- Member of Parliament
- Minister of Health
- Liberal
- Ajax
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 64%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $134,982.00
- Government Page
- Nov/9/23 3:06:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the pandemic was a really difficult time. It was impossible to imagine that there would ever be a vaccine available for the entire population. At that point, the government made sure to make a choice that took into account every legitimate option. As a result, our response to the pandemic was one of the best in the world. The vaccine was available to all Canadians. We are really proud of that.
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- Oct/21/22 11:25:12 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, CBSA is looking into this matter. It is aware of concerns with respect to the contract. I can assure the hon. member opposite that in all matters with respect to contracts, we adhere to the absolute highest standards and demand those standards in every interaction of the government.
Again, I would point out the imperative nature of the action that the ArriveCAN app was able to facilitate. We were in a situation in which the opposition was calling for the border to be closed. We wanted to make sure Canadians could travel safely. We introduced an app that facilitated that in a time of crisis and made sure that Canadians could travel.
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- Oct/21/22 11:43:26 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, as I have already explained, the agency responsible for contracts is well aware that there are questions. In every situation, in any situation, we will ensure that we are fully accountable. We will answer questions. We will monitor the situation to ensure that our system is working properly.
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- Sep/18/23 3:23:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to table, in both official languages, the report on the procurement and distribution of COVID–19 rapid tests.
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- Mar/28/23 3:03:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, again, the use of consultants is an ability that allows the government to maintain flexibility in difficult times. As an example, during the pandemic we had to vastly increase our ability to be there for Canadians and to be there for small business owners to make sure that their businesses did not fail so that they could have the success we are seeing in the incredible jobs recovery, which is one of the strongest of our comparator nations. It is in fact due to the ability to use the flexibility of contracts to achieve that. To mis-characterize that or to try to create shadows with it is irresponsible.
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- Mar/28/23 3:02:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is important to be very careful how we characterize the use of consultant services. When a government is, for example, in a circumstance like a pandemic when it needs to scale up and expand its impact at a particular moment in time, it is important to be able to use contracting services so that we do not create permanent costs by engaging permanent employees. The use of contracts allows flexibility in government to expand to deliver services without permanently increasing costs. It is irresponsible to misrepresent that and to hold it out as something other than what it is.
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- Feb/16/23 3:01:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the party opposite, the Conservatives, have on a number of occasions said to get out of the way so they can step in. I think they are missing our democratic process. They have to face an election. They have faced a number of elections where their policies were rejected. Maybe they should reflect on why their policies were rejected.
They undercut our efforts all over the world to deal with climate change, and they were seen as an agent to destroy action on climate change in the world. They have refused to take action to improve Canada's employment situation or child care, and now they are refusing to vote on dental care. They are good on rhetoric, not on action.
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- Feb/15/23 3:06:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have already indicated that these are decisions made by the public service at arm's length and that it is inappropriate for the members opposite to imply they would use political influence to influence these contracts, but I will talk about what has grown since the Conservatives left power and we have had the opportunity to serve Canadians.
As I indicated earlier, there are almost two million more people who have jobs today than when the Conservatives were in power. There are 2.7 million fewer people in poverty, hundreds of thousands of children and hundreds of thousands of seniors who are not in poverty today. That is what has improved. That is what has changed since the Conservatives left power.
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- Feb/15/23 3:05:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has been in this place for some time. He would recognize that he is absolutely correct to state that the public servants we have are the best in the world. We owe them a tremendous debt for all they do, and that is why we ensure that they are the ones who actually make the decisions with respect to those contracts. Those are made at arm's length. The reality is that one day the Conservatives are trying to cook up these conspiracies and talk about “shadow” whatever they are talking about, and the next day they are talking about Dominic Barton, the former campaign manager to Stephen Harper. They are saying he is right and should be lauded as one of the great Canadians.
I do not know what they are talking about over there.
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- Feb/14/23 3:02:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on numerous occasions the member opposite has inferred that political interference would be something that they would engage in to tell the public service who they would engage in contracts.
Let me say that, on this side of the House, we will tolerate no such action. The independence of the public service in engaging contracts is absolutely important. The number of conspiracy theories the member has peddled have been disproven in front of committee. There are forums on Reddit where he can continue to pursue these, but I would suggest that the House of Commons is not the appropriate forum.
