44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 1, 2022 10:00AM
- Mar/1/22 2:50:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians have been plagued with backlogs throughout this pandemic, everything from immigration applications, to GIS payments, to parental benefits. Yesterday, the President of the Treasury Board said in the House that 99% of public servants are vaccinated.
I have a simple question for the minister. How many unvaccinated federal employees did she have to fire to get to 99%?
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- Mar/1/22 2:50:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I said yesterday, vaccines are the best way to bring this pandemic to an end. Public servants stepped up and 99% got their first dose, 98.7% got their second dose.
Public servants are responding to the need of making sure Canadians are safe and healthy during this pandemic. Those who need accommodation are being treated, and we will continue to make sure that these public servants are respected.
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- Mar/1/22 3:01:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the last two years of this pandemic have underscored the importance of investing in domestic manufacturing of vaccines and personal protective equipment and, therefore, supporting science and research in Canada. It is also important to provide Canadians with options, which is why I am pleased to rise in the House today to ask about the first Canadian-made, plant-based COVID-19 vaccine, the Medicago vaccine, which was approved by Health Canada on February 24.
Can the Minister of Health outline how the government is supporting the use of this vaccine?
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Scarborough—Agincourt for her work and her advocacy for seniors in her community and in the House.
When it comes to supporting the most vulnerable, our government has always been there. That is especially true for low-income seniors. We have committed to supporting seniors who counted on pandemic supports and had their GIS impacted. We are making a major investment through an automatic one-time payment for those affected seniors. We unanimously passed Bill C-12 in the House, and I am confident that the other place will do the same.
Seniors know that our government will always be there for them.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for this great, compassionate and very thoughtful bill.
The member for Vancouver East touched on the parent and grandparent reunification process. Over the last three years, there has been a very bad transition, and the grandparent and parent classes have suffered for so long because of the backlogs the federal government created in immigration. We have heard stories about this throughout the pandemic, how people needed their parents and grandparents.
My hon. colleague for Dufferin—Caledon mentioned that it also enables one person to return to the workforce when a grandparent or parent is here. On top of that, with this pandemic, people need mental health supports, as we have seen mental health diminish in this country.
Can the member elaborate a bit more on how this bill will address those issues?
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- Mar/1/22 6:34:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to participate in the adjournment proceedings tonight.
I will start with a candid comment that I have said to several constituents over the course of the last few weeks when we have debated the many issues facing the city of Ottawa specifically and our country: I cannot wait until we can come to the floor of the House of Commons and not talk about COVID or convoys. However, I want to follow up on the supplemental question I asked in question period a few weeks ago about a reopening plan from this government.
As I said before, this should be a happy time for our country. We are seeing a drop in severity with the latest COVID-19 variant, and we have seen the surge begin to eliminate itself. We have seen public health data and public health experts say that we are now in a phase of this pandemic, thankfully, where we do not have to live in fear and where we can learn to live with COVID and adjust our public health measures to do so.
A few weeks ago in our opposition day motion, we simply asked for a plan. The motion was voted down down by the government and the NDP, not because of science but because of politics. It was reasonable at this point in the game, and it was not unrealistic. Several provinces, provincial premiers and leaders around the world in similar situations to what Canada has faced during this pandemic have given their citizens hope to say that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, here is the plan, here are the metrics, here are the benchmarks to know that we are finally getting to the end of this pandemic, and here is when we can see some closure and some advancement on getting back to normal.
I had to laugh because the motion was voted down and two days later an NDP member stood up in question period and said, “We need a plan”. The NDP just voted against it three days before. Nevertheless, we are still here, unfortunately, in a situation where, yes, things have certainly been tense in our country over the past few weeks and months.
A lot of my constituents say, and rightly so, that there is a difference between the federal restrictions and measures that have been put in place and the provincial ones. A lot of provincial premiers and leaders have shown plans and timelines and made progress, but at the federal level we do not see that same leadership. We have asked the government numerous times to provide the science and data that shows the reason for mandates and some of the measures it is responsible for, but these things are still in place and we have gotten silence back.
However, others are speaking up in this country. I think of the many border communities in the province of Ontario, where home is to me, such as the city of Cornwall, the port of entry there and SD&G. Local mayors and tourism businesses are wanting to see the restrictive measures at land borders finally and rightfully lifted. There have been leaders as well. For example, I will quote an article where Mayor Drew Dilkens from the City of Windsor said this:
“So I think what we need to do is trust Canadians to make smart decisions. We've asked people to get vaccinated, that is the high water mark here of the pandemic. But having a requirement for a test is really an optical illusion for safety. It really is providing no real protection.”
Dilkens and his counterparts said the science doesn't support testing of this kind and it remains a barrier for those looking to cross land borders between the U.S. and Canada.
We also still have on the table from the government the idea of an interprovincial mandate for truck drivers, which would be extremely inappropriate considering the data, public health advice and the direction of provincial leaders and many countries around the world.
My supplemental question to the government is this: What are the metrics? What are the time frames? Where is the hope to get back to a semblance of normalcy and to get back to normal?
Canadians have been more than patient. They have done their part. There is no reason why at this point in the game they cannot have a detailed plan.
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- Mar/1/22 6:38:31 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member, although the question he asked me was not the question that I was given to respond to. Just before I do respond with the speech that I was given, I would just say that COVID is not listening to Parliament. COVID is not listening to politicians.
We talk about providing a plan. Two years ago, almost to the day, we were hit with a pandemic that none of us ever expected to see. I am very proud of how our government has responded. I was really proud, at the beginning of the pandemic, of how all the parties came together in March 2020. I remember a press conference in which all parties were saying that we needed to pull together. That changed over the months, unfortunately.
