tomorrow; it is only a plan. The operative word here is “plan”.

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Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)

Mar/24/22 3:59:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I really enjoyed listening to my colleague's speech and his expertise on this. I do appreciate that my colleague also supports and agrees that COVID-19 vaccines do provide strong protection against severe illness, hospitalization and deaths. Does my colleague agree Canada should support the TRIPS waiver at the WTO to expand global vaccine production, especially for middle and lower-income countries?

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Mr. Stephen Ellis

Mar/24/22 4:00:31 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the shameful behaviour of the NDP-Liberal coalition government taking vaccines from the COVAX program has led to vaccine inequity around this world. Certainly, that is the kind of thing we do not want to be associated with as Canadians, and as Conservatives, we do not support that style of governance.

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Mr. Rick Perkins (South Shore—St. Margarets, CPC)

Mar/24/22 4:01:01 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have not spent my life in medicine, as this member has. I have spent it in business, and I have a lot of business planning and strategies. There is a famous saying, “If you do not know where you are going, any road will get you there”, and this strikes me as the Minister of Health's motto. He does not seem to know where he is going, and he spouts statistics, as we saw today, unrelated to the questions. Does the hon. member think the government's road is to get us to 100% vaccination before it will raise these mandates? Does he have any sense, from what the minister said today, of where it is going?

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Mr. Stephen Ellis

Mar/24/22 4:01:51 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his friendship through our time here in the House, as well as his good guidance. The fearful part of me, being a new member, is the fact that I believe, and this makes me very sad and sometimes angry, that the government wants to punish those who do not agree with its ideological agenda. It has now made these people who had had good-paying jobs, in a sad and insane twist of fate, beholden to the government for their income. They do not have jobs anymore, so they are going to have to access the social system. That is the sad road map I see for the government and for Canadians.

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

Mar/24/22 4:02:38 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we knew exactly where we wanted to go. We wanted to be among the countries in the world that had the highest vaccination rates, and we got there.

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Mr. Stephen Ellis

Mar/24/22 4:02:49 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, there is no doubt. Interestingly enough, at the Standing Committee on Health, we had some psychologists there this week. When asked very pointedly if they thought that bullying and name-calling was a great way to get people to change their minds, they reminded all of us very clearly that is an absolutely unacceptable way to go about any type of business, and certainly well within those confines of coercion I spoke about.

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Mr. Tony Baldinelli (Niagara Falls, CPC)

