Government Orders
Madam Speaker, there is good news for children in Quebec. Quebec's system partially covers dental care for children up to the age of nine and we are proud of that. The good news is that the Canadian government is going to expand that coverage to older children and to more types of care. Preventive health care is essential in Quebec and all across the country. We want the sick to be properly looked…
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Madam Speaker, there are two different things. First, NIHB, as the member knows, covers most dental care services, and other health services, for indigenous peoples. We have been investing more resources into that program, and we will be investing more resources over time. Second, this is a key part of the House agenda over the next few days. We really hope that all parties will support this piece…
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Madam Speaker, we all know, and I am sure the member knows this as well, that health and health care are global. It is all part of an entire body. It would be unfortunate to say that we should treat one part of our body or mind and not treat the other parts. They are all connected, and that is why investments in dental care, mental care, long-term care, home care and community care are all importa…
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Mr. Speaker, I am very grateful for that question. The member pointed to a health care crisis. We have a health care crisis because we have a health care workers' crisis. We need to support them through the very hard time they are going through, with the investments we have already announced and implemented, including the $2-billion investment we are making now to support a reduction in surgeries …
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to table the report on the procurement and distribution of COVID-19 rapid tests. I would like to take a moment to welcome the new cohort of pages for 2022-23. The hon. member for Hull—Aylmer and I were also pages here in the House of Commons, many, many years ago. We have very fond memories of the happy moments, but also the responsibilities, that come with this position.…
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moved for leave to introduce Bill C-31, An Act respecting cost of living relief measures related to dental care and rental housing. (Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
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Mr. Speaker, first, I would like to congratulate and thank the member for Châteauguay—Lacolle for the remarkable work she is doing for her community. The good news today is that we have a new dental benefit to help low- and middle-income families, who together have a total of 500,000 children under the age of 12, with up to $650 per year or $1,300 over two years. This benefit will help lower the c…
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Mr. Speaker, we are obviously devastated by the news every day of so many Canadians dying of mental health issues, issues that can be cared for and prevented for the reasons and example the member just gave. We are investing, and very mindful of the need to invest, in the mental health of Canadians. My colleague, the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, is working very hard on that. She has a…
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Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to be able to speak to that matter. We have had many discussions and a lot of action in the last few weeks and months with my health minister colleagues. It is true that our health care workers are very burdened physically and mentally with COVID-19 and many other serious issues. In fact, I am speaking again this afternoon with my health minister colleagues on that topi…
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Mr. Speaker, today I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the first report on COVID‑19 rapid test procurement and distribution.
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Mr. Speaker, there is no secret. The data are available. The experts have been very clear. Consider this example. During the omicron wave, a total of 163,000 deaths could have been prevented in the United States alone if the U.S. had had a higher vaccination rate like we have in Canada. That said, Canada still has a lot more work to do. We need to keep increasing our third-dose vaccination rate to…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking our colleague from Pierrefonds—Dollard for his excellent work. Last week I did indeed have the opportunity to participate in the World Health Organization's 75th World Health Assembly. The theme was “Health for peace, peace for health”. At the assembly, I was able to meet, talk and work with many of my counterparts regarding the fight against the pand…
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Mr. Speaker, here is a basic number: 690,000. That is the number of hospitalizations that the United States would have avoided, just in the last few months during omicron, had it had a high vaccination rate like the one we have in Canada. As I said earlier, there is more work to do because, unfortunately, however difficult it may be for some to hear and understand, the pandemic is still with us an…
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Mr. Speaker, I am always happy to talk science when it comes to such an important topic. Take the number 130,000. That is the number of hospitalizations that the United Kingdom was able to prevent in recent weeks because it has a high third-dose vaccination rate. Because so many people have gotten vaccinated, they are better protected individually and are also helping to protect their communities …
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Mr. Speaker, I am very glad to receive this question from a member who is normally less interested in health. Obviously his interest in health will be followed up on, and I look forward to working with him on this particular matter.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my wonderful colleague from Fredericton for the excellent work that she does. I also want to thank all nurses. It is very important to acknowledge the work that they do during National Nursing Week and during every week of the year. I also want to acknowledge Linda Silas, the president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, and her entire team. I thank them for giving me…
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Mr. Speaker, let me say what everyone knows, which is that vaccination is not punishment. Vaccination is protection. When we vaccinate ourselves not only do we protect ourselves against a disease that can be very serious, but we also protect those around us whom we like and we love. Therefore, we protect them and their community. With respect to vaccination, just in the past few months, the rate o…
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Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to answer this question. There is no secret and no secret evidence. Everyone knows that vaccinations save lives. About 163,000 lives would have been saved in the United States just from omicron if they had had a higher vaccination rate. In Canada, we have been vaccinated to a large extent, and that is why we have been successful, with one of the lowest rates of death i…
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Mr. Speaker, the reason we can relax public health measures is that Canada has high vaccination rates. Without vaccination in the last six months of 2021, without strong public health measures, by some estimates, we would have had 400,000 deaths in Canada during that period. We cannot choose to relax public health measures without having the right vaccination rates.
