Hon. Denise Batters: Senator Gold, last week the Trudeau government ended several federal COVID-19 aid programs with Deputy Prime Minister Freeland saying, “. . . the time for extraordinary COVID support is now over.”

I can tell you some other extraordinary measures that are no longer needed, Senator Gold, like taking someone’s job and benefits away because they can’t or won’t get a vaccination, or preventing a Canadian citizen from being able to board an airplane or train and move freely inside the borders of their own country. Senator Gold, I have asked you twice before when Prime Minister Trudeau would lift his federal vaccine mandates. You didn’t have an answer so I will ask you again, hoping that the third time is the charm. If the Trudeau government now admits that extraordinary measures are no longer needed to assist Canadians with COVID, when will you also end the extraordinary and punitive federal vaccine mandates?

Senator Batters: Senator Gold, you would think that having a job would help with affordability.

Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, stated that Canada is experiencing “decreasing transmission in many areas.” She says waste water levels are “showing signs of a potential plateau.”

The provinces have dropped their mandates. Our allies around the world have done the same. The Trudeau government has ended assistance programs for COVID-19, and yet you refuse to even create a plan to lift these unnecessary federal vaccine mandates. Why?