Mar/24/22 4:03:21 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is an honour for me to rise in this place to speak to our Conservative opposition day motion, introduced by my colleague from Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes. The motion reads: That, given that Canada has one of the world's highest vaccination rates and every province across Canada has lifted or has a plan to lift vaccine mandates, the House call on the government to immediately lift all federal vaccine mandates in order to: (a) protect the jobs of federally regulated employees; (b) enable Canadians to travel unimpeded; (c) ensure Canada's tourism industry recovery; and (d) allow for the free flow of goods across the Canadian border. This is a motion that I agree with, and it is a motion that is particularly relevant for constituents in my beautiful riding of Niagara Falls, which includes the city of Niagara Falls and the towns of Niagara-on-the-Lake and Fort Erie. As members of the House may know, my riding is Canada's top leisure tourism destination in all of Canada. It is also home to four international bridge crossings that connect Canada to the United States. Before the pandemic, tourism generated $2.4 billion in receipts in Niagara alone, and the local tourism sector employed 40,000 Niagara residents. These numbers were record highs in 2019, and they were followed by record lows a year later, as the world entered lockdown in 2020 to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. As we all know, the Canadian travel and tourism industry was hit first, was hit the hardest and will take the longest to recover from this pandemic. Before COVID, Canada's national tourism industry employed one in 10 Canadians and was a $105-billion industry. Today, we are at just 50% of where we were in 2019, and forecasting does not see recovery being achieved until at least the end of 2025. For the sake of supporting Canada's travel and tourism industry, we need to get back to the days of 2019, and we need to do so in a safe and responsible way, following what the data and the science is now telling us. That is why I have been encouraged by the remarks of some of Canada's top doctors in this regard. On February 18 of this year, CTV News reported Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, saying, “We should be able to manage the pandemic going into the future without, I think, some of the more stringent or restrictive public health measures”. Meanwhile, the day before Dr. Tam's statement, Global News reported Dr. Kieran Moore saying, “We do think the highest risk is behind us, that we’re heading into a lower risk environment, and that the need for vaccination policies across Ontario sectors, whether it’s health, or in colleges and universities, is no longer necessary”. Many of my constituents cannot afford to lose a third consecutive summer tourism season, whether they own and operate a tourism-related business or they are workers whose jobs depend on tourism visitation to our region. We are more than two years into this pandemic, and Canadians simply want a return to their normal lives. For many months now, Canada's Conservatives, myself included, have been calling on the federal government to present a plan on how we get out of this pandemic and achieve recovery. While provinces and territories are beginning to reverse their policies and expect to have all of their policies fully reversed by the end of April, we continue to see reluctance and hesitation from the federal government to do the same in areas of its jurisdiction. For a long time, Canada's Conservatives have called on this federal government to eliminate all predeparture testing requirements for fully vaccinated travellers. That is why we welcomed the news when the federal government finally made its recent announcement to do just that. However, it is not enough to leave it at that. We need the federal government to do more and to do so more quickly if we are going to have a strong summer tourism season in Niagara. At this delicate and critical time, international travellers are planning their summer vacations. Our jobs as a Parliament and the job of this government is to make it easy for international travellers to choose Canada as their summer tourism destination. This year, the ArriveCAN app has been anything but easy for travellers since its implementation. Just today, I received correspondence from the general manager of the Buffalo and Fort Erie Peace Bridge Authority who wrote, “The continued mandatory use of the ArriveCAN app will result in much longer processing times and very lengthy border wait times, which will significantly depress cross-border traffic at a time when we are moving into the 2022 summer tourist season.” He further indicated, “Border delays discourage cross-border travel, and that will continue to adversely impact hard-hit tourism industries in the Niagara region that are trying to recover from two years of pandemic-related border restrictions.” These continued federal barriers harm Canada's reputation as a travel destination, and our country continues to be perceived by international travellers as a destination that is too complicated to travel to. We need the federal government to be an international champion for Canadian travel and tourism again. Our motion today is asking the federal government to lift all federal vaccine mandates so our country can fully reopen. This would not only benefit trade, travel and tourism, but would also address federally regulated workers who may or may not be vaccinated for whatever their personal reasons. The government's job, and our job as parliamentarians, is to give Canadians the tools they need so they can make decisions about their own health care choices and well-being. Tools create choice, and I believe in giving Canadians a choice on this important matter. Given the high vaccination rates, millions upon millions of Canadians have chosen to get vaccinated. It is an approach that I and many of my parliamentary colleagues have encouraged since the early days of this pandemic. My support for vaccines remains steadfast. I am triple-vaccinated. My wife is a public health nurse, and she has worked at our local vaccination clinics. Having said that, the government has no right to decide an individual's health choice. Federally regulated workers, including frontline workers such as our Canadian Armed Forces members, CBSA officers and health care workers, should never have been forced into an ultimatum by the Liberal government of having to choose between getting vaccinated and getting fired, nor should Canadians have been denied the right to travel freely in their own country to visit loved ones who, for example, may have lived in other provinces. Tools exist to give Canadians choices about their health care and to help us adapt to living with COVID. For example, rapid testing is one such tool. Why is it that the House only recently authorized the spending of $2.5 billion on rapid tests? We should have done that a year and a half ago, as Canada's Conservatives have been calling for the use of these important tools. All Canadians deserve a federal government that is here to serve and protect its citizens and our national best interests. That means it does not matter what our political party is, where we live in this country, what faith we follow or what our vaccination status is. The duty of government and of everyone here is to work so that we bring people together to find solutions that are in the best interests of all Canadians. Our economy should be fully reopened and recovered from this pandemic by now. For two years, Canadians have done their part. It is now time for the current federal government to hold up its end of the bargain and lift all federal vaccine mandates in Canada. I will be supporting this motion, and I hope my parliamentary colleagues will do so as well.

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Ms. Laurel Collins (Victoria, NDP)

Mar/24/22 4:12:09 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to follow up on a question from my colleague for Courtenay—Alberni, because the Conservative member he asked did not answer the question. I am curious if this member will answer. Do the Conservatives support the TRIPS waiver? Do they support temporarily waiving intellectual property rights, so that low-income countries can produce their own vaccines and we can protect the whole world?

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Mr. Tony Baldinelli

Mar/24/22 4:12:33 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, what should be disturbing to this new NDP-Liberal coalition government is the funding that is required through the COVAX program. The federal government should be ashamed that it actually took money and vaccines from that program that should be going to those countries that need it most, so that they can get vaccinated, so that we can provide assistance to them and so that we can avoid situations with continued growth of variants that continue to emerge throughout the world.

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Ms. Christine Normandin (Saint-Jean, BQ)

Mar/24/22 4:13:10 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I remember that on February 10, we were debating a Conservative motion calling for a plan to lift the public health measures. Every Conservative who spoke told us they wanted all public health measures lifted. Here we have a proposal to lift all public health measures, but they are telling us that there has to be a plan. Could someone please clarify?

