Hon. Stan Kutcher: Thank you for being here today, minister. The pandemic has laid bare the problem of inadequate health care surge capacity and insufficient numbers of health care providers across Canada. However, the pandemic only brought to the forefront what we’ve known for decades. Discussions about how to enhance human resources in health care have been under way since I was in medical school in the 1970s. There has been much chat but little effective action.

I have a three-part question. What specific plans are the federal government putting into place so that the chat-to-act gap will be rapidly closed? As part of this plan, would the federal government consider directly investing in post-secondary institutions to increase the numbers of graduates? Is there an action plan to improve the pathway to licensure for internationally trained health care providers?

Hon. Salma Ataullahjan: Minister, survey data from the Angus Reid Institute reveals that one in three Canadians is struggling with their mental health. Half say they feel fatigued, frustrated or anxious. In fact, 7% of Canadians say they are barely getting by, which is more than double the number measured since October 2020.

Minister, accessing mental health support appears to be a challenge as, according to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, one third of Canadians aged 15 or older seeking mental health care say those needs are not fully met. Only half of the Canadians experiencing a major depressive episode have received potentially adequate care.

Minister, how is the government planning to support Canadians now that we have entered a third year of the pandemic?

Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos, P.C., M.P., Minister of Health: Thank you, senator.

These are numbers, but as you say, these are also real people who have suffered not only from a physical perspective in most cases and an economic perspective in many cases, but from a mental health perspective in almost all cases.

Minister Bennett, the first Minister of Mental Health and Addictions in the history of the Government of Canada, quoted to me some other numbers just recently. Half of Canadians are reporting that their mental health has deteriorated over the last few months, and 7 out of 10 health care front-line workers say the same thing. These are very big numbers. More importantly, these have very significant impacts on their personal lives and the lives of their families as well.

There is no health without mental health. That’s true for an individual. That’s also true for a family, a neighbourhood and for a community. That’s why, as you suggested, we are going to go forward with extensive, important and, in fact, historic investments in mental health over the next few years for the purposes and the reasons that you identified.

[Translation]

Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos, P.C., M.P., Minister of Health: I have a two-part answer to that.

I will start with the personal, family and social trauma we experienced at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. About 80% of the deaths during the first wave of COVID-19 in early 2020 occurred in long-term care centres. Living conditions were a contributing factor, living conditions that many, if not all, of us are aware of. I was certainly aware of the situation because I had visited long-term care facilities in Quebec during election campaigns and observed utterly unacceptable living and dying conditions in Quebec and elsewhere in the country.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, about 50% of all deaths occurred in long-term care facilities. We promised to work respectfully and efficiently with the provinces and territories to protect our seniors, their health and their unity. As you said, there will be major investments and legislation enabling us to work in a way that respects jurisdiction and the sense of shared accountability when it comes to treating our seniors responsibly and with dignity.

Hon. Clément Gignac: Good afternoon, minister. Thank you for being here. My question is about the provinces’ requests for increased, recurrent funding for health care. According to official statistics, the federal government contributes about 22% of provincial health care budgets. At the last meeting of the Council of the Federation, the provincial premiers called for that contribution to be increased to 35%.

Your government has so far responded by saying that its priority is fighting the pandemic and helping Canadians and businesses. That’s what you did. Now, however, more and more experts, political leaders and even colleagues of yours are saying that we’re going to have to learn to live with this virus. Some provinces have even announced that they’re doing away with the vaccine passport. Don’t you think it’s time for Ottawa to agree to the provinces’ request to provide increased, permanent funding, in order to avoid having to shut down the economy because of a lack of capacity in our hospitals?

Hon. Jim Quinn: Thank you, minister, for being with us today. There have been changes in the rules in the administrative procedures throughout the past two years dealing with what is truly a fluid COVID situation.

Minister, my question is focused on one administrative procedure that creates perhaps unnecessary confusion for Canadians returning to Canada from the U.S. at our land border crossings.

Currently, a Canadian entering at a land crossing must fill in ArriveCAN within 72 hours before arrival to Canada. If not submitted, then that Canadian must quarantine for 10 days. But if that same Canadian, in short order, returns to the United States, they can again arrive at the border crossing and enter Canada without quarantine for that 10-day period.

Rather than creating this workaround situation, can the government not create a rule that would allow the returning Canadian to fill in the ArriveCAN at the border crossing or perhaps within a short period after entering Canada?

Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos, P.C., M.P., Minister of Health: Thank you, Senator Quinn. You allude to and describe quite well some of the various features of the border measures. Border measures obviously are part of a broader agenda to protect the health and safety of Canadians. What you’re signalling now is obviously the joint outcome of the Public Health Agency of Canada’s expert advice and transportation and public safety in that particular context with the Minister of Public Safety being responsible for the ArriveCAN application.

