SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 315 - May/22/24

Right Hon. Justin Trudeau (Prime Minister, Lib.)

May/22/24 2:26:33 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, it would be slightly more credible to hear the Conservatives concern about the challenges Canadians are facing if they had not stood and voted against more spaces in child care and voted against our dental care program, which two million seniors have signed up for and has now delivered close to 100,000 dental appointments for seniors in just 22 days. They have also stood against our school food program that is going to help 400,000 more kids across the country have full bellies as they start their school day. These are investments that they are opposed to and that we are there to help Canadians with.

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Context: House Hansard - 315 - May/22/24

Right Hon. Justin Trudeau (Prime Minister, Lib.)

May/22/24 2:29:21 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, here is a perfect example of where the Conservatives stand. They stood and voted against our dental care for seniors program. As of today, over two million seniors have signed up, and in the 22 days since May 1, close to 100,000 seniors have gotten free dental care. That is in just 22 days on a program that he voted against and campaigned against across the country over the past number of months. We will be there to invest in supporting Canadians with a national school food program, with dental care and with more child care spaces, despite him voting against them.

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Context: House Hansard - 315 - May/22/24

Right Hon. Justin Trudeau (Prime Minister, Lib.)

May/22/24 2:53:05 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, while the Conservative leader likes to go around saying Canada is broken, we choose instead to invest in Canadians, invest in supporting food banks, invest in community organizations that are on the front lines supporting vulnerable Canadians and invest in the kinds of programs that are lifting Canadians up, like the two million vulnerable seniors who are now accessing health care and dental care for the first time. One hundred thousand people in just 22 days got dental care despite the Conservative Party, which has consistently voted against it and, indeed, tried to block it both in this House and across the country. We will continue to be there for Canadians.

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Context: House Hansard - 315 - May/22/24

Mr. Richard Cannings (South Okanagan—West Kootenay, NDP)

May/22/24 5:15:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the minister about concerns that we share with him about all the blockages the Conservatives have been putting up on bills like dental care that would help Canadians across the country. They seem to think that they deserve dental care here as MPs, yet needy families in the rest of Canada should not have dental care. They believe that we should not have single-payer pharmacare that would save us billions of dollars a year. Canadians seem to think the Conservatives are good on the economy, but the Conservatives have no concept that this measure to create a single-payer pharmacare plan that would include coverage for contraceptives, as well as the dental care plan and all the other things that we talked about, would save us money. I am just wondering if the minister could comment on that.

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Context: House Hansard - 315 - May/22/24

Hon. Arif Virani

May/22/24 5:16:53 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I think the fiscal case for proceeding in this manner is quite remarkably already laid out in studies, such as the one at UBC that I cited, and studies that we have seen in other areas with respect to diabetes. If there was no need for these kinds of services, I would query the Conservatives why 1.9 million seniors in this country registered for the Canada dental benefit, if no actual need existed. I would put to the Conservatives, also, that if there was no need for extending that coverage on dental care, why we have already had 100,000 appointments set up, in literally the first three weeks of the program. It expresses to me, on a simplistic analysis, that the need is acute. We are addressing the need with the program. Does it cost money? It absolutely costs money. However, that is an investment on the front end that cures costs to the system on the back end, which is something that a traditional red Tory would normally get behind.

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Context: House Hansard - 315 - May/22/24

Ms. Heather McPherson

May/22/24 11:08:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I should not have said that. The information that he was sharing with us was maybe not as accurate as it could have been, and I definitely would retract the idea that he meant to do that. I am sure it was a failure of understanding on his part. Could he talk about why dental care is important to the seniors in his constituency, why he thinks that we do not all deserve dental care and why we should not all have access to those services?

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Context: House Hansard - 315 - May/22/24

Mr. Frank Caputo

May/22/24 11:08:39 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to fund so many different things. I do not know if my colleague heard what I spoke about right at the beginning, perhaps she came in late, with respect to receiving the information from my dentist that this is not as advertised. This is something that, in my view, is completely and overly bureaucratic and does not accomplish what it sets out to do. It would be wonderful if this program did what it actually said it did. The member wants to have this laudable point and contribute to dental care, yet consistently votes with a government that has doubled the debt and now Canadians are lined up at the food banks. I am not sure how she can reconcile that with the point of view that the NDP is fighting for the working class and the poor.

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