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House Hansard - 113

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 19, 2022 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 113 - Oct/19/22
Mr. Adam van Koeverden (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health and to the Minister of Sport, Lib.)
  • Oct/19/22 8:20:45 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, before I answer the question from the hon. colleague for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, I would like to talk for just a minute about adjournment debates. As a parliamentary secretary, I am happy to come into this place and discuss important issues, resolve questions that were not fully answered during debate or in question period and be accountable, but occasionally, and in this case I posit, the adjournment debates are abused. The correct question that was asked months ago was not provided beforehand, and that obviously can catch a parliamentary secretary off guard a little. I would love to prepare for these types of conversations that we have in the House of Commons. I would love to come to this place with answers. However, on June 1, 2022, the hon. member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes asked a question about vaccine mandates. For months and months, all of the members opposite on the Conservative side questioned the efficacy of vaccines, of vaccine mandates and of many of the public health restrictions that were put in place and saved countless Canadian lives. Some estimates say that without some of these public health restrictions, 800,000 Canadians could have perished from COVID-19, which is a high estimate. Tragically, 45,000 Canadians have perished from COVID-19, but still many people get COVID and suffer undue consequences, particularly if they are unvaccinated. Many are still dying. I find that many of the arguments in this House against vaccines, against the efficacy of public health measures, against mandatory vaccination in some cases and restrictions on our normal lives when there is a global pandemic that has killed millions of people around the world to be cheap. Supporting Canadians and keeping them healthy over the last couple of years has not been cheap, but the debate has sunk to a cheap level and I find that really disgusting. We have an obligation in this House to make prudent decisions, not always the most popular ones. It is the obligation of a responsible government to make decisions and choices that are going to keep people healthy and safe. I am proud of those decisions, even the ones that will continue to receive criticism, which is fine because that is why we are here, to receive criticism and to be accountable. I am happy to stand in this House and be accountable and discuss errors that were made in the last two years or so in trying to support Canadians and trying to make prudent decisions, not leading with the populist thing or bending to the will of people who arrive on Wellington Street with a manifesto to overthrow the government. We do not bring them coffee and doughnuts. We question their motives, and we say, “Hey, wait a second. If you want to have a civil conversation then do not arrive saying that we ought to all lose our jobs.” I agree that there are questions about the ArriveCAN app. There are questions that must be answered. There are questions that will be answered. However, I would ask my colleague, if he wants to have a conversation about these things in the House of Commons, to send the correct question to our office so that I can come prepared with facts, figures and commitments for the future on how we will address some of these accountability measures, because that is what I want to do here. The question asked six months ago was on the topic of vaccine mandates, and I am proud of those, because 45,000 dead Canadians is no trivial matter. It could, if we had the same outcomes as Spain or France, be 90,000 dead Canadians, and if we had the same death rate as our neighbours to the south or across the Atlantic in the U.K., it would be more like 125,000 or 135,000. Those 80,000 Canadian lives are priceless, and no dollar that we spent was a waste in saving those lives.
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