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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 147

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 13, 2022 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 147 - Dec/13/22
The Deputy Speaker
  • Dec/13/22 12:02:26 p.m.
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The Chair has received notice of a request for an emergency debate. I invite the hon. member for Burnaby South to rise and make a brief intervention.
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Context: House Hansard - 147 - Dec/13/22
Mr. Jagmeet Singh (Burnaby South, NDP)
  • Dec/13/22 12:02:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am requesting an emergency debate concerning the state of children's hospitals and health care as it relates to children in our country. We have heard the serious news that in Ottawa, the nation's capital, the Red Cross had to be called in to assist at the children's hospital. The Red Cross is called when there is a disaster. In Alberta, trailers have been set up in front of children's hospitals because of the demand and over-crowding in children's hospitals. Children are dying because of respiratory illnesses. We have heard heartbreaking stories from health care professionals about how bad the system is. We need a debate to lay out how serious the crisis is, to hear the stories and the experiences of health care workers and patients, and to chart a course to protect our health care system. We need to keep it publicly administered and ensure that everyone gets the care they need, particularly children, as they are being impacted hard right now. That is why I am requesting an emergency debate in the House today.
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Context: House Hansard - 147 - Dec/13/22
Mr. Garnett Genuis
  • Dec/13/22 6:41:34 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member is trying to constantly shift this into a debate about whether or not the emergency benefits were a good policy. As he pointed out, all parties supported providing emergency supports during COVID. However, the question is not whether these emergency benefits were required and were valuable. The question is whether the government was right to pay tens of billions of dollars to people who were not eligible for the programs. That is, the House agreed to specific criteria for these programs, and tens of billions of dollars, according to the Auditor General, very likely went to individuals who were not eligible for those programs. The government said that it had to get the money out quickly at the beginning, fair enough, but the bargain was that there would have to be clear, effective, after-the-fact verification in every case. Either we have to do the verification up front, which is normally what happens, or we have to do some kind of verification after the fact. However, the government has said clearly, in response to the Auditor General's recommendation, that it will not, in fact, do this verification in every case, and the minister attacked the Auditor General on this.
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