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Mr. Speaker, I am very glad to hear this question, because defending the rights of women here and across Canada is absolutely essential. We will be there every step of the way to do that. I look forward to making further announcements. I ask my colleague to be watching closely for what is soon to be news on that particular front.
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Madam Speaker, the evidence is not secret. Everyone knows that vaccines save lives. In the United States, 165,000 lives would have been saved just during the omicron crisis if they had had a better vaccination uptake. One hundred and sixty-five thousand lives in the omicron crisis: that is 50% more people than in any one of our ridings in the House.
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Mr. Speaker, everyone in the House obviously agrees on the importance of being responsible and prudent. We have done what Canadians have expected of us in the past two years. Canadians have done what we expected of them in the past two years, which was to follow public health measures and to get vaccinated. Because of that, in Canada we have achieved one of the lowest death rates in the world. If …
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Mr. Speaker, 135,000 is the number of lives lost in the United States because it had a lower vaccination rate than we had in Canada, and 135,000 people is about the size of any one of the ridings in our country. There were 135,000 lives lost because the other country had a lower vaccination rate. That is not only a personal but a social tragedy.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate very much the key word, which is “freedom”. The reason we have the freedom to relax those measures in Canada is that many Canadians, in fact, the vast majority of Canadians, have received their first, their second and, in many cases, their third dose. When we hear the opposition speak about public health measures, but badly about vaccination, we have to make a choice. We …
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Mr. Speaker, I am very glad to receive a question from an MP from Newfoundland, with which we have a great relationship. We are very grateful for their hard work through the last two years. We are also very grateful for the important work that they do every day to provide people in Newfoundland with primary care providers in health: family physicians. In order to reduce the backlog, a $2-billion i…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from London West for her excellent work in support of the LGBTQ+ community. Today is a great day for anti-discrimination, justice and equity. Canadians have been waiting for this day for many years. Health Canada has approved Canadian Blood Services' request to eliminate the deferral period for men who have sex with men and to replace this policy with a single uni…
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moved: That, notwithstanding any standing order, special order or usual practice of the House, (a) on the day of the adoption of this order, the ordinary hour of daily adjournment shall be 12 a.m., that until Thursday, June 23, 2022, a minister of the Crown may, with the agreement of the House leader of another recognized party, rise from his or her seat at any time during a sitting, but no later …
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Mr. Speaker, I am so pleased to be able to hear our colleagues speak about this great day we are having today in removing discrimination in this particular matter. As our colleague said, we are so grateful to the activists, as well as the scientists, for having worked so hard over the last few years to get to that outcome. We look forward to working more together to make sure that Canada is a coun…
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Mr. Speaker, I am so glad to get this question because it points to our great collaboration with the Government of Newfoundland and the great minister of health in Newfoundland. We have worked extremely well together over the last few months. I want to congratulate Newfoundlanders, in particular, for having some of the highest vaccination rates in Canada for children and adults, including boosters…
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Mr. Speaker, once again, I thank my colleagues for giving me a chance to talk about the $3-billion investment in mental health that is already allocated in our budgets. We look forward to being able to transfer that investment to the provinces and territories to help look after Canadians' mental health. We know how much people's mental health has suffered, including that of health care workers who…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to join the member in thanking and congratulating all health care workers in Quebec, who have worked so hard over the past two years to protect us against COVID-19. Thanks to the extraordinary co-operation of all levels of government, we collectively saved tens of thousands of lives and tens of billions of dollars in revenue for families and small businesses. We are very …
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Mr. Speaker, the Canadian government has invested a total of $63 billion over the past two years to support all of the amazing work that my dear colleague just spoke about. This $63 billion was invested to protect the health and safety of workers and residents, and the outcomes we have seen have been extraordinary, especially compared to what might have happened under another government or in anot…
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Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to our colleague for generously giving me the opportunity to add further information to the previous question. Exactly 10 days ago, we announced $2 billion. That is an extra $2 billion, no strings attached, to help the provinces and territories clear the terrible backlog in surgery, treatment and diagnosis, because we know just how important this is to the provinces, the…
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Mr. Speaker, I once again sincerely thank my colleague. I will be able to add more information to the list. One billion dollars is the sum we agreed to transfer to the provinces and territories just a few days ago. We are really looking forward to making an official announcement to all the provinces and territories. That money will help take care of our seniors, who went through very hard times an…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for giving me one more opportunity to speak about the importance of vaccination. Just this morning, we were informed of a recent U.S. study that showed that, between June and November 2021, had there been more vaccinated Americans, they would have saved about $14 billion in the cost of hospitalization and 700,000 would not have ended up in the hospit…
