44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 19, 2022 10:00AM
- May/19/22 10:40:03 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like my hon. colleague's opinion, because, from a public health standpoint, vaccines should provide sterilizing immunity, and these shots do not. They do not stop transmission. From a public health standpoint, vaccine mandates make scientific sense only if they stop the transmission.
The Prime Minister was in Moncton in July 2021, with the members for Fredericton, Beauséjour and Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe. He basically said that one can still pass on the virus if one is fully vaccinated. He knew almost a year ago that this still could be passed on.
Does my colleague think that the Prime Minister and the Liberal government should have any public discourse, or is there anything the House can do if they are not giving the true facts to the Canadian people as regards the validity of these vaccine mandates?
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- May/19/22 10:54:28 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his speech.
We agree with several aspects of his analysis. However, when talking about a pandemic that caused many deaths, we must be responsible. Both sides must avoid politicizing—in the least noble sense of the word—a debate like this one.
I sat with my colleague on the Standing Committee on Health. Earlier, he said that we should go back to the way things were before the pandemic, but I would like to qualify that statement. We know that the world's population is far from fully vaccinated. As long as vaccination rates are low and people are travelling, there is the potential for a variant that could completely compromise the benefits of vaccines, particularly in terms of the possibility of developing a severe form of the illness. I am sure my colleague agrees with me on this. In any case, I hope he will mention that.
The tourism industry's GDP has dropped 50%. This is serious. We have been asking, but the government has yet to table a plan to lift the health measures to give some predictability to the tourism and airline industries and to the travelling public. How does my colleague explain that?
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- May/19/22 10:56:14 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if I may, I would like to take at least as much time as my hon. colleague took when he asked his question, which was fairly long and very specific.
My colleague from Montcalm and I were both members of the Standing Committee on Health. He is right about one thing, but I do not share his concerns about the other. We have to be able to take all the recommendations and see how we can learn to live with the pandemic. I think that is the goal when we talk about getting back to a prepandemic normal. We have to learn to live with the pandemic. Unfortunately, as my colleague said, and I fully agree with him, the government does not seem to have a plan for learning to live with the pandemic. What criteria is it using?
We know the government said that 75% of the population would have to be vaccinated for herd immunity. Then they raised that number to 80% and then they raised it to some unknown point because there was no threshold. There was no benchmark.
I just have one little thing to add. If the government were less focused on misinformation and more focused on transparency, we would have a plan to get back to normal and an explanation for why airport public health measures are still in place. Unfortunately, the government does not care about that. It is holding fast to its ideological ideas.
Mr. Speaker, I can see that you are standing to cut me off—
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- May/19/22 11:39:48 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think it is absolutely necessary to do that, not only in consultation with the experts, but also by listening to what the experts have to say. That is what we have done in recent months.
I will take the liberty of comparing Canada’s management with Quebec’s. The Quebec government held almost daily press conferences to explain the situation, the next steps and the reasons why some measures needed to remain in place, while providing assurance that the situation could gradually get better. I saw less of that at the federal level. There is a lot of uncertainty among the public, and people keep asking for clear information.
We still witnessed a wave of solidarity: 83% of Quebecers are vaccinated, compared to approximately 82% of Canadians. These are great numbers relative to other countries. People made the effort, and what the government owes them in return is a bit of transparency and a long-term vision. It would be nice to give the public that.
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- May/19/22 12:26:20 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I think the essence of science and research is to listen. If he were listening, my hon. colleague would have heard me quote in my speech research that shows that being vaccinated now appears not to have any significant impact on preventing or transmitting COVID. I said that in my speech. Had he been paying attention, he probably would have caught that.
That is why I think it is so vital that we base public policy decisions on science, and on a rational, calm and data-based review of the current evidence. It is only by doing this that we will keep Canadians safe.
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- May/19/22 12:27:03 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Vancouver Kingsway for his speech. I serve with him on the Standing Committee on Health, and what he said about the science is absolutely correct.
It is clear that vaccination still protects against developing the serious form of the disease, which is why we must protect our health care systems. That is the main thing.
However, does he not think that the government should eventually, for the sake of the tourism industry, present a progressive plan to lift the measures, even though we know full well that we are not in the endemic phase since the planet is not vaccinated?
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- May/19/22 1:24:31 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will read a quote and then ask a quick question of the parliamentary secretary.
“I can’t help but notice with regret that both the tone and the policies of my government changed drastically on the eve and during the last election campaign. From a positive and unifying approach, a decision was made to wedge, to divide and to stigmatize.” That was said by the Liberal member for Louis-Hébert back in early February speaking about who decided to politicize getting vaccinated in this country.
The president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees has talked about the fact that back in early March the mandates were a temporary measure, and he has asked the government when it was going to release a plan that explains the rationale and milestones to remove vaccine mandates.
