Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to answer this question. This gives me the opportunity to remind the House of the $72 billion we invested during the COVID‑19 pandemic to support the health and safety of all Canadians, including, of course, Quebeckers, the $45 billion in Canada health transfers that will begin to flow in just a few days, the $4 billion announced last year to deal with all kinds of d…
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Mr. Speaker, the reason we are able to lift these mandates is that we have, in Canada, one of the highest rates of vaccination in the world. In Canada, about 85% of people have had a first dose, 81% two doses and almost 60% a third dose. That is the reason we are able to lift these restrictions. Four hundred thousand people would have been the number of people dying in Canada over 2021 in the abse…
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Mr. Speaker, 135,000 is the number of people in the United States who died because they were insufficiently vaccinated compared to Canadians. It would have been a tragedy if in Canada we had not used that gift that science and scientists gave us a year and a half ago. We are extremely grateful to all the vaccinators and all the Canadians who did the right thing, which is to protect their health an…
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Mr. Speaker, vaccines have prevented 1,600 deaths in recent months because of federal and provincial vaccine mandates. Those 1,600 people are still with us today thanks to vaccine mandates. Estimates suggest that vaccine mandates have also saved us billions of dollars, probably about $4 billion. That is a lot of money and, more importantly, it is a lot of people who have been kept safe and healthy…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to answer this question. The member speaks about the date. April 1 is when there will be no need for a pre-entry rapid or antigen test or molecular test when entering Canada. We do thank Canadians for all the hard work that they have done over the last few months, including vaccinating themselves in large numbers, with 87 million vaccines administered over the last year a…
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Mr. Speaker, 1.1 million is the number that a recent Harvard study told us would have been the additional number of people dying in the United States without vaccination. In Canada, it is about 400,000 people who would have died in 2021 if, first, we did not have vaccination, and second, we did not have strong public health measures. Fortunately, we were not there, and fortunately we are elsewhere…
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Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to answer that question. As the member may know, I come from the wonderful Quebec City. I am very proud of the strong workers, people and partners working for my tourism industry. I understand it is also an important industry for the member. I look forward to further measures, but I would also point out that on Monday, just a few days ago, we announced important measure…
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Mr. Speaker, I am obviously very pleased to hear one more colleague who cares about the industry of tourism. I do as well, as I just said. That is why we are working to protect both the health and safety of workers and travellers, but also to make sure that our tourism industry can thrive. We know how hard it has been for workers and small businesses over the last 23 months, and that is why we loo…
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Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to be able to continue on this topic. The reason I mentioned earlier that we are going through this crisis better and faster than many other countries is that Canadians have made the right choice. We were vaccinated in large numbers. That is why we are seeing large falls in the number of cases and large falls in the number of hospitalizations, and deaths are also decrea…
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Mr. Speaker, the member is entirely right to talk about responsibility, both individual and collective responsibility. Individually speaking, I think most members of the House have been vaccinated and many of them with a booster shot. This is exactly the right thing to do. Collectively, we had, at least on this side of the House and I think we worked collaboratively with opposition parties, the re…
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Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to receive this question from the member from Ontario. I would like to signal that we have been working extremely hard and extremely well with Minister Elliott and the Ontario government over the last few months in order to protect the health and safety of Ontarians. Just to give an example, the vaccination operations that took place in Ontario probably saved thousands …
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Mr. Speaker, a word that comes to my mind is “gratefulness”. I am grateful for our relationship with Minister Merriman and the entire Government of Saskatchewan, who have been there to help the people of Saskatchewan get through this crisis, and I am grateful to the millions of people in Saskatchewan who made the right choice and got vaccinated.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Saint-Laurent for her excellent question and her excellent work. Last Thursday, Medicago's Covifenz vaccine was approved by Health Canada. It is the first Canadian vaccine approved by Health Canada. It is also the first approved vaccine in the world to use plant-based technologies. The work of Medicago's workers and partners is giving Canadians one more too…
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Mr. Speaker, again, I am very grateful for the question, in particular because my region, my city and my riding of Quebec are of exceptional quality. Quebec has attracted thousands, if not millions, of foreigners and tourists over the years. We are very proud of that, and that is why we are so proud that the measures to which the member alludes have been reduced. They were relaxed just a day ago. …
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Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to speak about Saskatchewan. I want to congratulate my colleague, Health Minister Merriman, for all his hard work and collaboration over the last few months. We worked really well together on rapid testing, on PPE, on the Paxlovid treatment against COVID-19, and on vaccinations. I want to congratulate all the people in Saskatchewan for having been vaccinated in such …
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Mr. Speaker, I am very glad to hear my colleague speak about science. The science has been very clear, over the last year and a half, that what works is vaccination. Vaccination is not a punishment. Vaccination is protection. Almost 90% of adult Canadians have been vaccinated twice. We are very grateful to the scientists of this country and other places. They have provided us with vaccines that wo…
