SoVote

Hon. Dominic LeBlanc (Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities, Lib.)

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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Context: House Hansard - 142 - Dec/6/22

Mr. Kevin Waugh

Dec/6/22 4:51:22 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-32

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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All Topics

Context: House Hansard - 142 - Dec/6/22

Mr. Adam van Koeverden (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health and to the Minister of Sport, Lib.)

Dec/6/22 7:23:03 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for the opportunity to discuss this very important issue. The impacts of the health worker shortage are reverberating across all areas of the health system, but they are particularly clear right now in our hospitals. It gets harder to watch as children are affected. Understaffed emergency rooms have led to long wait times and even closures. Our government is working with the provincial and territorial governments and key health sector stakeholders to find both immediate and long-term solutions to the health care worker shortage. Health Canada convened a stakeholder symposium this spring to better understand the challenges facing the health workforce, and we are currently engaging with stakeholders to refine and align solutions. I would also point out that over the last six months, the prime focus of the health committee, on which I serve, has been the human resources in health care crisis. We have been studying how to remediate this challenge, and literally nothing is off the table. Rural communities, like the one my colleague serves in, require unique solutions to their health care challenges. That is why the government is providing $26.2 million in funding to increase the forgivable amount of student loans for doctors and nurses who would like to practise in rural and remote communities. We have also committed $115 million over five years, with $30 million ongoing, to expand the foreign credential recognition program, which will help 11,000 internationally trained health care professionals per year get their credentials recognized and find work in their field. My colleague opposite raised the point that we are not doing anything to help people enter the health care sector. She says we are not doing enough to attract people with foreign credentials and qualifications. We are investing and hundreds of millions of dollars in these areas. It is a prime area of focus. There is still much work to be done, and our government will continue to work with the provinces and territories. We are committed to working with provinces, territories and experts to find ways to recruit new health care workers and improve working conditions to retain and make better use of our existing health workers. I look forward to working with my colleagues, the provinces and the territories in the weeks and months ahead to improve the funding and delivery of health care services.

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Context: House Hansard - 142 - Dec/6/22

Mr. Adam van Koeverden

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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