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Mr. Speaker, “cruel” is indeed the right word when we speak about the impacts of COVID-19 on our families, our children, our seniors, our economy, our workers and our businesses over the last two years. It has been extremely harsh and cruel. The reason we are able to make life more normal now is that we are continuing the fight against COVID. Living with COVID means continuing the fight against CO…
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Mr. Speaker, again, we are very grateful to the almost 30 million Canadians who got vaccinated. That is the reason we were able to avoid the closing of schools and the shutting down of businesses, restaurants, theatres and cinemas. That is the reason we will be able, on April 1, to make it easier for people to travel into Canada by changing the prearrival testing rules. This is all very good news,…
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Mr. Speaker, the reason we are able to lift restrictions is that we have a large number of people here in Canada who have been vaccinated. I just spoke a moment ago about the recent U.S. study. What I did not mention is that in that study 163,000 deaths would have been averted between June and November last year in the United States, had there been more vaccinated Americans during that period.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Alfred-Pellan for his hard work and for his excellent question. On Friday we announced $2 billion in additional unconditional funding to help the provinces and territories address the delays in treatments, diagnosis and surgeries; to support health care workers, who have suffered considerably because of COVID‑19; to improve access to primary care; to create d…
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Mr. Speaker, I think the member of Parliament was very right in pointing to the difficulties many millions of Canadians have lived through in the last two years in the biggest health crisis in over a century and the biggest economic crisis since the Second World War. The reason we went through this crisis well in Canada, and better than in many other places, is that we have stuck together and we h…
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Mr. Speaker, I am very glad to answer this question. Because of our joint work together with the provinces and territories over the last two years, which involved a lot of difficult decisions and difficult actions on the part of individual Canadians, together we essentially saved tens of thousands of lives. Had we not done that and had the types of public policies and vaccination rates we saw sout…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank our dear colleague from Mississauga—Streetsville for her hard work. Last Friday we announced additional support of $2 billion to help provinces and territories reduce backlogs in surgeries and treatments and also to support our health care workers to ensure better access to a doctor or family health team, to create digital health records for all, to improve mental health and s…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for giving me the opportunity to say more about the important investment we announced on Friday: a $2‑billion unconditional top‑up to the Canada health transfer, in addition to the $45 billion, effective April 1, to reduce wait times for treatments, surgeries and diagnostics, which have done so much harm over the past few months. It is time to clear the ba…
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Mr. Speaker, trusting and working together is exactly what we have been doing over the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, with record investments in health and safety worth $63 billion, in addition to $43 billion through the Canada health transfer. Most importantly, this exceptional collaboration has saved tens of thousands of lives in Canada. Tens of billions of dollars have been injected t…
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Madam Speaker, this is a question about Service Canada, which I like very much. I used to be the minister responsible for Service Canada and I still remember how hard the workers at Service Canada work every day. It has been very difficult for them over the last two years because of family stress and professional stress. I think we all want to thank and congratulate them for their work and for con…
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Madam Speaker, this allows me to highlight the role, importance and benefits of a federation that has been working together for more than two years. The reason why Canada was able to emerge from the pandemic earlier and in better shape than many other countries is that we had the benefit of a federation where governments worked together to deliver 81 million doses of vaccines, 400 million rapid te…
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Madam Speaker, the member is absolutely right. Not only are we listening, but we have been working together for several months now. My colleague, the former health minister, did just that for several months, from the beginning of the pandemic. We talk almost every week. We are working together. That is why we now have a Canada health transfer that is going to increase from $43 billion to $45 billi…
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Madam Speaker, I will repeat what I said yesterday. I have a great deal of respect for my colleague from Mégantic—L'Érable and the work that he does. He does great work, not only within his Conservative caucus, but also in the House of Commons. I will always be there to help him do his job. As I said, if he wants to see other studies and work, he can contact me, and I will be pleased to continue w…
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Mr. Speaker, I have these brief reactions. The member is correct in speaking to the impact of COVID-19 on mental health. About half of Canadians report that their mental health has suffered because of COVID-19. Eighty per cent of health care workers also say that their mental health has fallen. I was speaking to a representative of the Canadian Pharmacists Association yesterday. About 90% of pharm…
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Mr. Speaker, the member asked two questions, one I cannot answer and the other I will. When will the COVID‑19 pandemic end? Unfortunately, I do not think we can answer that today. However, if my colleague wants access to more information in addition to what I have already provided, I would be happy to provide it in the most appropriate way possible. I tried to be as clear as possible, but maybe I …
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