44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 19, 2022 10:00AM
- May/19/22 10:37:16 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech.
The motion states that “current restrictions have been cited...as ineffective”. The science, however, says something completely different.
This morning, the papers were reporting that Canada's third-dose vaccination rate ranks second last among G7 countries. Our vaccination rate is apparently 54.3%.
What is my colleague's response to that?
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- May/19/22 10:37:48 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would ask the member to look at everywhere else in the world. I would ask him to ask himself why the science is actually different in this country and whether mandates have increased vaccination on the third dose. The answer is, not really.
We have heard from public health experts and doctors who have said that these mandates do not work. We have heard from the travel industry, which said they are bottlenecking our airports. We have heard from nobody that these restrictions are working.
I would hope that the member opposite watched the Edmonton Oilers play the Calgary Flames last night with over 20,000 in an arena, unvaxxed and unmasked because it did not matter, or that he goes outside of this place, takes off his mask and goes to any restaurant. The science does not make sense. The science cannot be one thing here and one thing there, and Canadians ought to know that.
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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 11:20:47 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as we have said numerous times, this is an evolving situation. We follow the guidelines of public health. The emergence of the omicron variant and others was a clear reminder that the pandemic continues to evolve. That is why we continue to require vaccination to travel when departing by train, plane or cruise ship.
Again, from day one, our public health measures have been based on the science. We will continue to follow the very sound advice of our public health professionals.
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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 12:54:49 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have to applaud my friend for bringing the issue of prayer into airports. If I understand the question correctly, he is asking if this is based in policy, and we are saying it is absolutely based in policy. Every provincial health authority in every province has lifted vaccine passports and mask mandates. We see our own Prime Minister travelling abroad in countries with low vaccination rates and he is unmasked, with groups of people, anywhere from bars to restaurants to formal meetings. We walk out of this place, out of Parliament, take our mask off, and we can go to any restaurant and to any place we want to shop without a mask. It is simply unreasonable, and the Liberals refuse to tell us what the science is that they claim they are relying on.
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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 1:27:08 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 2:20:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we know more about COVID‑19 now than ever. That said, we have come a long way since March 2020.
We have safe, effective vaccines and we have high vaccination rates. Our government will continue to make decisions informed by science and will adjust its guidelines and public health measures as this wave of the virus evolves.
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- May/19/22 3:47:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member opposite heckled to me that he does. It is good for him if he does. Wishing does not make it so, because the scientists and experts around the world have not told us that.
We need to start getting prepared to open up the world and our society as we start to resume our lives thanks to the high vaccination rates and the fact that Canadians stepped up and followed all the rules. We need to make sure we bring back the resources to open our airports, that all government services with respect to passports and the like are fully available, and the government is doing so.
Can we do better? Of course we can do better, and we will continue to do better so that as this pandemic comes to an end we can resume our lives the way we used to live prior to the beginning of this pandemic.
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- May/19/22 4:50:12 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to talk about the words “two years” that the hon. member used. I want to thank Canadians because it has been over two years, and it has been a long two years. I want to thank them for their sacrifices. I want to thank them for protecting their families when they were asked to, for social distancing, for staying home, for wearing masks and for hunkering down. I want to thank them because they sacrificed that. It is because they received their vaccines and got our vaccination rates to very elevated levels, protecting themselves and their loved ones, that we are able to exit the pandemic in a very safe and prudent manner under responsible leadership from all governments collaborating together.
Yes, we need to continue to follow the public health guidelines. We must maintain a high level of confidence in the measures we put in place, directed by health officials. We have seen a loosening of the restrictions occur. I hope to continue—
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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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