Bill C-10 (Historical)

An Act respecting certain measures related to COVID-19

This enactment authorizes the Minister of Health to make payments of up to $2.5 billion out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund in relation to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tests.
It also authorizes that Minister to transfer COVID-19 tests and instruments used in relation to those tests to the provinces and territories and to bodies and persons in Canada.

An Act Respecting Certain Measures Related to COVID-19

[Fraser Tolmie, Conservative, Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK]

Mr. Speaker, happy Valentine's Day. I want to commend you on your robe. You look very nice. I used to wear one as a mayor, but I am known better now for wearing a bathrobe.

That leads me to my question for my hon. colleague, and I do appreciate her speech. Numerous times within the speech, she mentioned air travel and global travel. I ask if she could please explain her trip to Scotland and the climate conference that was going on there. Did she make that trip? If so, could she please explain that and give me some alignment with regard to the comments in her speech?

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to answer the question. I struggled with the decision to go. I work hard at those events. They are not junkets. I was part of a very careful COVID protocol, which involved testing before I left and daily testing on site. The British National Health Service did an amazing job of preventing that event from being a superspreader event.

I think we all worked hard, and it is certainly the only trip I will take internationally. The only trip I ever take internationally is to go to a climate negotiation, because the threat of the climate crisis, as I mentioned, is the only thing that eclipses COVID right now, short of a nuclear war.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, that was an excellent speech. Everything the member said was true. It was factual.

Everyone is talking about lifting vaccine mandates and getting back to taking care of ourselves, and we have seen—

[The Deputy Speaker, Chris d'Entremont]

There is a point of order.

There are some technical difficulties. There is no translation going on.

You have it back now.

The hon. member for Vancouver Centre.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate my colleague for her really excellent speech. It was pointed and it was factual.

The member talked about people saying that we need to learn to live with the virus. A lot of countries have been quoted as saying, “Oh, look at how this country is living with the virus.” Today there was a graph put out by some of the health authorities globally that showed that Denmark, which has been continuing to open everything and has been letting everybody roam freely and has been saying that they are going to live with the virus, now has skyrocketing numbers. The graph shows a skyrocketing that is almost vertical. That is what is happening there.

I would like to ask the member what her position is on this idea of opening up everything and living with the virus. What is her position on that?

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I absolutely think there could be almost nothing as dangerous as saying “let us live with the virus”. There is almost nothing as dangerous as saying it has become sort of an average flu and we can just get used to it.

Again, this is not a flu. This is a dangerous parasitic coronavirus that could get worse, and we must not do anything that gives the virus a free ride.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the speech by my colleague, the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands. She is a neighbour of mine. Cowichan—Malahat—Langford and Saanich—Gulf Islands are quite close to each other.

I very much appreciated her comments about how we are nowhere near to being out of the woods yet. So many Canadians still live in dreadful fear of contracting COVID-19 because of their own immune situation or that of a family member.

What I want to talk about is the part of her speech that linked this virus with worldwide air travel as well as environmental exploitation. She and I participated in a debate during the last election. It was a debate on our getting further and further into the wildlife trade and trade in exotic species and the link to the novel viruses that they could emit.

I am wondering if the member has further comments on that, and how this is all linked together.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, absolutely, this is the case. The origins of COVID-19, as best we can determine them, had to do with trade in wild animals in a market in Wuhan. The leap between species is something that we know coronaviruses can do. The more humanity encroaches on spaces for wildlife, the greater the risk that we will see novel viruses that are more deadly.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech.

First I would like to say that the coronavirus is in charge, and we cannot dictate to it when it ends. Could the hon. member please tell us how Bill C-10 would help?

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I think Bill C‑10 will help us fight COVID‑19 as a society. We clearly need rapid tests and that is the point of this bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, hospitals were already weakened as a result of underfunding and reduced health transfers. No matter what anyone says, the fact that the federal government covered 50% of health care spending in the 1960s and 1970s but only 22% today is what has made hospitals very fragile. Cases have to be triaged, which means that some cancer patients were unable to access care because the hospitals were full.

What does my colleague think about the fact that Quebec and the provinces are calling for health transfers to be increased to 35%? I think this is another crucial measure to help us get through the pandemic.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my Bloc colleague from La Pointe-de-l'Île for his question. I think he is right.

Clearly, COVID-19 has weakened the public health care system, but it was struggling long before COVID-19 came along. More investment is needed, because the virus is putting a burden on the provinces when it is the federal government's responsibility to protect our universal public health care system.

I think there is also a new threat to our universal public health system. Some provinces have decided to allow the private sector to provide certain exams and other treatments to reduce the stress on the public health care system.

We need to pay the workers in this sector better, and we need to protect our public health system. To do this, the federal government needs to give more, such as grants to the provinces to support their work, so that all Canadians and Quebeckers have access to an excellent public health care system.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her comments this evening. She really respects this particular individual and the research and literature he has produced, so I have a question for her regarding that.

I want to bring to the member's attention something that concerns me. It is a red flag. There are many highly reputable, recognized, published and award-winning members of our society, such as scientists, epidemiologists, professors and researchers, who have high reputations until they challenge the science. I think challenging it is really important to ensure that we are getting good information. Canadians are concerned about that.

What would the member say about the fact that the highest medical professional in South Africa indicated that omicron should be allowed to spread, to some degree, to build natural immunity and strength within humanity?

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is good to see my hon. colleague from Yorkton—Melville, and I look forward to seeing her in person again.

I do not think we can gamble with a virus this dangerous based on the opinion of a minority of scientists. I do not doubt there are people who are reputable. I have seen them and I have read their literature. If I could find peer-reviewed studies published in renowned medical journals that would confront the basics of what I shared with the member and the House today, I would love to be wrong.

This is dangerous, and I do not think we can gamble with the health of the entire planet. We need to get vaccines to developing countries. We need testing, tracing and social distancing. We need to maintain our public health protocols as best we can and work to eliminate the virus. We cannot live with it. It feeds on us.

[The Deputy Speaker, Chris d'Entremont]

We are out of time for questions and comments. Are there any other members who wish to speak to this? I hear no one.

Is the House ready for the question?