We know it’s quite complicated. It’s difficult for many people who want to travel abroad. Now is still not the time to travel abroad, not with the level of infection of Omicron; the world is at a historic high. Our hospitals are still obviously overloaded in Canada. People returning or intending to return to Canada are often infected with the virus, which complicates either their departure from hotels or other places in the world or their return to Canada. We understand it is complicated.

The Public Health Agency of Canada is continuously reviewing the measures in support of others in the government, Transport and Public Safety in particular.

Hon. Kim Pate: Thank you for joining us, minister. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, the poorest in Canada are twice as likely as those more well off to die of COVID-19.

The issues at the root of the siege of this city right now are not so much about vaccine and mask mandates, but really about many people feeling disenfranchised and being drawn to populist messages that incite division and violence.

The debate around these mandates has obscured decades of evisceration of social, health and economic supports that put people collectively at risk, and most have succumbed to an emphasis on individualized responsibility for protecting one’s own health.

How will the government redress systemic health as well as social and economic inequities and marginalization, in particular given the destructive forms of populism that we are witnessing?

Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos, P.C., M.P., Minister of Health: Thank you. With these words, what you have said and I’ve just heard is tremendously to the point. Marginalization is unfortunately but understandably leading to greater polarization and division in Canada. We spoke about unity earlier today.

The reason why Canadians are more united than ever — as are so many other places in the world — is we have been able to work together to support each other over the last few months. However, this doesn’t mean that there are no signs or increasing concerns around marginalization and disenfranchisement, leading to forms of extremism, division and disinformation that are harmful to the common good. We need to stick together, work together and support each other because that is the only way we will get through this crisis now and in the future when new variants and waves come to our country.

Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos, P.C., M.P., Minister of Health: Thank you. That’s a wonderful question, Senator Bovey. Here at Health Canada, we’ve spoken about, and the department has worked a long time on, healthy living, healthy eating and health in general — physical health, in most cases. What you are alluding to, and I think you are doing it well, is the fact that with mental health also comes healthy social and cultural activities. How we are together, what we do together, what we listen to and enjoy together — they contribute significantly to our mental health, individually and collectively.

I’m so grateful that you highlight the role and benefit of the cultural sector in this. I come from Quebec City, where arts and culture are very strong, and we’re proud of that. I’m certainly very proud of the tremendous level of talent and energy that I normally see in Quebec City, and hopefully we will see it increasingly across Canada as we go through this crisis and return to greater mental and physical health.

[Translation]

Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos, P.C., M.P., Minister of Health: Senator Dagenais, I’m so glad you asked me that question, as it allows me to share some statistics that may give you some food for thought. The first thing I want to emphasize is that now is not a good time to travel. Like me, you probably know people who’ve decided to travel anyway. Everyone has the right to leave Canada, regardless of the Canadian government’s advice. However, anyone who did so in the last few weeks may have found themselves in very difficult situations, including being stuck in hotel rooms. Flights have been cancelled. People have fallen ill without having access to proper health care. These are very difficult situations, and there’s not much the Canadian government can do to help after people have left the country. I just want people to be informed about the real risks they run if they decide to travel.

Currently, when people come back into the country, they have to do a pre-entry test. Even so, if you look at the Public Health Agency of Canada numbers available on the website, between 6% and 9% of individuals are found to be COVID-19 positive, even though their pre-entry test was negative. On average, 1 in 12 people arriving in Canada has COVID-19. As people move around in airports, airplanes, taxis and buses, they come into contact with others, and the virus is transmitted through contact. People have to be careful to protect their own health and that of their loved ones. That is why these measures are constantly being reviewed, but the goal remains the same: to protect people’s health.

[English]

Hon. David M. Wells (Acting Deputy Leader of the Opposition): Minister Duclos, the pandemic revealed a number of failures in emergency planning for infectious disease outbreaks. These included closing down three of the national emergency stockpile warehouses, throwing out and not replenishing millions of PPE that hospitals could have used, closing down Canada’s infectious diseases early warning system prior to the initial outbreak and also taking vaccines destined for Third World countries under the World Health Organization’s COVAX program. There are more, but these make the point.

Minister, we’ve learned from experience that infectious disease pandemics are costly in lives and money. Your government has a climate change plan that looks to 2050, and that’s important, but you don’t have a long-term or even a short-term plan to address Canada’s obviously vulnerable health care system. Why not? Will a plan be brought forward and will it be informed by the lessons learned from the lack of preparedness in our current situation? When I say “current,” I mean what has been happening in the last two years.

