44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 2, 2022 11:00AM
- May/2/22 11:22:18 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, Hindu Canadians, like all other Canadians, stepped forward and helped. Hindu charitable institutions organized vaccination drives, organized food for the needy, and helped those in need who were struck by this pandemic.
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- May/2/22 12:13:12 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I, too, am disappointed. However, I am disappointed in the behaviour that is being shown by the Conservative Party in this House, obstructing, at every single turn, every single piece of legislation. We are doing this in order to facilitate debate, in order to allow the hon. members the time in which to speak.
We spent 12 days debating Bill C-8. Among the things the bill would do is to help farmers get their tax credit on the carbon tax, the price on pollution. There would be billions of dollars for rapid tests. There would be ventilation for our schools. We all know a lot of parents who are concerned because their kids are going to school in the pandemic context and they want better ventilation for their schools. We had 12 days of debating a fall economic statement that includes measures to aid the lives of human beings. Can they imagine what will happen when we get to the budget? We are doing this to facilitate debate because of the obstructionist tacts by the Conservative Party.
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- May/2/22 2:29:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, two important benefits that make it possible for parents to stay home with their young children and for workers to stay home when they are sick expire next Saturday, May 7.
Meanwhile, we are still waiting for employment insurance reform and paid sick leave, which are long overdue. Canada is going through the sixth wave of the pandemic.
Can the Minister of Finance explain why her government is once again leaving workers out in the cold? Will she renew these extremely important matters?
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- May/2/22 2:30:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the minister is right: Canadians do deserve an employment insurance system that is there for them and that works. In fact, they should have had that in place before the Liberals ended pandemic benefits that allowed them to stay home with their children when they were sick, and that allowed them to stay home from work when they were sick to not put their colleagues in danger.
Instead, what we have is a situation where the government is allowing these benefits to end without having put the 10 paid sick days in place and without having put the employment insurance reforms in place.
Will the government either present these reforms immediately or extend the benefits until it reforms EI and puts the 10 paid sick days in place?
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- May/2/22 2:33:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I indicated earlier, as the Conservatives want to be able to continue to get into personal attacks, we will continue to focus our attention on what is important to Canadians. That is one of the reasons why we have seen the type of response and different types of pandemic support programs, whether it was packages such as the CERB or the wage loss program. There are so many things that as a government we have done in order to support Canadians because we remain focused on them as opposed to what the Conservatives are remaining focused on, which is personal character assassination.
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- May/2/22 2:54:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the last two years have been very difficult on Canadians. We have had lockdowns. We have had public health measures. People lost their jobs because of the uncertainty of the pandemic. Governments around the world, provincial governments and municipal governments were all grappling with doing the right things to protect the health and safety of Canadians. Many decisions included vaccination mandates and other public health measures. We are seeing that our government and other governments are slowly adjusting these measures. We will continue to consult our experts as we review those decisions.
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- May/2/22 3:06:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians have followed public health measures and have made tremendous sacrifices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Canada has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. Provincial health officials have followed the science to remove vaccine and mask mandates.
With all the provinces and most countries moving on from pandemic restrictions, why will the Prime Minister not follow the science and immediately end all federal vaccine mandates and restrictions on Canadians?
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- May/2/22 3:06:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as my hon. colleague is well aware, Canada is a really big country and public health advice can vary across the country due to local epidemiological situations in various provinces and territories. I would also like to say that out of all the other countries named in the House lately, we have the lowest death rate. We should acknowledge that our very low death rate is due to the very high vaccination rate and the strict adherence to public health guidelines throughout the ongoing pandemic that we are all experiencing. We all want this pandemic to be over, and by following the public health restrictions, we will make sure that it is over soon.
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- May/2/22 7:21:09 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I like to use words like “reasonable leadership”. Being in government and being elected, we need to demonstrate responsible leadership and collaborate with other parties in the House, which we have been able to do. I know some of the official opposition members put forward ideas that ended up in a government bill relating to extended sick leave benefits. I think that is what it was, by one of the members from York region.
It is very important that we get the work done that our constituents need us to do without facing obstructions. It is very important that we collaborate with other parties in the House, which we are doing, to get the work done that Canadians want us to do. As we exit the pandemic, as we are in one of the most unique times in history, we need to collaborate, work together and get things done that are important for our constituents so that we can move forward in building an even more prosperous and brighter future for all Canadians.
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- May/2/22 11:44:02 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-8
Madam Speaker, it is a huge honour to rise tonight to speak to the fall economic update.
Today, the families and friends of 20 Canadians will get the life-changing news that their loved one has died because of a toxic drug poisoning. Tomorrow, the families and friends of another 20 Canadians will get the same news, and again the next day and the next day.
The expert task force on substance use established by Health Canada accurately described what we are facing when it said:
The war on drugs has led to what ends up looking like a war on people who use drugs. People are dying every day, and the situation in Canada, already particularly deadly, is getting worse, not better. Canada has the fastest growing rate of overdose mortality in the world.
This is from the government's own expert task force.
The pandemic has accelerated the toxic drug supply crisis and there is no end in sight. The Public Health Agency of Canada, in its most recent modelling, predicted that opioid-related deaths will remain high until June and may even increase, yet the government has refused to take the urgent actions needed to stop the losses, including making investments, at the scale that this crisis requires, in addressing the root causes of problematic substance use, education and prevention, harm reduction and safer supply, and treatment on demand and recovery services.
The fall economic update failed to even acknowledge the public health emergency that has been devastating communities for years, and the 2022 budget added a mere $100 million over three years to be spread across the country. That is 10 provinces and three territories. The stigma is not just in policy, nor just in the laws in this country. It is in the amount of money the government spends to tackle this crisis.
The toxic drug supply crisis, which has arisen as a direct result of the failed war on drugs, is not just costing lives; it is costing significant amounts of money to all levels of government. Members have heard me say repeatedly in the House that this is a health and human rights issue, but this is also an economic issue.
The expert task force wrote about the financial burden of the criminalized approach to drugs on the health and criminal justice system. Its report said:
Criminalization leads to higher drug-related health costs because it keeps people who use drugs away from prevention and early treatment health services due to fear of being arrested, labelled, or outed.
“Criminalization drives people underground and means that people are less likely to seek assistance, or have difficulties if they try to obtain assistance.”
Because criminalization pushes people who use drugs to rely on an illegal, often contaminated drug supply, it is also responsible for high hospitalization costs.
“23,240 opioid-related and 10,518 stimulant-related poisoning hospitalizations occurred from January 2016 to September 2020 in Canada (excluding Quebec).”
In its second report, the expert task force put it bluntly, saying, “Current policies are currently costing Canada huge amounts. In—”
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