44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 6, 2022 10:00AM
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her speech. I would like to ask her a question.
There is not much in this bill about health and health care funding. Could the member comment on that?
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Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to. I thank my colleague from Sarnia—Lambton for her question. I would like to mention an anecdote that comes to mind whenever I hear the term “health transfers”.
Mr. Chrétien, the former prime minister, once said that cutting health transfers was really good because he got to keep something in his pocket and the government that would get blamed was the one that had jurisdiction over health care, meaning Quebec.
In other words, he got to keep the cash, and the problem stayed in Quebec and the other provinces, which had to make up the difference because the needs were still there. People did not stop getting cancer just because Chrétien decided to cut health transfers.
That is one of the first comments I would make. We should get the monkey off our back and put it back where it belongs, on the government's back.
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- Dec/6/22 2:30:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, doctors, nurses and health care workers are sharing horror stories about what is happening in our health care system. This is a crisis, that much is clear. We have children who are getting sick and cannot access health care services. This Prime Minister lacks leadership.
When will this Prime Minister show some leadership and do what it takes to save our health care system?
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- Dec/6/22 2:31:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the leader of the NDP for his important question. We obviously share his concerns about the issues we are seeing in the public health care system across Canada. He talked about the difficulties in children's hospitals. The shortage of health care professionals is an important issue, and it is exactly what we are discussing with the premiers and the ministers of health.
We are really encouraged by these conversations. We are going to increase federal resources to ensure that these challenges end as soon as possible.
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- Dec/6/22 2:40:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, with all due respect, as my hon. colleague is well aware, to say that we are not prepared to increase health transfers is not true. We have been very clear. We will work with the provinces to increase federal transfers to the provinces, which are responsible for managing their health care systems. We recognize that.
We are simply asking to have a transparent discussion with the provinces to ensure that, together, we get results for patients and families in Quebec and Canada.
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- Dec/6/22 2:41:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that “transparent discussion” is code for standards. We will say it again. What the health system needs is not standards; it needs Ottawa to contribute its share.
Quite frankly, no one believes that there are no standards in the Quebec health care system. The federal government's pretentious and dismissive attitude toward the provinces, saying that it will show them how to do things, is no longer acceptable to anyone. What the health care system needs from Ottawa is money, not condescension.
When will the government increase health transfers?
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- Dec/6/22 2:45:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we, as a Parliament, approved an approach that was attestation based with a rigorous postpayment verification.
As a result of that approach, Canadians were able to put food on their tables. Canadians remained attached to their jobs. We positioned our economy well to come roaring back at the end of the pandemic. It has, and 117% of the jobs have been recovered. Our public health outcomes are the envy of the world.
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- Dec/6/22 2:47:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we share the frustrations and concerns of parents across Ontario with the wait times at hospitals, particularly for kids. It has been a really challenging flu, RSV and COVID season, with all of those piling up. We recognize it has been extraordinarily challenging for health care workers as well. We believe, on this side of the House, that all someone should need to get health care in Canada is their health card, not their credit card, so we will always stand up for our public system. Canadians are proud of our system. It is one based on need, not on ability to pay.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his speech.
Earlier the member for Winnipeg North praised the government's actions in the area of health transfers with all kinds of conditions. Health care systems in Quebec and the provinces are in a critical state. Now is not the time to dither and try to set standards with absolutely no knowledge of exactly what they entail.
My colleague did not seem to respond as nervously as I did on this issue. I would like to hear his comments on this.
Why is the federal government so determined to impose standards for health transfers? Does my colleague agree that there should be no standards and that health transfers should be increased, as the provinces and Quebec have unanimously called for?
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Madam Speaker, I am sorry that I did not answer the question about health care.
Health care squarely belongs in the realm of the provinces especially, but the key for the federal government to keep our country together is to work with the provinces, respect their power and work as a team. as a country, and not to divide us and take us in different directions. It needs to work as a true leader. A Conservative government will do that.
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Madam Speaker, yes, health care is essential in this country, but we have seen, coming out of the pandemic, that there is excruciating pain in every hospital in this country. The pandemic was not easy for every hospital in every province in this country.
We are fighting the shortage of doctors and nurses. It would be nice if we could take out of the air an extra hundred doctors and put them in the city Saskatoon, but that is not possible. We will see where it is going to go. It is an interesting time, as we are coming out of the pandemic. With the Liberals' spending, it is going to be tougher to get out of it because of the interest rates that we are going to see in the next little while.
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Madam Speaker, the hon. member for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke has asked this very good question many times throughout her long tenure as a member of Parliament.
It is a very important one because when we are spending $27 billion and more, growing to $30 billion, $40 billion over the course of a number of years, on interest on the debt, we are not spending that money on health care, education and the things that matter.