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Mr. Tony Baldinelli

Mar/24/22 4:13:43 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we have asked consistently. Last year, we had a motion before the House asking for a plan to be put forward to end the restrictions and the mandates. We have done so again, and we continue to be told no by the government and its supporters in its coalition. We need a plan to get out of COVID. The people of Niagara Falls, those tourism workers, simply want to go back to work. They want to get back to their jobs. They want to welcome those millions of visitors who come to our community and make it the vibrant tourism community that it is. That is being denied by COVID, and we need to get back to those days.

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Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Mar/24/22 4:14:29 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, to my hon. colleague for Niagara Falls, we have a lot in common. Both of our ridings are really beautiful and both rely on a lot of tourists. I am going to go back to the question from the hon. member for Victoria and the hon. member for Courtenay—Alberni. It is not because I do not think that the hon. members have not answered this, but perhaps it was not clear enough. Many of us on the opposition benches, and I hope Conservatives will join us, are pressing the Liberal government to do an obvious thing that so far it has refused to do. We have asked the government to do it for two years. Under the World Trade Organization, there is something called trade-related intellectual property rights. These protect the rights of big pharma to protect its vaccines. What we are asking is that Canada join with South Africa and India and use an exemption that is already in the treaty. It says that in an emergency, when we need to produce vaccines or drugs of some kind in other countries, we can get a waiver so that big pharma does not control all the intellectual property and vaccines can be produced in the developing world. Speaking for himself, does the hon. member for Niagara Falls agree that is a good idea?

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Mr. Tony Baldinelli

Mar/24/22 4:15:37 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to say the member's riding is just as wonderful and beautiful as mine from a tourism perspective, but mine is the number one tourism destination in all of Canada. Let us not forget that. I would like to reiterate that the government has taken vaccines from that COVAX program, and that is something that is abhorrent. What we need to be doing is supporting those countries in order to prevent variants from coming forward again, so people can get vaccinated and so we can prevent the spread of COVID-19. What the government did was deny that from happening. That is my response to that question.

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

Mar/24/22 4:16:24 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, in the motion, the Conservative Party is saying it wants to stop the mandates completely, as in it would have no mandates effective today. Can the member tell the House whether he believes that the political science the Conservative Party is using by making that statement is right and fair in terms of the health and well-being of Canadians?

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Mr. Tony Baldinelli

Mar/24/22 4:16:57 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will just reiterate the comments of Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. Tam. On February 18, she said, “We should be able to manage the pandemic going into the future without, I think, some of the more stringent or restrictive public health measures.”

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Mr. Francis Scarpaleggia (Lac-Saint-Louis, Lib.)