Hon. Mary Jane McCallum: Tansi, Minister Duclos, and welcome. During the peak of the Omicron wave, First Nations communities enacted states of emergency and protective measures that extended beyond provincial public health orders to keep their members safe. Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, or MKO, represents 30 Northern communities. MKO and other members of the Manitoba First Nations COVID-19 Pandemic Response Coordination Team have reprofiled human resources from each of their partner organizations to meet the challenges arising from the current pandemic, including the deployment of rapid response teams into First Nation communities facing rising positive case counts. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated ongoing First Nation collaboration between governments and service providers.

Will Health Canada provide ongoing funding to support First Nations in addressing systemic change in the health care system, and are you agreeable to meeting with MKO?

Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos, P.C., M.P., Minister of Health: Just to answer the last question, I will always be pleased to meet with those important leaders in support of their communities. I’m also very glad and pleased to hear what you’ve mentioned about the leadership exerted by remote, Northern and Indigenous communities over the last 22 months. They have demonstrated the ability to be leaders and partners, and we knew they had the potential for it. We now know that they were able to exert that leadership over the last 22 months during a crisis that put enormous pressure on their communities — enormous stress, both mental and physical.

We can always do better, and we should always try and want to do better. But I think what we’ve seen over the last 22 months in terms of the collaboration, partnership and leadership of Indigenous, Northern and remote communities are signs of hope for the future.

[Translation]

Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos, P.C., M.P., Minister of Health: Thank you very much for the question.

The answer is yes, and that is what we’ve been doing all along. These measures absolutely need to be reviewed, for two reasons. The first is that Canada’s economic and health situation continues to evolve, and the second is that we keep learning more about the science of the virus and its variants as time goes on. I’d also like to mention another reason, which is that now, in February 2022, we have some exceptional tools that we did not have back in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic.

In other words, February 2022 is not March 2020. We fortunately have PPE, highly effective tests, proven, recognized and comprehensive public health measures, and antiviral treatments. On top of that, we have vaccines. We are unbelievably lucky to have gotten vaccines last year, thanks to science. Without vaccines, the lockdown measures we have now would have been much stricter. Being against vaccination is tantamount to being for lockdowns. The only way to avoid future lockdowns is to continue getting people vaccinated. That’s the only way to protect our health, our economy and our society.

[English]

Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos, P.C., M.P., Minister of Health: Thank you. There are three things here. Yes, I am aware of this recommendation of the Quebec group. Second, we are obviously going to take that into account as we proceed with the necessary and useful revision of the work that needs to be done. Third, I, along with my team, will always be pleased to support the important inter-chamber parliamentary work that needs to be done in that context.

I obviously won’t decide the agenda that parliamentary committees will want to follow, but I will be there to support whatever agenda is decided upon by the appropriate people.

Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos, P.C., M.P., Minister of Health: Thank you. It is a much-appreciated question.

Some estimates suggest there have been 1 million surgeries either delayed or cancelled over the past few months because of the impact of COVID-19. There are approximately 5 million Canadians who don’t have access to primary care through, for instance, a family doctor, and that has been worsened by the pandemic.

That is why we were there, and we needed to be there, during the pandemic with an investment of $63 billion in health, in addition to the Canada Health Transfer, which will increase from $43 billion to $45 billion in a few weeks, then to $49 billion, and then to $51 billion and $53 billion, by the way. So in just about three or four years, it will have increased by 25%. That is in addition to the things we promised we would do during the campaign in support of, as you said, not only repairing the system but also preparing the system for possible and almost certain future waves and variants of the pandemic.

[Translation]

Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos, P.C., M.P., Minister of Health: People often ask me what politics is like. I tell them that politics is the art of working together even when you don’t always agree. That is exactly what has been going on in Canada over the past 22 months.

People have different points of view. Elections sometimes bring out a variety of opinions. We had a big debate during the last election campaign about vaccine mandates, and Canadians decided they wanted them.

As I said, this has produced amazing results. Three million Canadians made the decision to protect themselves because of the federal, provincial and territorial vaccine mandates. These Canadians were also protecting their loved ones and protecting our economy from lockdowns. What this means is that Canada is still doing fairly well, even with a variant like Omicron. If we’d experienced the Omicron variant in April 2020, without any vaccines or vaccine mandates, there probably would have been tens of thousands more deaths. I can’t imagine what it would have been like for our hospitals. It would have had a disastrous economic and fiscal impact.

We are in the position we’re in today because we made good individual decisions and because, during the last election, Canadians decided to do the right thing and encourage people to protect themselves and get vaccinated.

[English]

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, when shall this bill be read the second time?

(On motion of Senator Jaffer, bill placed on the Orders of the Day for second reading two days hence.)