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Mr. Speaker, speaking of division, I think that in Canada most people are not divided. On the contrary, they support vaccination and think it is important. Eighty per cent of people have chosen to get fully vaccinated. Nearly 50% have gotten a booster dose and that number is going up every day. Every day, 150,000 Canadians are receiving their booster shot and 10,000 others are getting their first …
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Mr. Speaker, the opposition would like someone, perhaps the health minister, to declare that COVID-19 will end on a particular date. Unfortunately, that is not how the virus operates and that is not what science tells us. What science has told us is that we need to be prudent and responsible in assuming federal leadership. The federal government does not dictate everything. A lot of the restrictio…
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Mr. Speaker, I am obviously very happy to rise this evening, during the 44th Parliament of Canada, to support Bill C‑10, which would give Health Canada the legislative authority to spend up to $2.5 billion to purchase and distribute rapid tests across the country. This bill will help the provinces and territories meet their needs for COVID‑19 rapid tests and will continue to support the national p…
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Mr. Speaker, I forgot to mention that I will be splitting my time with the member for Winnipeg North. Testing, as we all know, plays a key role in our efforts to contain and mitigate the pandemic. Identifying infected individuals helps to prevent further person-to-person transmission of the virus. As everyone knows, health care services are struggling to meet the demand for polymerase chain reacti…
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Madam Speaker, I have a great relationship with Minister Main: my colleague, the minister of health in Nunavut. We have been working together really well, and I want to commend him and his government on their leadership and what they have done over the past few weeks and months. It has been critical for us to do that together, because the people in Nunavut are facing challenges that southerners ar…
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Mr. Speaker, maybe I should extend the same kind words to my own better half. I wish her a very happy Valentine's Day, but I doubt she will be watching us tonight. If our better halves are watching us tonight, and do not have other more important things to do, then a happy Valentine's Day to all of them. On the issue of vaccination, obviously we know how important vaccinations are for getting thro…
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moved that Bill C-10, An Act respecting certain measures related to COVID-19, be read the second time and referred to a committee of the whole.
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Madam Speaker, the answer is yes. That is in part thanks to the advocacy of the member for New Westminster—Burnaby. He is a strong leader in his caucus. In fact, I have been engaged with many other leaders in B.C. over the last few days and weeks, as elsewhere in Canada. Those rapid tests, as the member mentioned, are essential to keep fighting the virus, and I welcome his input and the input of h…
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Mr. Speaker, with respect to the consideration of Government Business No. 8, I move: That debate be not further adjourned.
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Madam Speaker, I agree with the member opposite that this is a very important bill. I believe the member understands the reasons, but I want to make sure everyone knows those reasons. Rapid tests have become extremely important for millions of Canadians over the last few weeks. Once we started not only procuring them but delivering them in October 2020, which is obviously more than a year ago, we …
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Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to hear my colleague from La Prairie talking about dialogue. We are going to be having one all day with many hours of important discussion. There will be other debates to follow, because we are only at second reading for this bill. I have had a lot of discussions over the past few weeks with my counterpart from Quebec, Mr. Dubé. Thanks to those discussions and our …
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Madam Speaker, he is entirely right. These rapid tests were delivered in large numbers to the provinces and territories for the purposes he mentioned. They would also be delivered directly to chambers of commerce, the Canadian Red Cross and community organizations that have direct and strong links with Canadians in their communities across Canada. They have been extremely useful since October 2020…
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Madam Speaker, my esteemed colleague, whom I very much like, mentioned the word “urgency” several times, and this is indeed an urgent matter. We are in the middle of a COVID-19 pandemic with the omicron variant, which is filling hospital beds in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada. The provinces and territories need more rapid tests now, in addition to the ones they received over the past few weeks and…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague is right: We cannot fight what we do not know or do not measure. That is one important reason, as he alluded, we need rapid tests and, obviously, the additional PCR molecular tests that we have been using for many months. These are complementary tools. We had the delivery of 140 million rapid tests in January, and in addition to that we have been delivering rapid tests …
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Madam Speaker, I will take this wonderful opportunity to say that we are all privileged to be leaders in this democratic process. We will have an entire day today to speak about this particular bill. More generally, we have the responsibility every day of looking after the health and safety of Canadians. That comes, in part, through those investments. These are big investments. We are speaking abo…
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Madam Speaker, I confirm unequivocally that a report will be provided every six months on the important elements that the member just mentioned, and rightly so, namely, the dollar amounts, the number of tests and their use in the following months. As he pointed out, this will be a way of ensuring that there is significant and necessary accountability on the part of the Canadian government on this …
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Madam Speaker, I will say three things, briefly. First, about the investments that we have made, $8 out of every $10 of the total economic support that has gone to businesses and workers over the past 22 months has been provided by the federal government's leadership. Second, an additional $63 billion has been invested in protecting the health and safety of Canadians. That is in addition to other …
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Madam Speaker, the member for York—Simcoe is asking why they are important to the federal government. Let me give two examples. The first is from the regulatory side, which the member mentioned. Health Canada has approved dozens of rapid tests. These are not only antigen tests, but molecular tests. It has approved all sorts of other tests over the past months and years. Canadians expect Health Can…
