44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 24, 2022 10:00AM
- Mar/24/22 2:51:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I was very pleased to welcome the hon. secretary of trade, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, for her first official visit to Canada this week, celebrating the long-standing relationship between Canada and the United Kingdom.
Today, Canada and the United Kingdom officially launched negotiations toward a new high-standard and progressive free trade agreement. Canada looks forward to negotiating an agreement that will benefit our people and our economies. It will help businesses of all sizes and entrepreneurs on both sides of the Atlantic reach new export markets.
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- Mar/24/22 2:51:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I asked whether the NDP-Liberal government would provide Canadians who are unable to use ArriveCAN with an easier alternative to allow them to visit their families outside of Canada. Instead of answering the question, the Minister of Health, sadly and predictably, responded with the same tired old talking points.
Will this minister clearly tell Canadians on what date the government will drop its mandates so that we can all travel freely?
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- Mar/24/22 2:52:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will speak to something I think is extremely important for us to understand, which is long COVID. Among all those infected by COVID, whether it be severe or mild, the estimate is that between 10% and 30% will suffer from long COVID.
This has dramatic impacts on their lives in the short and longer term. Thirty percent of them will need to consult more than 10 times after that. Thirty percent of them will need to stop working. This has very significant health, personal and economic costs. The way to protect against that is to protect against transmission and to do that through vaccination.
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- Mar/24/22 2:53:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, four months ago, Donna McCall was denied the opportunity to see her children, who are located in the U.S., while she was at home dying waiting for a liver transplant. That transplant never came. Her husband held up his phone for Donna so they could say their last goodbyes to their mother while she died.
What happened to John, Donna and their children is devastating. When will this government show some compassion for suffering families like the McCalls and please lift the federal mandates?
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- Mar/24/22 2:54:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, compassion is the key word. We need to have each other's backs. We need to protect each other's health. That is best done by following public health measures, as most of us are doing today, but not all of us. It is also done by being vaccinated, which protects our health and that of those we love.
It also protects against long COVID. By the way, long COVID affects all vital organs with hundreds of symptoms through the brain, heart, lungs and liver. This is serious and demands responsibility on the part of the government.
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- Mar/24/22 2:54:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I come from the Quebec City area, the most beautiful tourist city in North America. The city has suffered enormously over the past two years, economically speaking. Everyone is talking about our businesses, restaurants and hotels.
How can the Minister of Health, who is the member for Quebec, justify to the hotels, restaurants and tourism industry in his riding that he is maintaining health measures at the border?
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- Mar/24/22 2:55:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there are two things I assume my hon. colleague already knows.
The first is that I am indeed the member for Quebec, which is probably the most beautiful city in the country and I am very proud of it. I represent this area along with other distinguished members of the House.
The second thing he probably knows is that on April 1, so in a just a few days, pre-arrival tests will no longer be required. This means that more people will be able to come to Canada to enjoy our attractions. We hope that many of them will come to Quebec City and the Quebec City region.
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- Mar/24/22 2:56:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, exactly two years ago, I was the first MP to ask the government to close the border. It was taking too long. It took too long. People in Quebec died because it took too long.
Now the situation has changed, and it is taking too long to reopen the border and lift the senseless restrictions. If tourists want to visit Quebec City to, say, go to the summer festival in the minister's riding, they cannot understand the Canadian system. They do not understand what they are supposed to do.
Will the government end all the complicated measures and give the tourism industry a chance to make a comeback?
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- Mar/24/22 2:56:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are going to do exactly as my colleague suggests on April 1.
On April 1, pre-entry testing requirements will go away. That will simplify everyone's life and encourage more people to come see my colleagues and me in wonderful Quebec City and the beautiful surrounding area.
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- Mar/24/22 2:57:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as we speak, more than half the children in Ukraine have fled the war. In all, 4.3 million children have left their homes. They are either elsewhere in Ukraine, hoping the Russian troops will not catch up with them, or they are in refugee camps.
Today we do not want to hear about how Canada has welcomed 10,000 Ukrainians since January. We want the government to tell us what it is doing right now for the millions of fleeing children.
When will the government charter planes to go and get them?