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- May/19/22 1:27:08 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I was parliamentary secretary to the minister of health when we started to have these conversations. Around the world, we were anticipating that there were going to be requirements for travel documentation for Canadians, and our government said that we wanted to ensure that vaccinated Canadians could share that information, have the ability to travel and prove vaccination status, but we also knew that we wanted to make sure there was a secure source available for Canadians to do this so their information is protected.
ArriveCAN was developed to help ensure that Canadians still had access to travel and that they could provide their quarantine information, making the process of travelling easier while allowing them to upload that information in a secure way that would allow Canadians access to international travel if those requirements were required when they arrived at their destinations.
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- May/19/22 2:20:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, for two years now, Canadians have been making sacrifices to combat COVID‑19. They stayed home. They got vaccinated in large numbers. They got tested. They wore masks.
Two years later, the majority of governments have listened to the science and lifted the health measures to give their citizens a bit of a breather. All the governments have done so, except one. Just one government refuses to acknowledge all of the sacrifices that people have made. Why is that?
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- May/19/22 3:44:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as we look at next steps, we need to keep listening to the advice of public health officials because they are telling us that we cannot rush into ending the requirements for people to get vaccinated or to wear masks, or to ensure we keep a safe distance from each other. I again remind hon. members in this place that we are still in the midst of a global pandemic. Just because we wish for it to be over, and I am sure everyone wishes that, including me, it is not done yet. We are not fully immune to COVID‑19, and we need to continue to work hard because it is about saving lives. This is not about politics or ideology: it is simply and purely about saving lives. We have to do everything in our capacity. That is what compassionate societies such as ours do to save lives. Therefore, let us make sure that the mandates with respect to travelling and vaccinations are maintained until we feel comfortable that we are all protected.
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- May/19/22 3:52:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, who I know has a very important speech to give after me.
This is a very timely motion, considering what is going on in our airports across Canada and the fact that many have had the privilege to pair off with a minister to the U.S. I could draw some comparisons to how the U.S. is doing things in light of post-COVID, or endemic COVID, versus how we do it here in Canada.
To be travelling here in Canada, people have to be vaccinated. Let us make that point very clear. Let us look at the way people go through the process. In Saskatoon, I get to the airport and walk into the airport, but I do not have a mask. I have been out and about in the community all weekend without a mask. I do not have one in my pocket and have to run back to my truck to find one in the glove box, because I need one at the airport. I do not need it anywhere else in Saskatchewan, but I need it at the airport.
I find an old mask, dust it off and away I go through security. I show my NEXUS card. In Saskatoon, a NEXUS card does not get people into their own lane. It actually just gets them to the front of the line. That must make the people who have been waiting in line for an hour and a half really happy to watch me walk by them to go to the front of the line—
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- May/19/22 5:07:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from St. Albert—Edmonton for splitting his time with me, and, more importantly, the member for Thornhill for bringing this very important issue to the House.
Essentially, the debate is about calling on the government “to immediately revert to pre-pandemic rules and service levels”, but I say that we should call for the government to get its act together. Seriously, it is time for the government to get its act together and stop making excuses about its failures.
We repeatedly hear many excuses from the government, such as it cannot open offices and it cannot allow public servants to return in person because there is a sixth wave coming in the fall. It is spring now, yet the government is saying it has to wait because there is a sixth wave coming in the fall. We hear the government say it cannot do this because there are still people in the hospital with COVID. The government makes the excuse that there are still people to be vaccinated.
Canada has, to its credit, one of the highest vaccination rates in the OECD. It is time for the government to recognize what the provinces have recognized and what many of our allies have recognized, which is that it is time to move forward—
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- May/19/22 7:50:06 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I am thankful for the opportunity to address the committee on a topic we know all too well.
More than two years ago, our lives were forever changed by the emergence of COVID-19. Since that time, all Canadians have experienced immense sacrifices and loss in one form or another. Kids missed birthday parties and graduation; seniors were isolated from their families and friends; our health care and other essential workers on the front line put themselves at great risk, working long hours so that we could get the services and the care we needed, and we cannot commend them enough.
At its worst, the virus claimed the lives of so many loved ones in this country and around the world. During this crisis, Canadians remained resilient. They stepped up by following public health guidelines and getting their vaccine shot when it was their turn.
Life is getting back to a new normal, but make no mistake, our government's top priority remains protecting the health and safety of all Canadians. Since the beginning, we have worked hard to do just that. Securing life-saving personal protective equipment and ensuring that everyone could get vaccinated were top priorities, and Public Services and Procurement Canada has been vital in those efforts. I can tell members that the department's aggressive procurement approach over more than two years has ensured that Canada has a secure supply of personal protective equipment and vaccine.
When COVID-19 reached our shores, we acted promptly to get our health care professionals the supplies they required, working around the clock to procure critical personal protective equipment and other medical equipment. The entire world was scrambling to get the same material from a finite number of suppliers, making it a highly complex and competitive global environment. Procurement experts worked day and night, aggressively buying from all available suppliers and distributors at home and abroad. Lives were on the line, and every effort had to be made. Thanks to those efforts during the most crucial months, our government acquired billions of units of masks, N95 respirators, face shields, hand sanitizer, protective gowns, gloves and a lot more.