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Madam Speaker, I not only very much like the member for Guelph on a personal level, but also very much value his role and leadership in his community and for his riding as an outstanding member of Parliament. He mentioned a couple of things that he does with his community in part through working with businesses, small businesses in particular, and through chambers of commerce. Chambers of commerce…
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Madam Speaker, vaccination is not a punishment. Vaccination is protection. The enemy is not vaccination. The enemy is the virus. When we hear members of the opposite side talk about vaccination as the enemy, I am a bit disturbed by it. There is a tool we need to use that we were given by science and scientists about a year and a few months ago. If there is a tool we should all be grateful to be us…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from La Pointe‑de‑l'Île for the opportunity to speak to this. We must use every tool at our disposal, including PPE, vaccination, antivirals and rapid tests. Furthermore, the government has supported the provinces and territories by providing $63 billion since March 2022 specifically to keep people healthy and safe, as well as investing over $280 billion in dire…
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Madam Speaker, I would invite my colleague to continue working with my own colleagues, the Minister of Seniors and the Minister of Finance, on this very important other bill that is before the House. On the commitment for this particular bill, I am very happy to repeat that we are going to report to the House every six months on the use, cost and number of rapid tests that will have been delivered…
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Madam Speaker, approximately 130 people die of COVID-19 every day, so that is one example of the sense of urgency. Provinces and territories are requesting the help of the federal government in providing greater numbers of rapid tests, in addition to the substantial numbers I mentioned earlier. Obviously the Senate is going to do its own job, and we value and appreciate what they will do at the ap…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and want to congratulate her on talking about a plan. We have had a plan for the past 22 months, and the plan is working. We have the lowest mortality rate of any G7 country by far, except Japan. We have enjoyed some of the best economic growth of any G7 country and most OECD countries. People have been doing their part, including getting vaccinated, for quite som…
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Mr. Speaker, I have so many things that I would like to say about the winning solutions my colleague just mentioned, which are so important. Vaccines were extremely important and have been very successful. There were also the 35 million rapid tests distributed to Quebec alone in January, not to mention all of the others that will be sent. There are treatments like Paxlovid. Canada has already rece…
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Mr. Speaker, that is a great question, and I will answer it in two ways. First, obviously these are large numbers of tests, and we hope the House will support this so we will be able to start delivering them directly to Canadians either through the networks and partnerships I mentioned earlier or through the provinces and territories. These large numbers of tests have been added to the 140 million…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague demonstrated a sense of leadership that the Conservative leader also showed earlier. Asking for the blockades to be taken down is the right thing to do now and was the right thing to do since they started. The second thing the member mentioned is mental health. About half of Canadians report that their mental health has deteriorated over the last months. He is right tha…
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Madam Speaker, there are three things. The first is that health care workers have been burdened and stressed over the last 22 months. When we discuss these things, we should always have them in mind. We need to look after them because they care for us. The second thing is that we need to understand that the only sustainable way to end restrictions and lockdowns that are decided upon by provinces a…
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Madam Speaker, the member is correct. Canada should always and will always need to be open to talking and working with international partners on precisely that topic of TRIPS and the patent-related agenda. However, in relation to the previous question, I am going to add that Canada committed 200 million doses of vaccines in 2020, and half of those vaccines have already been delivered. In addition,…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to congratulate the member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot for his question. He represents a lovely riding I know well, since I have friends who live there. He is right. For us to be done with this pandemic one day—and that is not today—it will have to be over everywhere. That involves vaccinating and protecting everyone in the world. The good news is that the Canadian govern…
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Madam Speaker, I am very pleased and proud to receive this question. The member is correct when she speaks about working collaboratively and looking forward. That is why we need to be both collaborative and responsible in our actions. The member speaks about timing. I am rarely political and I try to resist the temptation from time to time, but I would point out that if there is an issue on which …
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Mr. Speaker, the member is quite right to congratulate the 99% of public servants who have been vaccinated. Vaccination is not a punishment. It is a protection. When we get vaccinated, we protect ourselves, our colleagues, our family, our children, our community and our friends. It is not a punishment. In fact, it is the only means to get through the current wave and all the other waves and varian…
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Mr. Speaker, I am so pleased to answer this question about vaccination. The Prime Minister mentioned just a moment ago that 80% of Canadians of all ages had received their full doses. Every day, about 10,000 more Canadians are getting their first vaccine, and 55% have received a booster dose. Every day, 180,000 people in Canada receive a booster dose. We have approximately 50% of children between …
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Madam Speaker, the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated our daily lives, both in Canada and around the world, for the past two years. It has overloaded our health care systems, disrupted our economy and transformed the way we communicate and live with one other every day. As pandemic waves have come and gone, all levels of government have responded with various measures, from federal border measures to…
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