Mar/24/22 4:17:18 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will share my time with the member for London North Centre. There is no overstating the fact that the past two years have not been easy. As individuals and as a society, we are all worn out. The pandemic truly was a tragedy, and it had many and varied impacts on all aspects of society. Businesses had to close their doors either temporarily or, in some cases, permanently because they went bankrupt. Seniors were affected. In some residences, the death rate was utterly unacceptable. Some residents could not leave their rooms for weeks. They were totally isolated. We also know the pandemic had a terrible impact on everyone's mental health, especially those in isolation, such as seniors who had to stay in their rooms, as well as frontline workers who were so brave and did such amazing work to keep us safe. It also harmed young people, students who could not get the kind of educational experience they normally would. Basically, it was very hard for everyone. The fact is that Canada chose a more careful approach. We were much more careful than many other countries. That is why we had a lower mortality rate than many other countries, including our neighbour to the south. Our mortality rate was roughly one-third of that in the United States. I think we should be proud of that. The Minister of Health has repeated many times that if the vaccination rate in the United States had been the same as in Canada, they would have saved 135,000 lives. That is a lot. We do not think about that so much these days. We no longer think about the lives that were saved. We only think about making life a bit easier by lifting all sorts of restrictions and mandates, even though we have lifted many so far and life has returned more or less to normal. Our success in saving lives is a result of the wisdom and sacrifices of Canadians who have shown exemplary solidarity by following the health rules. It is also the result of the leadership shown by the federal and provincial governments. That leadership was crucial. In this crisis, the governments had to lead by example by working together. In other words, the governments were able to get on the same page. The same cannot be said for the United States, where each state followed its own course. Sometimes the states worked against the current. In Florida, they wanted nothing to do with masks or vaccines. I even heard that in Florida, if someone went into a restaurant wearing a mask, they were kicked out for scaring the customers. California's approach, however, was similar to Canada's and the governor was nearly thrown out of office. In a crisis, we cannot underestimate the vital importance of Canadians maintaining faith in their institutions. That is when it is most important for citizens to have faith in their institutions. Institutions, in order to keep that faith, have to be consistent. They have to be judicious in the decisions that they are making. Any signs of inconsistency or arbitrariness can be fatal in terms of creating a loss of faith and confidence on the part of the people. If that happens, then no one is going to follow anything the government is suggesting. If that had happened in Canada, we would have had many more deaths than we experienced. It is important also for governments to show leadership. That is why we have a vaccination mandate for federal employees. We are showing leadership. We got the support of the Canadian people to do that in an election where the Canadian people gave the Government of Canada a mandate to show the example across the country. That was very important in terms of saving lives and helping us to get out of the worst of the crisis sooner rather than later. Canadians responded to the leadership that their governments showed. They obliged and the proof is in the fact that as of March 13, if we are looking at people five years old and older, 85% of the population has been fully vaccinated. If we look at the age group 18 and over, 56% have been fully vaccinated plus have obtained a booster. An hon. member: One of the best in the world. Mr. Francis Scarpaleggia: Yes. Why is it important for the most people possible to be vaccinated? As André Picard said in The Globe and Mail, the pandemic playing field is not level. What did Mr. Picard mean by that? An 85-year-old is 340 times more likely to die from COVID than a 20-year-old. A 75-year-old is 140 times more likely to die from COVID than a 20-year-old. A 65-year-old is 65 times more likely. André Picard is an expert in public health. His columns are consistently dealing with that issue. To quote him in The Globe and Mail recently, he wrote, “Now, by abandoning all mitigation measures at once...we’re shifting the pandemic burden entirely [to older Canadians] onto the immunocompromised, the unboosted”. That is very important to keep in mind. When we argue that we should just drop everything, we are doing harm to the most vulnerable in our society. The other point I would like to make is that all pandemic-related decisions are extremely complex. Not only are they a function of many factors, but these factors are dynamic and constantly changing. The Minister of Health mentioned some of these factors in question period in his wonderful responses to the questions he received. Here are some of the factors that public health has to consider and the government has to consider when deciding when to remove restrictions: the vaccination rate, hospital capacity, domestic epidemiology, international epidemiology and social impacts. This is a very long list of complicated factors that have to be looked at. We are making comparisons that are a little too facile. We say that if the provinces do this then the federal government should do this. This seems to be the rhetoric that is coming from the other side, creating this kind of equivalency that is confusing if one is not listening closely. However, it is important to distinguish between the federal and provincial contexts. Federal measures focus on international transmissions. Provincial restrictions do not. There is a big difference between a crowded conveyance like an airplane or a train and movie theatres, gyms, shopping malls, grocery stores and the like. We have to use our wisdom to make distinctions that are important, especially in times of crisis. I will conclude by quoting Mr. Picard one more time. He says, “We should not, after two years of solid effort and no small amount of sacrifice, be so foolish as to abandon prevention.” We must remain vigilant, responsible and wise.

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Mr. Todd Doherty (Cariboo—Prince George, CPC)

Mar/24/22 4:27:18 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the situation in Ukraine has deteriorated by the hour. NATO's refusal to provide a safe humanitarian no-fly zone has weighed heavily on me and my constituents. The news is inundated with images of young women and children at border crossings in Poland as they flee the tyranny of Herr Putin. The Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship has issued a class-based national interest exemption to allow unvaccinated Ukrainians to enter Canada, and I commend him highly for this. However, does it not seem hypocritical in light of the debate we are having here today? Would it not make more sense to listen to the science and end the mandates so that everyone could travel freely?

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Mr. Francis Scarpaleggia

Mar/24/22 4:28:06 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, again, the opposition is simplifying things. There are very few absolutes in anything, whether it be environmental protection or public health. We work with a risk management approach. That is what governments have been doing all along. We cannot just have blanket statements or blanket policies that overlook certain exceptions that have merit. I am sure that for anyone coming over here from the crisis overseas, there will be public health officers helping them along the way. I do not think we can just paint everything with one brush. We have to be a little more nuanced than that.

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Ms. Andréanne Larouche (Shefford, BQ)

Mar/24/22 4:28:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, in my riding, Shefford, I attend the meetings of an economic and strategic watch committee established by the Haute-Yamaska RCM that brings together players from the economic and tourism sectors, as well as municipal elected officials and Quebec MNAs. Everyone agrees on one thing. We need predictability to keep many sectors of our economy going, including tourism, which is so important to the riding of Shefford. It is therefore a cautious yes, as Quebec and the other provinces are saying. The federal government, however, has no timeline and no predictability when it comes to reopening measures, even though that would help us plan for next steps and ensure a better recovery. It is important that the federal government act within a specific timeframe to be able to clarify all this.

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