Hon. Éric Forest: Thank you, minister, for being with us during this pandemic.

The pandemic has revealed the fragile state of our health care systems, which have been crippled by years of underfunding. While waiting for the necessary reinvestment in transfers to the provinces — which we hope will increase the federal government’s contribution to health care costs to 35% — Canadians are wondering what has happened to the government’s election promise to hire 7,500 physicians and nurses.

My question is twofold. We understand that it is the responsibility of Quebec, and accordingly the provinces and territories, to hire health care workers. However, given the urgency of the situation, can you tell us if the funding of $3.2 billion or so has been disbursed to the provinces? If yes, how many physicians and nurses have been hired?

Hon. Patricia Bovey: Thank you, minister, for being with us today. The pandemic has taken a mental and physical toll on all Canadians. Hill Strategies Research proved the strong connection between cultural participation and general and mental health. We know people who attend live theatre, classical and popular music, comedy events, cultural festivals, art galleries and who read books have better mental health and medical outcomes. B.C. doctors are now able to prescribe a national park pass to patients to aid in their mental health, and in Montreal they have been prescribing museum visits. Artists’ generosity and inspiration have given so much to us all during these two years.

Minister, is there any thought of Health Canada promoting arts and culture as a means of achieving better overall health for Canadians as we emerge from the effects of the pandemic?

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. 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?