SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 320

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 29, 2024 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 320 - May/29/24
Hon. Ya'ara Saks (Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)
  • May/29/24 8:05:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think we all agree that hospitals should be a safe place where patients receive care.
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Context: House Hansard - 320 - May/29/24
Hon. Mark Holland
  • May/29/24 8:49:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have talked with Minister Hindley in Saskatchewan, and we had a conversation about the essential nature of public care. That is where we have to be, and I want to see that done through collaboration and co-operation. I think that is the best way to get there. It is going to be the continued approach, but the Canada Health Act is my responsibility, obviously, to enforce, and keeping care public is essential.
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Context: House Hansard - 320 - May/29/24
Mr. Peter Julian
  • May/29/24 8:50:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, with respect to long-term care standards, with seniors living in long-term care homes, there were horrible effects during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seniors died from negligence. Families lost loved ones before they could say goodbye. Can the minister inform the House when Canadians can expect to see mandatory standards for the quality of care in long-term care homes?
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Context: House Hansard - 320 - May/29/24
Hon. Mark Holland
  • May/29/24 8:50:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, obviously, what happened in long-term care facilities across the country was devastating coming out of the pandemic, and that is one of the reasons that in our supply and confidence agreement, we have an agreement to move forward with the safe long-term care act. I look forward to working in an expeditious manner with the member opposite to realize its fulfillment.
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Context: House Hansard - 320 - May/29/24
Mr. Peter Julian
  • May/29/24 8:55:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, first nations, Inuit and Métis people often do not have access to health care. As clinics in or near their communities are closed, folks in the far north are frequently required to fly south, often alone and often receiving health care in a language they may not understand. Can the minister explain why the government, including the Department of Indigenous Services, has not responded to the health care needs of indigenous peoples?
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Context: House Hansard - 320 - May/29/24
Mr. Peter Julian
  • May/29/24 8:57:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I look forward to the dental care update.
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Context: House Hansard - 320 - May/29/24
Hon. Ya'ara Saks
  • May/29/24 9:28:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is under provincial jurisdiction to provide treatment health care.
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Context: House Hansard - 320 - May/29/24
Hon. Mark Holland (Minister of Health, Lib.)
  • May/29/24 9:38:57 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to thank the member for St. Catharines for his work and for his advocacy, in and out of public life. It is tragic when we see folks, who have not received the dental care that they need, wind up in an emergency room or wind up with an urgent health care situation that could have been avoided. Two weeks ago, I was in rural New Brunswick talking to a dentist who said, “I know exactly who does not have coverage in my community. I know that, on some given Saturday, that person is going to wind up in an emergency room, and I am going to get a call to go in and give care urgently, pro bono, away from my family, to try to fix that situation, hoping that it is not grievous for that individual.” I think that the member is talking about a situation very similar in St. Catharines. Not allowing people to have dental care is not just a matter of dignity, of somebody having a proud smile that makes them feel good about who they are and gives them confidence to be out in the world. It is fundamentally an issue of prevention. People who do not get good oral health care wind up with bad health outcomes. They cost our health system an inordinate amount of money. That is why I am so encouraged. The member asked for an update, and I gave it to the House earlier. We have seen more than 120,000 claims and over 100,000 seniors in just over three weeks. We are seeing, as of July 8, a new portal. We already have 10,500-plus oral health professionals who have signed up to this plan. I think we are going to see a real growth in that number. We have seen two million seniors signed up. Next month, we are going to be opening it up to persons under 18 and folks with disability who are currently on a disability tax credit. It would mean that, by next year, everybody, all nine million Canadians who do not have oral health care, will have coverage. One may ask why this was not done at the start of our health care system. Well, at the beginning, when we were starting so many decades ago with a national health care system in this country, it was thought that oral health was just a matter of cosmetics and that it was not essential health. Of course, science and data have evolved. We know that a myriad of diseases, illness and conditions is caused by lack of oral health. Oral health is health, and that is why it is so essential that we continue to make progress to make sure that every Canadian is covered.
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Context: House Hansard - 320 - May/29/24
Hon. Ya'ara Saks (Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)
  • May/29/24 9:43:52 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to thank the member for sharing what he is seeing in his own community. We are seeing this in communities across the country, and it is so important we meet the moment. A war on drugs is what the Conservatives are purporting to be the answer, with forced treatment and saying they care for their loved ones, but they want to criminalize people. We need compassion. We need health care. We need a firm commitment to a comprehensive suite of tools that, yes, includes harm reduction. It is shameful to see there is such a lack of compassion on the other side of what it truly takes to invest in Canadians, to invest in families and to invest in communities to save lives in this overdose crisis. We have put a billion dollars on this side of the House toward saving lives, and we will not stop. We are meeting this moment with our provincial jurisdictions. We are meeting the moment with our communities, with harm reduction, with treatment, with prevention and with care. On this side of the House, we care about Canadians.
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Context: House Hansard - 320 - May/29/24
Hon. Ya'ara Saks
  • May/29/24 11:25:07 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the City of Toronto knows that it needs health care services from the province and that it needs to work collaboratively with all levels of government to save lives and address those people who use substances.
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