44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 16, 2023 10:00AM
- Feb/16/23 11:58:59 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I agree on the progressive policies in Quebec. I have said many times in the House that I benefited from the very first $5-a-day child care when I lived in Quebec in 1998, but I also want to point to when I had my second child in Quebec in 2003. At that point in time, C. difficile was in the hospitals. I did not get a meal delivered to my room because there was not enough staff. I needed to rely on my spouse to ensure I was fed during the two days I was in the hospital.
When we look at the long-term care outcomes and the deaths through COVID in Quebec, these are the realities about which we are talking. This is about a lack of staff, a lack of funding to have adequate staff, and reliance on the free market is no way to fix these problems.
Does the Bloc agree that we need to have an all-hands-on-deck fight to ensure we have the human resources in the health care system across our country?
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- Feb/16/23 3:06:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our top priority is ensuring that air crew meet all necessary medical requirements so they can do their jobs safely. There have been delays beyond our service standard, due to the unprecedented circumstances of COVID-19, that have impacted the global air sector.
Transport Canada has put in place changes to the processing and assessment of files to improve the efficiency of the review process. Transport Canada is in the process of hiring additional staff to speed up the processing of medical certificates.
We are on the job. The Conservatives want to forget about COVID—
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- Feb/16/23 3:08:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, COVID-19 has had a massive impact on the air sector, and our government has been there to support the workers and Canadians.
Yes, there have been several disruptions. The government is on top of this. I have been speaking to Transport Canada on hiring more resources. We are fixing this issue.
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- Feb/16/23 3:27:52 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I wish my colleagues a good afternoon.
I am very pleased to rise in the House today to speak on the recently proposed offer to provinces and territories regarding the federal investments in our health care system, an offer that I am pleased to say provincial and territorial premiers signalled their agreement to work on this plan on February 13.
I think that is good news, and I want to point it out. It is good news for all Canadians. It is good news for Canadians in London West.
Canadians value our universal public health system, but the COVID-19 pandemic has put it under enormous strain. Across the country, Canadians struggle to find a family doctor or to access urgent care when they need it the most.
Canada's health care workers, who have been at the forefront of fighting COVID-19 for nearly three years now, continue to provide care under extremely challenging circumstances. I want to take this opportunity to thank them for their courage, compassion and the enormous dedication they bring to the work they do every single day. We owe it to them and to all Canadians to take the necessary steps to ensure that our health care system is more efficient and resilient now and into the future.
I had the pleasure of having a beautiful conversation with someone in my riding who came to talk to me about the health care system and its state right now. He told me how 20-some years ago his family moved to Canada because of our health care system. He impressed upon me how important it was for us to continue to put the safeguards in that were necessary to ensure that provinces and territories were abiding to the Canada Health Act.
The federal government has to and will continue to work with provinces and territories in the best interest of all Canadians, their families and the health workers to deliver concrete results and improvements to the health care system.
On February 7, the Prime Minister and his provincial and territorial counterparts met to work together on improving Canada's health care system.
They discussed shared health priorities to deliver real results for all Canadians. They also discussed the importance of upholding the Canada Health Act to protect Canada's publicly funded health care system, which is important to all Canadians.
This act ensures that Canadians have equitable access to medical care based on their needs, not their ability to pay.
The federal government will increase health funding to provinces and territories by $196 billion over 10 years. In addition, it will invest $2.5 billion over 10 years in complementary federal support, for a total of $198.6 billion over 10 years. This includes new funding in the amount of $49 billion over 10 years, $46 billion of which will be transferred directly to the provinces and territories. This funding will be distributed through the Canada health transfer, tailor-made bilateral agreements with provinces and territories, an Indigenous health equity fund and complementary federal support.
We offered provinces and territories $25 billion over 10 years to advance shared health priorities through tailored bilateral agreements that would support the unique needs of people in each province and territory.
At the working meeting with the premiers, we also outlined four key shared health priorities.
The first is for Canadians to get rapid access to a family medicine practitioner or team, including in rural and remote areas. Family medicine teams and virtual care will play a key role in ensuring that all Canadians have timely access to quality care in their community.
Second, is the support for health care workers to provide Canadians with timely access to the quality, effective and safe health care they need. We need to retain, recruit and train new health workers, recognize credentials of internationally educated health professionals and leverage new models of care and digital tools to better support health workers. This is really important in London West as many supporters have talked about how we need to continue to leverage the credentials of foreigners.
