44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 17, 2022 11:00AM
Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for pointing out that this, in fact, is due to the NDP bringing it forward. That is kind of him. I did notice, however, that he spent a lot of his speech talking about things other than dental care. I wonder if that was because of his worries about going back to his constituents and explaining to them why he does not support dental care for children under 12.
My colleague talked about the $10-billion price tag. I wonder how he feels about what we just heard: the fact that there are tax evaders in this country who are evading 30 billion dollars' worth of tax. If we actually took care of that, we could take care of the teeth of children in this country. I wonder if he could comment on that, please.
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Madam Speaker, I want to take a moment today to wish all of my colleagues in the House of Commons a happy Thanksgiving. We have not been in this place since then, and I want to reach out to everyone and extend that greeting.
I want to note that I am certain that many of us, when we were in our constituencies last week, heard from our constituents that the price of food, the price of fuel and the cost of living in Canada is becoming untenable. It is becoming something that Canadians cannot handle. It is incumbent on all of us in this place to stand up and find ways to work together with other parties and other members to make life more affordable for Canadians. I am absolutely convinced that one of the ways we can do that is with dental care.
Our job here is to support those people who do not have the same things we have. It is to support people in Canada and around the world in meeting their human rights and needs. Therefore, it would be remiss of me, as an Albertan and an Alberta MP, to not take a moment here to deeply condemn the comments made by our very new Premier of Alberta.
I want to tell the House about people: people living in poverty; people who are houseless; people with disabilities; people living without drinking water; indigenous people in this country, particularly women and girls; the families and children who went to residential schools, and those children who lost their lives; BIPOC folks; LGBTQ2S+ and SOGI folks; members of the Jewish community; members of the Muslim community; and women in Iran, Afghanistan and Ukraine. These are the people the Conservative Premier of Alberta said were not as discriminated against as the unvaccinated in our province.
I want to add to that and say that we need to look at these lists of people who have suffered unbearably and not discount all of that to say that the people who have suffered the most are the people who chose not to take a free, safe, miraculous and scientifically proven vaccine. I spent much of last year in this place talking about how we needed to get vaccines to other places in the world that did not have access to them, but our premier, the Conservative Premier of Alberta, has discounted every other group that has suffered harm and suffered devastatingly during this pandemic. I would be remiss if I did not raise that in this place.
Today, we are talking about dental care, and this is another opportunity for me to point out that the Conservatives do not seem to have a clue at all. We are talking about dental care for children under 12 years of age. The Leader of the Opposition has had dental care for himself and his children for almost 20 years, and all members of the Conservative Party have a gold-plated dental package that allows them to take care of their teeth, their children's teeth and their spouse's teeth, yet they do not want that for every other person in Canada. My children will never not be able to get their teeth fixed because they have access to a dental program that allows them to get their teeth fixed. The idea that the Conservatives would not want that for every child in this country, the idea that the things they have and their children have are not things they would want children across this country to have, baffles me. I do not understand.
I walk around in my constituency, and I hope we all do as it is very important. Edmonton Strathcona is of course the most beautiful constituency in the country, but I hope we all walk around in our constituencies. I am hearing from folks across the board who are delighted with dental care. They are delighted this is finally happening. It was recommended in 1968, but it is finally happening because of the NDP.
Do the Conservatives not walk around in their ridings? Do they not talk to their constituents? Do they not understand what is there?
One of the other things I wanted to point out is that we are hearing in this place that this is not needed because there is a program already that helps low-income Canadians. In Alberta, one needs to make around $27,000 to be able to access some services. Basically, one needs to be living that close to the poverty line to be able to access just a few of those services.
If one does not believe children should have access to dental care and does not think it is important for the Canadian government to support that, is there an economic argument we can make? Can we explain to the Conservatives how much it costs when a child ends up in the emergency room because they cannot afford preventive dental care and how much more it costs later on when we do not do the basic dental care at the outset?
When Conservatives say not to worry because people have dental care, pharmacare and all of these things, it is not true. It is not true for the vast majority of Canadians, and they know that.