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- Mar/24/22 2:57:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question and certainly for his collaboration since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
I would say to him that we are working with our partners, including the airlines. What is more, I would like to point out to the House the exceptional work that has been done with the SickKids hospital and the departments here to welcome Ukrainian children, who can now continue their treatment here in Canada.
We will take the necessary measures to welcome the Ukrainians who are fleeing Putin's war.
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- Mar/24/22 2:58:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the government's refusal to airlift people out is problematic in two ways.
On the European side, millions of refugees are stuck in camps because there is no room for them on planes or because they simply cannot afford flights. On our side, in Montreal alone, 40 tonnes of humanitarian aid is sitting in warehouses because we cannot send it to Ukraine.
At the moment, the only thing we can move between Canada and eastern Europe is the Prime Minister. When will the government start chartering flights?
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- Mar/24/22 2:58:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I really want to thank my colleague for his question.
As he mentioned, the government is certainly looking hard, and as aggressively as possible, at how to get as many people as possible here as quickly as we can. This is what we have been doing from the beginning. More than 10,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Canada. We will continue to work with our partners.
I would also like to point out to the House that the province of Quebec has not only guaranteed to help us, but has already stepped up by providing asylum, health care and child care.
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- Mar/24/22 2:59:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the health minister has been asked about 15 questions today, but he has not answered a single one, so I hope he can answer this one from a young woman named Nancy from my riding. Nancy is an indigenous single mother. She works for the federal government, 100% from home. She is vaccine hesitant for personal reasons. Like members of our armed forces, she is now being told that she cannot go to work and is essentially being fired for her beliefs.
Nancy and others are running out of options. Will the minister show some compassion and end the mandate for people such as Nancy so they can work from home?
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- Mar/24/22 3:00:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to receive this question because it enables me to add one more piece of information, this time from the United States. One million is the number of deaths that were avoided because of Americans were vaccinated. It was mentioned earlier that they could have avoided many more deaths with more vaccinations, as we did in Canada.
When we speak to people who may be either concerned or sometimes not just informed about the benefits of vaccination, it is important to talk to them, reassure them, care for them and just encourage them in a very benevolent manner so that everyone, in the end, is protected, including those who perhaps had initially had misgivings around vaccination.
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- Mar/24/22 3:01:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in Canada and around the world, governments have ended their vaccine mandates and restrictions. Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nova Scotia have all ended their vaccine passport systems. However this government is doubling down and spending $30 million for domestic travel vaccine passports in the next two years.
Since the provinces have already dropped these passports, will the Minister of Health return this $30 million to the taxpayers?
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- Mar/24/22 3:01:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I mentioned earlier the amount of $4 billion. That is a lot of money, which the federal government and other governments have saved because of high vaccination rates, in part due to vaccination mandates, but most importantly, that is a lot of household income, family income, income to look after children, to care for seniors, to look after those who may not often find it easy to make ends meet. That is a lot of dollars.
This is not only about dollars, obviously. It is about lives, but dollars are also impacted by the fact that we have high vaccination rates and that in Ontario we have more people being vaccinated everyday.
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- Mar/24/22 3:02:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there have been a lot of replies today and not very many answers.
Since the pandemic started, only 1% of all cases of COVID-19 in Canada have been related to travel, yet it has been portrayed and perceived as an unsafe thing to do. To put this into perspective, 2021 was supposed to be a year of recovery, but we have reached only 13% of the total number of international visitors compared to 2019, and 2021 was worse than 2020.
When will the health minister tell his colleagues to fully open the border and remove federal vaccine mandates?
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- Mar/24/22 3:03:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, COVID-19 has undoubtedly had a devastating impact on the industry. I want to stand here to thank all those who work in the aviation sector, and all those who work in the tourism sector, who stepped up, cared for each other and did the right thing, which was to get vaccinated and follow public health advice.
Everybody knows that COVID-19 has been unpredictable. We are working together with our scientists to do the right thing, protect Canadians and protect those who work in the aviation sector.
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- Mar/24/22 3:03:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, intimate partner violence needs to end, and it needs to end now. This matters to everyone because intimate partner violence destroys families and causes serious harm in our society.
I salute community organizations for the important work they do to help women and children fleeing violence perpetrated by violent partners.
I announced a $4.5-million investment to help an organization called Nouvelle-Étape create new spaces.
Could the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion tell us more about the reason for these investments?
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