44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 19, 2022 10:00AM
- May/19/22 1:09:31 p.m.
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I would remind the hon. member that I cannot table anything.
The hon. parliamentary secretary.
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- May/19/22 1:09:38 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I can tell the member that the one health expert we are not listening to is the member for Carleton.
At the end of the day, we have health experts from across the country. We have individuals who have a background in science, and we will continue to work with those individuals in ensuring that the public policy we present is sound.
As the chief public health officer of Canada has indicated, we do have reviews that are ongoing. Why? That is the responsible thing to do. To throw their hands up in the air months ago and say mandates are useless and not necessary is highly irresponsible.
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- May/19/22 1:10:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my colleague from Winnipeg North that his mother always told him to try to bring something positive to a conversation. I remember that.
On a more serious note, I would like my colleague to explain what ArriveCAN is. I came back from a mission a few weeks ago and was met with what, in my opinion, was totally useless bureaucracy. Therefore, I would like him to explain to me what the purpose of ArriveCAN is.
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- May/19/22 1:11:14 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, members will recall that at the beginning of my comments I talked about today being a special day, Vyshyvanka Day, and that is why we are wearing these wonderful shirts and blouses. Right after saying that, I said that my mom always told me to try to say something nice, and that was the nice thing I had to say. The rest was just to try to enlighten my Conservative friends in regard to the negatives of following blindly the member for Carleton, because what he is talking about is not in the best interests of the health and well-being of Canadians.
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- May/19/22 1:11:58 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would offer that when legitimate questions are not answered directly, it erodes public trust at a time when we need public trust more than ever. I support vaccination and public health as much as anyone in this place, but there are legitimate questions about the vaccine mandates for domestic air travel, and the government refuses to provide the basic information that we need to defend those policies. Why is that?
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- May/19/22 1:12:30 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am not 100% sure exactly what the member is getting at. I believe we have been very clear as a government that we continue to listen to what the department and health experts and science are telling us. If the member is saying that he needs to hear first-hand some of that, he might want to approach the Minister of Health or the parliamentary secretary and we might be able to accommodate him. I am sure the member can appreciate that other jurisdictions also have health experts and there have been times when they, too, have had lockdowns, curfews and mandatory masking indoors or outdoors. There is quite a smorgasbord of activities dealing with mandates and I am more than happy to sit down personally—
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- May/19/22 1:13:27 p.m.
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Resuming debate, the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities.
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- May/19/22 1:13:32 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am glad to rise today and follow my friend and colleague, the parliamentary secretary, on this important debate. The challenge here is that, continuously, we see from the Conservative Party this idea of trying to politicize the health and safety of Canadians throughout this pandemic.
I had the great pleasure and responsibility of being the parliamentary secretary to the former minister of health during a large portion of the pandemic. I sat through committee meeting after committee meeting with our health officials and with experts, witnesses and members from all sides of the House. Instead, in the heart of the pandemic and of dealing with some of these most crucial issues, the Conservatives chose to be obstructionist and chose to just attack and “own” the Liberals at every stage of this pandemic.
When I sit here and see the opposition day motion that we have in front of us, it brings me back to those days, remembering what the Conservatives actually brought to the debate and brought to our country during one of the most challenging times that I think many generations will see. I am reminded of those days when I had the opportunity to serve our government in that role. I remember the Conservatives screaming and shouting, saying that we need to close the borders, that we need stricter mandates and that we need all of these things, and then, when we do those things, they scream and say to get rid of mandates and get rid of masks. At no point did they ever base it on science, facts or evidence. They based it only on “owning” the Liberals. If they had any ability to actually govern in this country, Canada would be in serious trouble, because their policy playbook is simply the opposite of the Liberals.
The members continue to heckle me because they cannot stand a member standing on this side of the House “owning” them, and that is precisely what—
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- May/19/22 1:16:09 p.m.
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I apologize for interrupting the parliamentary secretary, but can we have some order in the House?
The hon. member for Prince Albert is rising on a point of order.
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- May/19/22 1:16:13 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, she “owns” me? I find that very offensive.
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- May/19/22 1:16:17 p.m.
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I am sorry, but I did not hear that.
The hon. parliamentary secretary.
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- May/19/22 1:16:26 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member opposite misheard. I did not say I own him. I said that when it comes to the policy debate, we are “owning” the Conservatives on the legitimate policy debate.
While I am sorry I have hurt the member's feelings, if that is his issue—
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- May/19/22 1:16:43 p.m.
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The hon. member for Prince Albert is rising on a point of order.