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- Feb/14/23 3:00:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the use of contracts by the government, which is done independently, at arms length, by the public service, is something that is incredibly important in the provision of services.
I would say to the member opposite that right now there are almost two million more Canadians who have jobs who did not when the Conservatives were there. There are 2.7 million Canadians who are not in poverty now, who were when the Conservatives were in power. The idea that progress is not being made is not substantiated by fact.
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- Feb/13/23 2:58:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I already indicated, the contracts that are engaged in are done so at arm's length. They are conducted by the federal public service. I am sure the opposition is not inferring that, if it were in government, it would politically interfere, because that would be entirely inappropriate.
What we can say is the contracts are engaged by the federal public service to expand its ability to give services to Canadians.
Conservatives have tried many times to raise nefarious conspiracies at committee. I am sorry to say they have not been successful. They will not be successful there, and they will not be successful here.
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- Feb/13/23 2:57:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member across is an hon. member, and he has been in the House for some period of time. He would know that the contracts engaged in by the public service are not to have political interference, and his suggestion just a moment ago that his government would influence the decision of that contract is extremely concerning.
The reality is that, as has been clearly identified at committee, this process is independent. The contracts are used to expand the ability of the public service to do its job so that it does not permanently increase staffing, which allows flexibility in the system.
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- Feb/13/23 2:56:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is clear that, when the government awards contracts, the process is independent. Decisions are made by the public service. This is done to the highest standards in the world every time. That is how it is now and how it will continue to be.
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- Feb/10/23 12:03:51 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I did not rise in this place and say that Canadians have never had it so good. What I said is that we are living through some of the most challenging times anywhere in the world and that it is small comfort when times are as difficult as this that our inflation in this country is less than that of the U.S., the U.K., the eurozone and the averages of the G7 and G20. It is small comfort that we are leading in terms of GDP growth, employment growth and female participation in the workforce. However, I say to those people that we are there for them with programs and services that lift them up.
On the other side, the Conservatives are only doing one thing: amplifying—
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- Feb/10/23 12:00:09 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, these are the hardest times the world has gone through since the Second World War, and they can laugh about that, but the reality is that in every corner of this planet people are facing the most difficult and challenging times that have confronted humanity in a generation. The reality is that Canada is leading in that environment.
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- Feb/10/23 11:59:19 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, of course, the minister in question has taken responsibility and has apologized, but I have great difficulty when the member opposite says that Canadians have never had it worse.
The reality is that we are in incredibly difficult times. We have lived through a global pandemic. There is a war going on in Ukraine. We are dealing with global inflation. However, the idea that this is the worst time Canadians have ever faced is offensive. Is he saying that these times are worse than the world wars? Is he saying this time is worse than the Great Depression?
Canadians are resilient. They have risen in every moment, and when—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Feb/10/23 11:57:59 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, for the first part, it has been seven years and not eight years, and I know the Conservatives have a great difficulty with math.
Talking about other errors in arithmetic, the reality of the Conservatives when they were in power is that they did not talk about those who were dealing with poverty, and they did not talk about the most vulnerable when they had an opportunity. It was this government that set targets on poverty, and that has actually hit and exceeded them every single year. It is this government that has reduced the levels of poverty in this country, such that over two million fewer people are in poverty now than when the Conservatives were in power. That means over 800,000 fewer children are now in poverty than when the Conservatives were in power.
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- Feb/9/23 3:03:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member across would know that contracts engaged by the public service are done at arm's length. I really hope the member is not saying that if the Conservatives ever had the opportunity to be in government, which I sincerely hope they do not, they would interfere in those contracts and choose politically which contracts would happen. That is what it sounded like from his question.
The reality is that contracts exist to expand the ability of the public service to do its work. Those contracts are engaged at the highest standard. Canada is known internationally for those standards, and they are done at arm's length.
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- Feb/7/23 3:08:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I iterated previously in the House, the work that we engage in and the decisions that are made to engage in those contracts are an independent process. They are run by the public service. They allow the public service to expand their impact without permanently expanding the number of employees.
That public service has been there for Canadians through an incredibly difficult time in the pandemic to make sure that we delivered critical services to Canadians. What these contracts allowed the public service to do was to expand their impact without permanently expanding the number of employees.
There are many wild accusations made by the other side. Already, many of them have been disproved. They have the opportunity in committee to be able to explore these issues and whatever other conspiracies they wish—
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