- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- Courtenay—Alberni
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 66%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $148,159.67
- Government Page
- May/30/24 11:02:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I find it pretty rich when Conservatives start talking about expanding pharmacare when they are doing everything they can to block it. Three years ago, they voted against pharmacare. They could have brought forward amendments to expand it to cover people with rare diseases. They did not do that. In fact, they are saying that people are already covered.
Becky in my riding writes, “Our out-of-pocket costs for my son's insulin and devices come to just over $11,000 per year. It is so expensive sometimes that the pharmacy calls me to give me a heads-up about how much an order will be, as if we have an option. Without it, he will die. Something like national pharmacare would be a game-changer for us.”
Maybe my colleague can talk about if she would would be willing to work with the NDP and the Conservatives, with everybody coming together, to include rare diseases. She knows that there is a willing partner right here.
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- May/6/24 2:15:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today, on the first day of Mental Health Week, millions of Canadians are unable to access reliable, quality mental health care as they cope with mental health disorders or mental illness in their daily lives.
At some point in our lives, most of us will be touched by mental health issues. However, for too many people in need of mental health care, cost-free universal care is not available in the same way as it is for physical health. Too many must turn to for-profit services, if they can afford them. For some, compassionate care is available from chronically underfunded non-profits in communities far away from hospitals and government services.
Join me on this day, and every day, in the fight for parity of mental health care in our universal system, for sustainable funding for community-based service delivery, and for compassion and kindness in our response to the mental health needs of all Canadians.
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- Apr/30/24 12:32:37 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we continue to hear Conservatives rise in the House and tell us that people in British Columbia are covered for diabetes medication.
Becky, from my riding, wrote, “Our out-of-pocket costs for my son's insulin and devices come to just over $11,000 per year. It is so expensive sometimes that the pharmacy calls me to give me a heads-up about how much an order will be, as if we have an option. Without it, he will die. Something like national pharmacare would be a game-changer for us.”
Why are the Conservatives trying to block pharmacare and insulin for Becky and her kid?
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- Apr/16/24 1:32:34 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we know that the Conservatives have consistently opposed pharmacare. We heard my colleague from Timmins—James Bay highlight that the Conservative deputy leader was a lobbyist for AbbVie, a large pharma company in North America that jacked up its prices on medications for seniors by over 470%. Who really needs pharmacare lobbyists when we have Conservatives here?
I want clarity, because I heard him say, misleading the House, that people in British Columbia are covered for insulin. That is not true.
I am going to give my colleague another chance to clarify that insulin is not free in British Columbia, and in fact, it is a huge cost to many British Columbians, especially working-class British Columbians. Is he going to oppose, for those British Columbians who require insulin, this legislation that would provide them the support they need on life-saving medication, especially when someone loses their job and their deductible is no longer within their affordability level.
I would like some clarification from my colleague from Cariboo—Prince George.
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- Feb/13/24 11:37:11 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, we want to ensure that we have a system of care in place to ensure that E.F. can actually get access to supports if she is suffering. However, that is not in place anywhere in the country, not in all 10 provinces and three territories. We know that. We are falling far below our OECD partners. Provinces and territories spend between 5% and 7% of their health care budgets on mental health compared to France and Britain that are at 12% and 14% respectively.
As New Democrats, we want to see a medical assistance in dying response where guardrails are in place to protect the most vulnerable. We want to ensure that safe and adequate delivery of medical assistance in dying is in place, but that there still is bodily autonomy and end-of-life choice. We need to have a system in place that the experts support, one that actually responds to medical assistance in dying, that ensures we have the training and that we have addressed all the recommendations of AMAD committee. We have not done that. I know the government is working toward that, but we are very far away from it.
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- Feb/6/23 6:52:31 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the comments from my colleague. I appreciate my colleague addressing workers and the needs of workers.
What I do not appreciate is that the government made a promise in 2021 to deliver a mental health transfer. It has not done that. Our overall health care spending on mental health is between 5% and 7%. In the OECD, the average is 12%. This is unconscionable, that it has not delivered. We need parity when it comes to mental health and physical health in our country. This is costing lives. It is unconscionable that it has delayed on this promise.
I do not want to have to drag everyone here at the end of the day. I do not want to drag us here. I do not want to drag the parliamentary secretaries here. I do not want to keep all the staff here late at night.
Every week I will continue to bring them back here until they deliver on their promise of a mental health transfer. It is costing lives. This is critical. I hope that tomorrow they deliver on the promise and I hope it is a historic day for all of us.
