44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 24, 2022 10:00AM
- 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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- Mar/24/22 3:04:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.
During the pandemic, the most vulnerable members of our community were in greater need of housing. We know we need to act fast.
Our government created nine new affordable housing units in the member's riding for women and children fleeing violence.
We will not stop working until every Canadian has a safe, affordable place to live.
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- Mar/24/22 3:05:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, from the beginning of this question period I have wanted to ask the Minister of Health some questions I had previously prepared. Unfortunately, I am going to change them a bit.
I would like the Minister of Health to look me in the eye and tell me truthfully right now that it was the federal vaccine mandate that saved so many lives and prevented so many hospitalizations in Canada from the start of the pandemic; that this was not due to the vaccine passports of the various provinces; and that the provinces that are lifting these vaccine passports have data that is rather more credible than his to justify doing so.
When will the federal government lift federal mandates?
When will the federal minister listen to the science across Canada and not just the political science?
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- Mar/24/22 3:05:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to see and hear my colleague speak about science.
If he would like to see the studies I mentioned, I can have people from my department brief him. They would be very happy to show him the statistics, methods, data, the various techniques used, the standard deviations, the confidence intervals and everything that goes with this type of study.
The 1,600 deaths were prevented as a result of the combination of various vaccine requirements. Nevertheless, the Canadian government's vaccine mandate also played a role.
The Conservatives opposed vaccination at the time. This means that their policy would have been responsible for hundreds, if not thousands, of additional deaths.
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- Mar/24/22 3:06:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives were the first in the House to put pressure on the government to procure and supply vaccines for all Canadians.
We were the first, while they were slow to act. I do not need any lectures from the government's chief health lecture-giver. All he gave us today was a bunch of numbers, such as 8,000; 25,000; 700,000; 135,000; 3; 400,000; 10; 30%; 100; 1.1 million; and 4 billion. That is a lot of numbers, but he did not answer the question at all.
When will he join the provinces and announce that the federal government is lifting the health measures?
It is a simple question and we want an answer.
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- Mar/24/22 3:07:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I apologize if I disrespected my colleague. That was not my intention.
I respectfully offer the assistance and support he needs and deserves as a member of Parliament. He has a very important role in the House.
I think he is entitled to ask for all of the information whenever he wants if he is to continue doing his job properly, as he is already doing within the Conservative caucus.
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- Mar/24/22 3:07:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like him to table that here in the House. He offered to. I would like him to table every study showing that scientific experts called for federal vaccine mandates.
Dr. Njoo and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization said that a vaccine mandate was not necessary and that voluntary vaccination should be encouraged. Those are the facts and figures.
The Minister of Health keeps telling us there are studies proving his vaccine mandate was justified by science. We want to see those studies now, and we want an answer. When will he end the vaccine mandate?
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- Mar/24/22 3:08:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member asked two questions, one I cannot answer and the other I will.
When will the COVID‑19 pandemic end? Unfortunately, I do not think we can answer that today.
However, if my colleague wants access to more information in addition to what I have already provided, I would be happy to provide it in the most appropriate way possible. I tried to be as clear as possible, but maybe I was not clear enough.
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- Mar/24/22 3:09:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Yemen is undergoing the world's worst humanitarian crisis and its people deserve decisive action, especially women and girls who are disproportionately affected. Canadians are deeply concerned by the raging conflict and the deteriorating food security situation.
What is the Minister of International Development doing to help the people of Yemen?
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- Mar/24/22 3:09:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle for this question and for her hard work. The conflict in Yemen continues to impact almost 20 million people who need help, especially women and children. This is why last week I announced an additional $62.5 million in funding to help with urgent humanitarian needs. By providing food assistance, clean water, sanitation, protection and health care, this aid will help the Yemeni people whose lives have been impacted by this.
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- Mar/24/22 3:10:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in December, the government announced the reallocation of crab fishing licences in my riding in an effort to reconcile the loss of constitutionally protected indigenous fishing rights. It is absolutely essential to correct historical wrongs in the allocation and management of this fishery. The government has failed to properly consult the impacted fishers or first nations. As a result, many fishers will lose the income their families need.
Will the government do the right thing and fully compensate these crab fishers?
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- Mar/24/22 3:10:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for pointing out the importance of including indigenous communities who have a right to fish in the fisheries. We are having those discussions with the crab harvesters who had those licences. This takes some time, but we are doing that. Those discussions have not concluded yet, but we will respect both the prior fish harvesters and the indigenous right to fish.
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- Mar/24/22 3:11:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, despite misguided calls for Canada to build pipelines to join a global effort to shut off Russian oil, the international experts at the International Energy Agency have not recommended that. In fact, they have been very clear that it is not boosting production that the world's nations need to do; it is cutting consumption. The International Energy Agency has published a 10-point plan.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
Ms. Elizabeth May: Mr. Speaker, I am having difficulty finishing my question.
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- Mar/24/22 3:11:42 p.m.
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Order. Let us show a little decorum. We are on the last question.
The hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands.
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