One other thing I wanted to bring up in my speech today is that I am so incredibly proud to be part of the New Democratic Party that has brought dental care forward to the House of Commons. My colleague before me from Timmins—James Bay mentioned just how incredible it is to be able to say we were able to push the Liberals, and I think he called them Teletubbies, and get them to do this work, and to hold our horses because there is more we can do. That is kind of what I want to talk about.
Dental care is great, but what else do we need? We need pharmacare. We need eye care. We need mental health supports in this country. As people struggle with COVID, the cost of living and all of these things, there is the desperate need—
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Madam Speaker, we need to have things like pharmacare, eye care, mental health support, supports for people living with disabilities and supports for indigenous people, who have not even basic rights being given to them. We need to have support for people around the world. We have a food crisis. Putin is once again threatening famine to millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. We need to be supporting women getting an education in Afghanistan and other places around the world.
I know what the Conservatives will say. They will say that we cannot afford it and pay for it. There are a few things I want to say to them. First of all, we do have some solutions. The first solution is something I hope they will support today, which is the motion we brought forward where we would make sure grocery stores are not able to gouge consumers and that grocery stores are not able to make massive profits while the cost of food goes up in Canada.
We have suggested a profiteering tax. This is a great idea, and in fact, something the Conservatives in the United Kingdom have done. We could do that. We could have wealth taxes. There is $30 billion of unclaimed taxes we need to go after. It is always going to be a shock to me, but I am standing up here on the same side as the CEO of Shell begging the government to tax corporations at a higher rate so that the burden of paying for social programs, which are so vital, falls equally and does not fall on everyday Canadians and small businesses in our communities, and so that the corporations and the utlrawealthy are paying their fair share. To me, this does not seem like it is brain surgery. This seems very doable and easy.
When we talk about how we are going to pay for it, we have a world of options. Maybe, as my friend from Timmins—James Bay mentioned, if one wants to hold tight, I would be happy to bring those ideas forward. The NDP is happy to push the government to make those things happen. We are going to be doing it today. I am extremely proud of that motion. I look forward to answering questions.
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Madam Speaker, I apologize to my colleague for calling the member a Teletubby. I know it was meant in good fun.
In terms of the situation in Alberta, absolutely we need to make sure that all children in Alberta have access to dental care, but I think he is getting at the idea that, as a parliamentarian who loves Edmonton Strathcona, I want to make sure children in Nova Scotia, children in B.C. and children in Yukon, all of them, have access to the same dental care program, that they can all access dental care and that there are no gaps or holes that families and young children could fall through.
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Madam Speaker, that is interesting to me because I think what the member is basically saying is that we should leave this to the private sector, which brings me back to where I started with my comments on the Premier of Alberta.
I will say that, as a New Democrat, I strongly support universally accessible, publicly delivered health care that includes dental care, that includes pharmacare and that includes care for those who cannot afford to pay for it. I do not understand why the Conservatives think that by wishing it will happen, as if some sort of fairy is going to provide dental care to children. That is not going to happen. We tried that and it does not work. Now it is time to try the NDP way and get kids' teeth fixed.
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Madam Speaker, it is important that we have these conversations and this debate, but frankly that is not what has been happening. The obstruction, deflection and inability to do any work in this place because of the some of the members of the opposition mean that it is very important that we move on this. It is very important that we get the support out to people as fast as we possibly can.
I am very supportive of this bill. I am very supportive of working with people from all parties to make this bill stronger, and I look forward to conversations with the member.
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- Oct/17/22 3:06:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, for eight months, Ukrainians have heroically defended their country against Putin's genocidal invasion, yet the government's response has been slow and ineffective. The sanctions regime is a mess, with no enforcement and no accountability. The humanitarian aid and the supplies for Ukraine that the government has promised have not been delivered. Even Ukrainian MPs have said Canada's response is “just unexplainable”. Now the Conservative premier, Danielle Smith, says that Ukraine should submit.
Ukraine needs and deserves our support. When will the government finally act to support Ukrainians?
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