We want to make real progress with provinces and territories to improve the labour mobility of health professionals, starting with multi-jurisdictional credential recognition.
The third is improved access to timely, equitable and quality mental health and substance use services.
Mental health is very important to all Canadians, and it is important that we make investments that will make a difference across the country.
This morning, I had the opportunity to make an announcement with the Minister of Mental Health. I also had the opportunity to have a conversation with someone who was working on the front line of supporting young people in mental health.
In hearing the stories of how they are adapting to support trauma-informed practices that help young people get the supports they need is mental health, it is important to recognize that more than ever Canadians need mental health supports. This goes for workers too. We need to ensure there are resources for the providers as well.
The fourth is a modernized health system that is essentially supported by data and digital technologies. Data and being able to securely share this data across the country with providers and systems will be critical to saving lives and improving our health care system across the country.
We will continue to help Canadians age with dignity closer to home thanks to better access to home care or care in a safe long-term care facility. We have already announced investments to advance this priority.
The new funding announcement made on February 7 also includes an additional $1.7 billion over five years to support wage increases for personal support workers and related professionals. I have heard that this is really needed, and many people in my riding have spoken to me about this.
The plan offers flexibility for provinces and territories to respond to their unique needs and priorities. A key feature of this plan is also recognizing that data is integral to well-functioning, modern health care systems. Improved data and digital health can empower patients and enable clinicians to provide safer and better care.
Right now, only one-third of Canadians can access some of their health data online. That is unacceptable. We have to keep working on this.
We are prepared to measure and report annual progress on the common indicators with disaggregated data and we have asked provinces and territories to do the same as part of their data commitment. Reporting to Canadians will promote greater transparency on results. I want to emphasize this data sharing will respect provincial, territorial and federal privacy legislation to protect Canadians' privacy and benefit their care.
We recognize the importance of disaggregated data in making decisions that fit the unique needs of each community.
It is a pleasure for me to be in the House and to see this happen, as we continue to have these conversations around health care systems with the provinces. Our constituents continue to talk about this. We want to ensure that we are doing the right thing, that we are protecting our health care system and that it is not based on how much money one makes but based on having a health care card.
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- Feb/16/23 4:12:57 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, before I start, I would like to say that I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Kingston and the Islands.
I am pleased to rise today to discuss the shortage of health workers in Canada and the actions the government is taking to address the issue.
First and foremost, our government supports our national health care system, which is central to Canadian identity.
It is my privilege to recognize the extraordinary contribution and sacrifice that health care workers in Canada make every day to provide Canadians with the health care services they need.
I would like to begin by thanking to all health care workers in particular.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown what we can achieve when all levels of government work together alongside regulators, educators, health care providers and their representatives. We worked together across jurisdictional boundaries and professional designations to provide care to all Canadians and address the needs of our most vulnerable.
The state of our health care workforce has been described as a crisis, but with crisis comes opportunity. We can take a critical look at systemic shortcomings and make the kinds of transformational changes required to rebuild our health care system into the world-class system it once was.
Health care workers are the backbone of an efficient and sustainable health system. It is imperative that we take action to create safe, supportive and adequately resourced health care working environments that support the retention of existing workers and make health care an attractive career choice for professional support workers, nurses, nurse practitioners, physicians' assistants, nurses, doctors and all others who work in this system.
Our health care workers are at the core of our plan to support our public health care system. Just last week, I met with members of the Canadian Labour Congress in my office, three of whom were personal support workers from my area. They are passionate about their work and about the Canadians they serve. I shared with them the fact that my first job was as a personal support worker at a seniors home where my mother worked as a nurse. I understand the importance of the work they do first-hand and how much older Canadians and others who need assistance to get through their daily routines appreciate these hard-working individuals.
I am so proud that as part of the recent health care announcement, $1.7 billion has been allocated to provinces so they can increase payments for these personal support care workers. They deserve more than just our praise. They deserve an increase so they have livable wages. The SEIU, which represents many health care workers, said, when we put forward this announcement, that the “federal commitment of $1.7B for personal support workers and care workers like them who support our vulnerable loved ones...marks a giant step towards achieving the promise of $25 for all [personal support workers] across Canada.”
