Debates of Nov. 24th, 2020

Health

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we are not here to lecture the provinces. We are here to work with the provinces. That is why we delivered record amounts of PPE and a record number of tests. That is also why we transferred $25 billion to the provinces to help get kids back to school and ensure a safe reopening.

We will be there to work closely with the provinces and to help businesses and people as we go through this process. We have a plan and an approach. We have promised to always be there for Canadians.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the number of COVID-19 cases is on the rise. People are worried about their families and about their health. The U.S. and England have announced a plan to distribute a vaccine as early as next week.

Why is the Prime Minister making Canadians wait? What is Canada's game plan? When will Canadians have a vaccine?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, we have secured access to more vaccines than any other country.

We have the best portfolio of vaccines and we have purchased up to millions and hundreds of millions of doses of potential vaccines. We need to do everything we can to flatten the curve and reduce the number of cases in order to protect Canadians.

That is why we are also working to ensure that the provinces have rapid tests, that we have PPE and that Canadians and Canadian businesses everywhere have the support they need.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, COVID-19 cases are on the rise. People across the country are afraid. Communities are afraid, communities like Nunavut, where under-resourcing puts people at an extreme risk. The United States and England have announced plans to roll out vaccines as early as next week.

What is the plan in Canada? Can the Prime Minister let Canadians know what the plan is? When will Canada receive the vaccine?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as the member opposite well knows, Canada has successfully signed contracts to have the best portfolio of potential vaccines of any of our peer countries around the world. We have done this to ensure that Canadians have access to a vaccine regardless of which vaccine companies land first or which vaccine companies have the best vaccine. We needed to make sure that Canadians would have access to these vaccines. That is exactly what we have done.

We are working with partners, including the provinces and territories, to ensure that vaccine distribution will be rapid and seamless, and as I have said a number of times before, the vaccine will be entirely free.

Foreign Affairs

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, last week the House of Commons passed our Conservative motion asking the government for a robust plan to, among other things, combat Communist China's growing foreign operations here in Canada and its increasing intimidation of Canadians. The Liberals are clearly scared and intimidated by the CCP, and they voted against it.

Yesterday when we asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs to say if he will respect the democratic will of Parliament, he gave no answer, so I am going to ask the Prime Minister this: Will he show some intestinal fortitude and, after five years, present a plan to deal with the threat of the Chinese Communist Party?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to foreign policy, there should be much political debate. I answered, yesterday morning, over two hours of questions, more questions than any minister has ever answered on China.

Our policy is very simple: to be firm and smart. That is what we have done when it comes to the release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor and obtaining consular access to them. That is what we did, being firm and smart, when it came to Hong Kong and standing up for the freedoms and liberties of the people of Hong Kong. If the Leader of the Opposition would speak to them, he would see that Canada was at the forefront of defending the freedoms and liberties of the people of Hong Kong.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, speaking of yesterday, to add insult to injury, the foreign affairs minister said that Canadians who feel intimidated or threatened by bad CCP actors should simply call their local police. At the very same time, right now there are 19 public servants working to help Bill Morneau get his OECD soft-landing seat, but the Liberals refuse to put any effort, resources or political capital into protecting Canadians who are threatened by the CCP.

Why is the Prime Minister so afraid to stand up to the Communist government in China?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, the member should look at the international community and see that Canada has been at the forefront of the response when it comes to the Uighurs, when it comes to Hong Kong, when it comes to standing up. Being firm and smart is what Canadians at home want us to do.

When the member asked about Canadians wanting to lead international organizations, we should all be proud that Canadians are putting themselves forward to lead international organizations. We are doing everything in accordance with Treasury Board guidelines and in accordance with precedents that have been set by this government when it wants Canadians to sit on the boards of international organizations.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Well, Mr. Speaker, we can see exactly where these Liberals' priorities are and it is to help their friends get soft landings.

When over 300,000 Canadians in Hong Kong were threatened by the Chinese ambassador, the Prime Minister said and did nothing. Yesterday, the foreign affairs minister suggested to these Canadians at home and abroad that they should listen to themselves and call their local police. Not only is this outrageous, it is cowardly.

Instead of assigning 19 bureaucrats to work on Bill Morneau's OECD seat, will the Prime Minister get his priorities straight and take real action to protect Canadians at home and abroad from Communist China?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, let me set the record straight for Canadians who are watching at home. Canada was the first country in the world to suspend its extradition treaty with Hong Kong. That is leadership. That is Canada. That is being firm and smart. That is what Canadians watching at home want from this government and from all parliamentarians when it comes to foreign policy. We have no lessons to take from the Conservatives. We will be firm and we will be smart. That is what Canadians expect from us.