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- May/19/22 1:16:45 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I think I have to pursue this, because she is trying to regenerate a different dialogue. What she said was, “We own him.” If we could please check the Hansard—
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- May/19/22 1:16:54 p.m.
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The hon. parliamentary secretary is rising on the same point of order.
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- May/19/22 1:16:56 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as the expression is known, the expression “we own you on this” does not mean that we literally own—
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- May/19/22 1:17:06 p.m.
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We are getting into debate.
I ask the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs not to use those expressions.
The hon. member for Prince Albert is rising on a point of order.
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- May/19/22 1:17:14 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, between that and “just inflation”—
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- May/19/22 1:17:17 p.m.
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We are getting into debate.
I am asking the hon. parliamentary secretary to refrain from using those expressions. They are exciting matters.
The hon. parliamentary secretary.
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- May/19/22 1:17:26 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-8
Madam Speaker, that is not a problem. I will not use things that excite the members, when they are unable to control their emotions in this House. I will move on to the rest of the point, because I clearly upset the members opposite.
What I will speak about is simply the fact that the Conservatives have not based policy decisions in this House on experts, on science or on the testimony we heard at the health committee, when I was a member of that committee. We stand here today and members opposite talk about listening to the science. Time and again we heard experts. Our chief public health officer, Dr. Tam, was personally attacked by Conservatives when they disagreed with her expertise.
I find it a bit rich to stand in this place and to hear the Conservatives say, “Bring out the experts; bring out the testimony.” When we do that, when we table that information, when we have witnesses at committee, when we have reports and when we have that expert testimony, the Conservatives make personal attacks against our chief public health officer. I notice that the heckles went silent, because the Conservative members know it is true, that there are those on their benches who made personal attacks against public health officials who disagreed with them.
In addition to that, we talk about the mandates or any protections across the country throughout the pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, we constantly said that there is no silver bullet and that vaccines are the safest, most effective way for us to get through this pandemic, but there are also layers of protection, and that is crucially important. Those layers of protection are going to help prevent people from getting severely ill and clogging up our emergency rooms and hospitals, and that is what the Conservatives do not understand.
There are layers of protection, not only to protect the most vulnerable, but to protect businesses by not having to enter lockdowns. If we remove every layer of protection throughout this pandemic and businesses have to close, where would the Conservatives be to defend and support those businesses? I know Conservatives did not support them when we moved measures in the budget and in Bill C-8. They voted against the supports those businesses needed.
We put in place layers of protection to help ensure, as the pandemic unfortunately is not over and COVID is still around, that we protect society, protect individuals, protect businesses, and protect our health care workers and our health care system. These are the very people those members call heroes and then attack at committee and try to discredit on social media.
I find that, while the Conservatives might try to position or package some of their motion to act like they are on the side of people, throughout this pandemic they have flip-flopped consistently whenever they felt the political mood suited them.
I turn to some of the comments I heard in this place earlier that accused the government of simply trying to punish people who have differences of opinion or who want the freedom to have a different view on things. I find this incredibly rich, considering what we all saw last night. Among the Conservative benches, they do not have the freedom to listen to science, and they do not have the freedom to speak out and have their own opinions. I heard heckles yesterday when members of our side voted in a free vote. The Conservatives criticized our members for having free votes, yet yesterday the member for Abbotsford rightly pointed out the dangers the member for Carleton was spreading about our democracy and the independence of the Governor of the Bank of Canada. What happened to the member for Abbotsford? He got the boot.
When it comes to Conservatives, the only freedom of choice they have is to listen to whatever leader happens to be running the show at the time. Therefore, it is really hard to take the Conservatives seriously when they talk about mandates, the health and safety of Canadians, and freedoms, when the Conservative benches do not even have freedom of opinion or freedom of speech. Frankly, the member for Abbotsford spoke truth to power, and he got booted to the backbench.
It is really hard to sit here and listen to Conservatives try to defend the health and safety of Canadians when they themselves are not open to listening to experts and scientists or understanding the layers of protection in place to help keep Canadians safe, keep businesses open and keep travel available. They speak about restrictions around the world, but Canadians going even to the U.S. still require testing. There are protections there. There is nothing wrong with the Canadian government doing everything in our power to ensure that there are no lockdowns in this country, that businesses can stay open, that Canadians can remain safe and that our health care heroes can have the ability to keep our health care system functioning well.
The key here is that, if we truly believe in freedom and supporting Canadians across this country, then we should not be listening to the Conservatives, who block freedom of speech and ignore when their own members speak truth to power.
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