I wish that in March 2020, somebody could have said, “Okay, in two weeks time, this is what is going to happen,” but none of us knew. None of us expected it. The member said that the government needs to say what the plan is. We have never been able to say that, because we do not know what the virus is going to do.
I think we have acted responsibly. We have always had the health and safety of Canadians at the heart of every decision we have made. That is the most important thing that we can do. It is important that the opposition work with us. It is important that we work together. We are always open to hearing constructive ideas from the opposition, from all parties in the House and from all members of the House as to the best way forward.
I do not know how much time I have left, but I was of the understanding that the question was going to be about the implementation of the Emergencies Act. I would like to just touch on part of that, only because I think it is important to highlight the importance of our national unity and the leadership of the government. Canadians are looking for the country to come together. They are looking for all of us to listen to each other in a respectful way. Over the last few months, we seem to have lost the ability to disagree agreeably.
I do not say that about the hon. member, who in my experience has always had the ability to disagree agreeably, and I appreciate that. I know that our government appreciates those who come to these really difficult issues in ways that are constructive. Unfortunately, the rhetoric and the misinformation created, in our peaceful country, peaceful protests that turned into an occupation. That turned into convoys that were blocking trade in my community of Oakville North—Burlington. We saw Ford of Canada with layoffs.
We moved away from having those dialogues. The conversation is important, but it is unrealistic to say that we could present a plan for something that would not be listening to anything we said.
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- Mar/1/22 6:42:25 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I apologize for any hiccups, but it was relatively relevant to the topic. The Emergencies Act is an example of something that we were confronted with as Parliament in the past few weeks.
I will just say this to my hon. colleague. We are now into year three of the pandemic. The light at the end of the tunnel is here. It is not politicians that are saying that out of turn. We are hearing more public health leaders and experts saying this. We are at a time when we could start to end federal mandates. People could start to get back to work and get their livelihoods back, and do so safely. We could have federal public service workers return to downtown Ottawa to get our economy going again in the city of Ottawa and in eastern Ontario. We are at a spot now where we could rule out the need for interprovincial truck mandates. We could look for travel and tourism at our land borders, which is very important to the city of Cornwall in my region.
I would just say, for travel and tourism, time is of the essence. A plan, metrics, and light, hope and optimism are needed for the many people who rely on American visitors coming up and using our land borders each year.
I would encourage the government, once again, to please get a plan, get back open, end mandates and get back to normal.
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- Mar/1/22 6:48:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for his suggestion, but he is late to the game. This is something the minister has committed to. Unfortunately, due to the omicron wave, the summit for artists and creators has been delayed, but it is something we are committed to moving forward on.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, our government has engaged with both organizations and individuals who work in the cultural sector and acted upon their concerns through both universal measures that were broadly available to Canadians and unprecedented investments in new and existing programs specific to the cultural sector.
We have made every effort to mitigate the financial hardships experienced by organizations, performers, artists and technicians whose employment has been interrupted by the pandemic. We were there in the spring of 2020 with the emergency support fund for culture, heritage and sport organizations to blunt the initial impact of the pandemic. Our 2020 fall economic statement committed $181.5 million to support the planning and presentation of COVID-19 safe events and performances, as well as to provide work opportunities, including a dedicated $40-million envelope for the support for workers in live arts and music sectors fund in fiscal year 2021-22.
Budget 2021 included an investment of $500 million over two years for the recovery fund for arts, culture, heritage and sport sectors, and the reopening fund. Substantial portions of budget 2021 funds are being invested in the live arts presentation sector, community festivals, performing arts organizations and music. Our government has modified our programs to make them more responsive to changing conditions on the ground, and we did that most recently with the expansion of the Canada worker lockdown benefit announced in December.
We know that the capacity reductions, cancellations and closures across the country, which were necessary to protect public health, have been devastating for workers in the live performance sector, particularly self-employed gig workers. This is why we announced an investment of $60 million in the Canada performing arts workers resilience fund for 2022-23.
This new temporary program has been launched and will support sector-delivered initiatives that improve the economic, career and personal situations of independent and self-employed workers in the live performance sector. These initiatives can include direct financial support to these workers for emergency or hardship relief, as well as programs and services that provide career transition advice, counselling services, skills enhancement or professional development activities.
Throughout the pandemic, direct engagement with the arts and culture sectors has been essential to delivering a robust and relevant response. We remain committed to holding a national summit on plans to restart and position the arts, culture and heritage sectors for the future. This event has been under development, but, as I mentioned, it has been postponed until public health restrictions allow for face-to-face meetings to take place safely.
The department is finalizing plans and dates for this event in light of evolving public health conditions. The summit will be held in person as soon it is safe to do so, with a continuing focus on post-COVID recovery and the long-term competitiveness of Canada's arts, culture and heritage sectors. The arts and culture are vital to our economy and to the quality of our lives. We will continue to support artists, cultural workers and their sectors through the challenges they currently face.
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- Mar/1/22 6:53:23 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the hon. member sounds like what we hear from the Conservative Party saying that he wills COVID to be over and we should pick a date. That is not how this pandemic is happening. I know he attended a couple of heritage committee meetings and believes that he is an expert on the subject, but the reality of the situation is that COVID is real and COVID is there.
We have been there at every step of the way to support our cultural workers. We will continue to do so. There is no need to set a date. We know it is pressing. As soon as it is possible to do so, we will host the summit. It is a priority for this government.
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