Health

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, based on the Prime Minister's response to the Leader of the Opposition, I want to clarify that Mexicans will be getting the COVID vaccine before Canadians.

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, Canada has robust experience in delivering vaccinations and the distinct advantage of a public health care system that builds on strong provincial and territorial expertise and relationships.

We have procured a diverse portfolio of vaccines, as the member opposite knows, more per capita than any other country. Canada is well positioned to successfully vaccinate Canadians against COVID-19.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, what the minister is saying is that Mexicans will get vaccinated before Canadians.

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite is putting words in my mouth.

In fact what I am saying is that Canada is a world leader in vaccination, and has delivered massive vaccination campaigns before. Building on that expertise and leadership, working with provinces and territories, we are very confident that we will be able to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to Canadians.

We have the most diverse portfolio in the world. We have options for more per capita than any other country in the world.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, Reuters reported today that Mexicans will be vaccinated in December. The Prime Minister cannot give a date for when Canadians will be vaccinated.

If the health minister will not answer that question, what about this one? The procurement minister says that Mexicans will be vaccinated before Canadians because the health minister cannot get her department together on approvals, but then the Prime Minister is saying that it is actually the procurement minister, because she did not negotiate contracts that allowed for domestic manufacturing capacity.

What is the reason why Mexicans will be vaccinated before Canadians?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, all of government is working together, hand in glove, right now to ensure that we have access to vaccines for Canada, and in fact our work has proven to be very fruitful.

We have options on seven promising candidates, three of which are in regulatory review already as we speak, those three showing tremendous promise in their opportunity to protect people against COVID-19. We are working with provinces and territories on a deployment plan, building on the expertise that Canada already has in vaccinating massive numbers of Canadians every single year.

Official Languages

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Mr. Speaker, all parties in the House have recognized that French is in decline in Quebec.

Now is the time to walk the talk. This morning, the Bloc Québécois introduced Bill C-254 to apply Bill 101 to federally regulated businesses. The Government of Quebec, with robust support in the National Assembly, has called for this.

Now that the government admits that French is in decline in Quebec, will it listen to Quebec and support our bill?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to reassure my colleague that I have been in contact with my Quebec counterpart, Simon Jolin-Barrette. We spoke recently, actually.

We have been in constant communication because we both want to protect French in Quebec, while respecting the English-speaking minority. As a result, our government will respect Quebec's jurisdictions, in addition to our own, because we also want to protect the one million French-speaking people outside Quebec.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister said that he supports Bill 101.

Now he must prove it. This is not the first time that the issue of applying Bill 101 to federally regulated businesses has come up. Quebec has been calling for this for a long time, as its current government is doing. We told everyone that we were going to introduce a bill to address this issue.

Will the government stop dithering and tell us, yes or no, if it will support our bill?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, it is a wonder why the Bloc Québécois is looking for a fight at any cost when the fact is that we agree on protecting the French language. We want to work together to do just that.

I am saying to my colleagues that we should work together. We are reaching out. Let us ensure that the importance of French is recognized in Quebec.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Official Languages would like Canadians to believe that the French language is important.

Can she explain why her Liberal colleagues are obstructing and paralyzing the Standing Committee on Official Languages? This has prevented us from introducing a motion calling on the minister to introduce her bill on the modernization of the Official Languages Act before Christmas.

Does this mean that the bill is not yet ready even though they promised it five years ago?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my colleague of certain facts. I believe that my colleague is new to the official languages file and has just demonstrated a certain interest in the issue.

For the first time ever, we recognized the need to protect the French language in the throne speech because French is a minority language in Canada. We are also the first government to recognize that we must do more to protect our French language.

In the circumstances, yes, we will modernize the Official Languages Act, but we are also waiting with great interest for what the Conservatives will do on this file because, quite frankly, they have no credibility when it comes to protecting the French language.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the work of the Standing Committee on Official Languages has been at a complete standstill for the past five meetings. Recently, we were not able to move a motion. We are wasting time with the Liberals. The Senate, the Commissioner of Official Languages and the organizations all agree that the Official Languages Act needs to be reformed.

What is stopping the minister from introducing her bill before the holidays?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, committees are independent. I encourage my colleagues who sit on the committee to continue to work hard on official languages and their significance.

One thing is clear. We have a common desire to do more for the French language. We really need to be able to look at what we can do to mitigate the linguistic insecurity that we are seeing in our country and to ensure that we are able to talk to each other in our beautiful French language today and for generations to come.

I will be pleased to work on modernizing the Official Languages Act.