The urgent global demand meant that early supplies largely came from overseas. However, as part of the pandemic response, we also invested in Canadian companies to make the needed supplies here in Canada. Companies from across Canada did their part as well, and some even completely shifted their production lines to meet the urgent need. We should all be proud that Canadian industry stepped up in such a big way.
Medicom out of Montreal and 3M in Brockville are prime examples. Our government has a 10-year contract with Medicom to supply N95 and surgical masks, and we have a contract with 3M for 25 million N95s annually through 2026. Our investment with these companies has helped secure a domestic supply for the production of personal and protective equipment now and well into the future.
These are only two examples, but there are many more across this country. This has truly been a team Canada effort. Canadian companies that stepped up to join the fight have been and will continue to be key to our success.
When it comes to vaccine, our work has been just as effective. Our approach on this front was deliberate, strategic and comprehensive. At the onset of the pandemic, when pharmaceutical companies took on the challenge to develop a viable vaccine, we simply had no idea if it was even possible. Scientists, regulators and manufacturers from many nations worked under intense pressure to produce safe and effective vaccines and somehow make them available around the world.
Once vaccine candidates began to show promise, we knew that once again we would be dealing with a highly complex and competitive global market. That is why we pushed a diversified vaccine procurement approach, one that allowed us to reserve doses as early as possible by signing agreements in principle while the details of the final purchase agreements were being negotiated.
At the same time, we were proactive in acquiring critical goods such as needles, syringes and more in order to support provinces and territories when it came time to administer the vaccines. That work paid off. Today, if eligible Canadians want a COVID-19 vaccine shot, they can get one. Over the past year, Canadians have rolled up their sleeves and done their part during the largest vaccination campaign this country has ever seen. In fact, the Canadian vaccine rate is one of the best in the world. Securing vaccines has saved lives, and it is why Canadians can now get back to doing the things they love.
We are also better equipped for future waves. Our contracts with the world's leading vaccine maker gives us access to the supply of future formulations that will protect us against new variants. I am also proud to say that we are also investing in our capability to manufacture these life-saving vaccines right here at home. Most recently, our government announced the next step in ensuring Canada has a secure domestic supply of the latest vaccines through an agreement with Moderna to set up a manufacturing facility in the Montreal region. This new facility, which is set to be operational in two years, will be able to produce up to 100 million mRNA vaccine doses annually. It will also create hundreds of good-paying jobs.
Because of the actions we have taken and the groundwork we have laid, Canada will see this pandemic through to the end, but, as the minister stated in her opening remarks, the pandemic is not over yet and there is still a lot more for her department to do. That includes working to ensure we have enough supply of rapid tests on top of the more than 600 million we have already purchased at the federal level. We also continue to pursue some therapeutics. We currently have access to some 1.7 million treatment courses.
Before I close, I would like to take a moment to thank the hard-working public servants who are behind these actions. They have served their communities well, and I cannot commend their efforts enough. I would also like to honour the memory of those we have lost, the friends and families who are grieving, those who have made incredible sacrifices and everyone who has been impacted by COVID-19. Of course, we pay tribute to Canadians across the country who continue to work hard in our fight against the virus on the front lines of our health care system.
It has been a long two years, and we know everyone is ready to move on. Public Services and Procurement Canada will continue to deliver for Canadians as we work to finish the fight against COVID. I want to thank the minister, the department and the officials for their dedication and hard work.
I have a question for the minister and here is the preamble. The COVID-19 pandemic is still fresh in the minds of Canadians, and it is still too soon to say it is completely over. We all remember seeing the hospitalization rate and, sadly, even the death tolls on the news. We remember the restrictions and safety measures that were implemented by all levels of government to keep people safe and stop the spread of COVID-19.
We remember how difficult it was to refrain from visiting loved ones, how hard it was on businesses, on children in day cares and schools, on parents, on everyone, but we also remember how Canada made it through the pandemic before many other developed countries. We remember how Canadians stepped up to help their neighbours in a time of crisis. We are proud that when the COVID-19 vaccine became available, Canadians rolled up their sleeves and did their part to protect themselves, their loved ones and their communities, giving Canada one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.
Canada is now ahead of the curve on pandemic preparedness for any future outbreaks of COVID-19 and is well placed for any similar events in the future. The government has made it priority number one to keep Canadians safe, and we will continue to do so. While we are all eager to finish the fight against COVID-19 and return to normal, Canadians need to know that this government has done what was necessary during an extraordinary period to help Canadians pull through. All Canadians know this government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic was timely, comprehensive and crucial to the millions of Canadians affected by the necessary restrictions implemented in Canada and across the globe at this time.
Can the minister please detail the numerous ways her department stepped up to meet the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and keep Canadians safe?
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