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- Oct/20/22 9:38:08 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the member for Battle River—Crowfoot could attest that it is very rare that we get along or find common ground on issues, but this is one tonight on which I really do appreciate his speech. It was excellent. He talked about a sense of urgency. He shared his personal story and his vulnerability. It was very generous.
We have an issue that we are seeing around this House, which is the need to deal with the patchwork of the provinces that deliver health and the urgency of the need to get resources out to them. We saw that urgency when it came to child care, but the government has not demonstrated that here, on this issue.
Margaret Eaton, CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association, stated that even if the immediate impacts of COVID-19 are subsiding, the mental health effects persist and will likely continue for years to come. The community mental health and addictions sector cannot meet these growing needs with the current patchwork funding and disjointed service delivery model. It is time to overhaul our mental health system.
I cannot say enough about how much—
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Madam Speaker, we know our health care system is fractured. We do not truly have a head-to-toe health care system. It stops here. We know dental care is finally coming in to ensure that people get access to dental care.
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- Sep/22/22 7:36:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this week marks one year since the 2021 election and it has been another difficult year for many, with more uncertainty on the horizon. The impacts of the pandemic continue to be felt in our communities. Our health care system is under intense strain and the rising cost of living is adding stress to the daily lives of Canadians.
In the last election the Liberals made a promise to Canadians that they would take steps to improve access to mental health care here in Canada. That is certainly needed as polls have shown that about half of Canadians suffered from worsened mental health since the onset of the pandemic. Unfortunately, too many Canadians are unable to access mental health care when they need it because of long wait-lists or financial barriers. We need a national mental health wait-time strategy to ensure people can access support in a timely way. We need to break down the financial barriers that keep people from getting the care they need.
A cornerstone of the Liberals' promises on mental health was to establish a new permanent transfer to the provinces and territories to expand publicly funded mental health care and address backlogs. Canadians were told that an initial investment of $4.5 billion over five years would be made in this country through the Canada mental health transfer by the Liberals. Here we are a year later with no idea of when this money will get out the door. When the government announced its intention to establish a $10-a-day child care program, there were deals with all the provinces and territories in place within a year. Meanwhile, the Canada mental health transfer was nowhere to be found in the 2022 budget, and there has been no transparency on when this much-needed investment will be made.
That is why I tabled Motion No. 67, to encourage the government to act without delay in creating this transfer and to take the steps needed to ensure mental health is put on an equal footing in our universal public health care system.
I am going to read the text of Motion No. 67, as it reflects what mental health stakeholders have been telling us and calling for. It states:
That
(a) the House recognize that,
(i) Canada is experiencing a mental health and substance use crisis that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic,
(ii) too many Canadians are unable to access mental health or substance use supports in a timely manner,
(iii) lack of access to community-based mental health and substance use services increases demands on hospital emergency rooms and primary care providers,
(iv) untreated or inadequately treated mental illness carries significant social and economic costs; and
(b) in the opinion of the House, the government should:
(i) without delay develop legislation that will enshrine in law parity between physical and mental health in Canada’s universal public healthcare system, ensure timely access to evidence-based, culturally appropriate, publicly funded mental health and substance use services beyond hospital and physician settings, recognize the importance of investing in the social determinants of health, mental health promotion, and mental illness prevention, and include national performance standards and accountabilities for mental health and substance use services,
(ii) without delay establish the Canada mental health transfer to sustainably fund the provision of mental health and substance use services and disburse an initial investment of $4.5 billion to the provinces and territories,
(iii) report to Parliament annually on progress towards achieving national performance standards for mental health and substance use services.
As we try to recover from the COVID–19 pandemic and navigate uncertain economic times, mental health cannot wait. Therefore, I ask the government when it will follow through on its promises on mental health and deliver help to Canadians who are struggling.
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- May/2/22 11:10:20 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-8
Madam Speaker, just to follow up, my Conservative colleague talked about inflation that is impacting not just Canada, but countries globally.
One thing we do not talk enough about is the skyrocketing concentration of wealth and the rampant inequality that is growing in our country. We see that we have the lowest corporate tax rate in the G7. We have tax havens that are designed to protect the super wealthy.
Does my colleague agree that we have a big issue when it comes to the concentration of wealth at the top and that the super wealthy could afford to contribute more so that we could build affordable housing, so that we could make sure that people have pharmacare and so that we could tackle the toxic drug supply and the overdose crisis? I appreciate my colleague for always speaking and trying to find solutions.
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