My mom is a retired nurse. She worked in the health care system in Hamilton, Ontario, and saw that first-hand. My dad just went through chemotherapy. I know all Canadians who have gone through health issues understand this. We value our health care system, so rather than spending $27 billion on interest, let us spend more on health care. Absolutely, that makes a lot of sense.
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Madam Speaker, I understand where the hon. member is coming from given that this was a disappointing fall economic statement.
The member cited health care. We have seen no meaningful commitments from the government when it comes to health care. Indeed, thanks to the government's reckless spending, debt servicing costs will soon outpace and be a larger amount than what is allocated to the Canada health transfer annually.
Quite frankly, there would be more money for health care if the government would rein in its wasteful, reckless spending.
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Madam Speaker, I congratulate my hon. colleague from Beauce on his speech. I respect the member a great deal and hold him in high regard.
We are actually on the same wavelength on several issues that he raised in his speech.
Towards the end of his speech, he addressed the issue of Bill C-21, which is currently being studied and has many people talking. Hunters are very worried about it. I was a little disappointed to hear him getting into semi-false information about the list of prohibited weapons allegedly directly affecting hunters' rights. That is not entirely true. It is true that we have work to do on Bill C‑21, which is far from perfect. The bill is actually a bit sloppy in some respects. However, I wish everyone would stick to the facts.
I wonder if my colleague could comment on the health care situation. In Beauce, like everywhere else in Quebec, the health care system is sorely strained. I would like to hear what he has to say about the government's management and the issue of increased health transfers, which the provinces and Quebec have long been calling for.
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- Dec/6/22 7:18:59 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as always I am honoured to be here in this place and talk on behalf of the constituents of North Island—Powell River. I am really sad to be here today. I never thought I would be sharing concerns with the House of Commons that constituents of mine are now afraid because of the total lack of health care.
The federal government has paid less and less into health care transfers, and provinces and territories are struggling. We knew, and it has been talked about in this country for a very long time, that we had an increasing population of people who are aging and that there are challenges in recruiting and retaining health care providers, and we still have not seen any meaningful action from the government.
I have spoken about this issue before in the House, and I will continue to do so. We are in a significant crisis. People in my riding are paying the price of that crisis. I receive emails and calls daily from remote communities in my riding, like Port Hardy, Port McNeill and Alert Bay, especially because their emergency rooms are being closed far too often.
All night long, emergency rooms are closed. That means if anyone has any serious health issue, they have to travel quite a distance to get somewhere that can help them. People who live in Alert Bay are on an island, so that is even more problematic.
Just last week, a constituent with serious health issues got themselves to the Port Hardy hospital. They arrived and, upon arrival, found out that the emergency room was closed. They collapsed. An ambulance was called, and they had to be taken to another community to be served.
Closures of emergency rooms are directly linked in our riding to a lack of staff. They are tired; they are burnt out, and they are leaving. The federal government must stand with its provincial counterparts to support strategies to both attract and retain health care professionals across Canada's rural communities. It is not sustainable, what is happening right now, and it is not safe.
Constituents are sharing stories of having to travel a long distance to get basic care. This cannot continue. Recently, an article came out about rural communities and pregnant people having to travel a long distance to get the services they need. When they do so, the pregnant person is paying out of pocket for a place to live and something to eat. Often, they are left alone, because their spouse or partner is back home looking after children or working, doing the things they need to do to sustain the family.
Someone who shared their story was from Port McNeill. Her name is Darci. She told a terrible story of being left alone and missing her partner, who was doing everything he could to support her. Finally, she gave birth to their child without her partner.
This issue is long-standing, but we are seeing it across the board, an increasing closure of so many services. For example, in Campbell River, the hospital lab is closed many days due to a severe shortage of staff. This means outpatients are arriving and finding it closed, and we know that overworked staff and exhausted lab staff are ready to leave and are looking for other opportunities.
We also know that doctors, nurses and health care professionals across the board are exhausted, tired and wanting to leave. We do not have a meaningful attraction strategy to bring newcomers and other folks from across Canada to be in our communities.
I want to thank the Citizens for Quality Health Care and other health care advocates from north Vancouver Island and Powell River, who have been warning about this for over three years, since before the pandemic. This is serious, and it needs to be addressed.
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- Dec/6/22 7:26:29 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for raising this very important issue.
Rural areas are indeed facing an unacceptable shortage of health workers. Our government will continue working on addressing the shortage as well as improving health care in rural areas generally. The needs of Canadians in rural and remote areas are foremost in our minds, and we will work with provinces and territories in the coming weeks and months to improve our health care system.
However, we must not cherry-pick from the list of things that I mentioned tonight. We are creating solutions across the board in staffing, in health care transfers, for the pipeline and for education. No stone has been left unturned.
Our health system needs further investment. We also want to make sure that our tax dollars are being spent in the most effective way possible. Throwing more money into a broken system is not the best path forward, and we can improve the way that we deliver health care to eliminate inefficiencies and get better health outcomes for all Canadians.
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