I would like to talk about nurses as well. I mentioned that my mother was a nurse. It was her career and she was very proud of it. They play a critical role in delivering health care services, shaping our health system, improving patient experiences of care and population health, and reducing the per capita cost of health care. This goes for our personal support workers as well.
Supporting these workers in our health care system and ensuring they can do their job properly means that our health care professionals can do a lot more and we can do a lot more with less. From the emergency room to the ICU, from vaccination clinics to public health units and from long-term care to mental health services, nurses and nurse practitioners provide dedicated care.
We know from several studies and surveys that there is a high vacancy rate because nurses are burned out. They are leaving their jobs or seeking to leave them. The pandemic has really made a dent in our nursing staff, our capability and the number of people who work in this profession.
We recognize the critical role they play, so in August 2022, we reinstated the role of federal chief nursing officer with the appointment of Dr. Chapman. This office is working to advance and champion initiatives that are priorities among the collective nursing community, including harmonized, efficient and safe approaches to integrate internationally educated nurses into the workforce.
We need all of the health care workers in Canada who have been educated around the globe to help deliver the services that Canadians so desperately need. The implementation of multi-jurisdictional registration will improve the mobility of nurses across Canada as well. The chief nursing officer supports the improvement of pan-Canadian nursing data to facilitate comprehensive workforce planning and evidence-based health care policy development.
Let me talk for a minute about mental health. Providing mental health services to our health care workers is incredibly important, not just for them but for all Canadians. We know that mental health is health. There is no differentiation. We have made a commitment, and as part of the ongoing negotiations, mental health services are going to be increasing.
I was proud to see that the Southlake Regional Health Centre has had a new facility built. Arden Krystal, the CEO, has done an amazing job. It is good to see that the funding this federal government is providing will allow provinces to deliver more and do more of what is in their jurisdiction. The CMHA is also in my riding. Rebecca Shields, the executive director, is doing amazing work. We are hoping to have one of the first mental health hubs in York Region.
We need mental health support for all Canadians to be provided in a way that allows them to get the help they need when they need it. We also need to provide this help to our health care professionals, who are right now suffering from burnout and whose help we desperately need. This is critical for the health care workforce around us that cares for us.
The Mental Health Commission of Canada has found that the ability of the health care workforce to undertake psychological self-care can reduce the moral distress that is leading to burnout. That is why we have invested $28.2 million in projects to address PTSD and trauma in frontline and essential workers. This is an investment in our health care workers and in the system.
We also collaborated with the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions on a Wellness Together Canada initiative to explore new, targeted mental health resources for health care workers. It provides a dedicated text line for frontline workers and provides immediate access to supports. In addition, frontline workers can access free counselling and a range of self-guided programming on the portal at any time, at their convenience. As we know, for health care workers who constantly work shifts, having immediate access to online platforms is so important.
I would also like to talk about collaboration. The provision of health care in Canada is complex. As everyone in this House knows, federal, provincial and territorial governments, as well as regulators, educators and professional associations, all have key roles to play. No one player can address this crisis alone. We have to work together, and we are doing that. We respect that health care is a provincial jurisdiction, but we also know it is our role to convene and to provide leadership and funding.
On November 1, 2022, the Government of Canada established a coalition for action for health workers. The coalition is composed of representatives from key groups, including nurses, doctors, personal support workers, colleges, universities, patients and equity-seeking communities. It is focused on identifying approaches to drive pan-Canadian action and progress on policy implementation informed by real-world perspectives, the perspectives of all of the parties who have come together to discuss these important issues. Provincial and territorial governments are at the forefront of health care, responsible for designing, implementing and managing their jurisdictional public health care programs, while we, as I said, provide leadership, convene governments and other stakeholders and provide funding support to the PTs.
On February 7, 2023, the Prime Minister met with premiers to discuss the actions needed to improve the health care system while adapting to the changing needs of Canadians. They also discussed shared health priorities to deliver results for Canadians and the importance of upholding the Canada Health Act to protect Canada's publicly funded health care system.
The investment of almost $200 billion over the next 10 years will accelerate efforts already under way in the provinces and territories. As part of accessing this funding, provinces and territories are being asked to streamline foreign credential recognition for internationally educated health care professionals.
I see my time is up. There is so much more I could say, but I just want to say that we are working with all of our partners to ensure that the additional money we are committing will bring the results that Canadians need and deserve.
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