COVID-19 Pandemic Committee on May 19th, 2020

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

It is very important to understand that this is an extremely difficult procurement situation. Canada has been working together, as I said, and collaboratively with our provinces and territories to ensure that we can acquire the PPE that is so desperately needed by our front-line workers.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Madam Chair, I'll try another question. It is for Minister Anand.

What mechanism is in the contracts for recouping Canadians' money?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Madam Chair, I don't assume that the member means to imply that we can put a price on the safety of front-line workers. I know that she understands just how tight the supply chain is and just how difficult it is across the world as countries compete for PPE that is very hard to procure. She, I am sure, understands the value of protecting our front-line health care workers to the best of our ability.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Madam Chair, I absolutely understand that, which is why I'm asking questions about substandard masks and what sorts of mechanisms have been put into these contracts to ensure that we have the funds available to procure masks in other places.

With the government prepaying suppliers for PPE, mostly with Chinese manufacturing, what guarantee does the government have that we will actually receive the PPE at all?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Madam Chair, as the member knows, we've been working very closely with a number of partners, including Ambassador Barton, to ensure that we have a strong supply chain coming out of not only China but also out of many other countries. It is important for the member opposite to know that we will stop at nothing to protect our front-line health care workers. That's what they deserve, given the enormous sacrifices they're making for all of us.

[The Acting Chair, NDP, Carol Hughes]

There are only 13 seconds left, Ms. Block.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Madam Chair, at committee on Friday, the deputy minister for PSPC indicated that the role of Deloitte in Canada was, number one, reporting, and number two, vetting potential suppliers. Can Minister Anand tell us if Deloitte vetted the supplier of the eight million substandard masks sold in Canada?

[The Acting Chair, NDP, Carol Hughes]

There's no more time left, but I'll allow the minister to respond quickly.

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

We're working with a number of partners, private sector and otherwise, to ensure that we can get what we need to protect our front-line health care workers and that the materials we acquire meet the strong standards needed to protect their health and safety.

[The Acting Chair, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The honourable member for Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis has the floor.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

The people who have been overlooked so far are those in the regions, the ones working from home, the students doing their schooling remotely and those seeking some entertainment. Right now, they don't have reliable high-speed Internet service.

My question is for the government, which announced funding to support high-speed Internet access in the 2019 budget.

As far as investing that money goes, what is the government waiting for? It's raining billions of dollars on every other sector. People in my riding don't have access to high-speed Internet, which is an essential service.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

I'd like to thank the honourable member for his question.

I understand the importance of having access to high-speed Internet. That's why we introduced a $1.7-billion program for broadband infrastructure to help and support communities across the country, especially in the regions.

I realize how serious the situation is, so we will keep working hard every single day to find solutions.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

My question is straightforward. Are you prepared to speed up the investment?

The money was announced in 2019, but none of it has been forthcoming since.

Will you commit here and now to expediting the connect to innovate program for the regions so that all Canadians can have access to high-speed Internet appropriate to this day and age?

[The Acting Chair, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I would remind the member that he must address the chair, not the minister directly.

The honourable minister now has the floor.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Once again, I'd like to thank the honourable member for his question.

Our priority is very clear. High-speed Internet is not a luxury; it's absolutely essential. That's why we introduced the connect to innovate program, which has helped 900 communities across Canada, especially in Quebec's regions. We will continue building a broadband network that will support the regions as well.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Unfortunately, the connect to innovate program was criticized by the Auditor General, and today, we have no response from the government, despite the fact that we are in the throes of a pandemic and the Internet is an essential service. The government is not giving people an answer.

Others in my riding also feel they have been shortchanged, law-abiding people who make an honest living. They are one of the most law-abiding groups around. Canada has one of the best gun control regimes, and yet, these honest people are now looked upon as criminals.

My question is for the public safety minister. If I take a Honda Civic and soup it up with spoilers, does that make it a Formula One race car?

No. Why, then, are semi-automatic weapons being banned solely for random and cosmetic reasons?

[Bill Blair, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

I want to be very clear. The weapons that we have prohibited are weapons that were not designed for any hunting or sporting purposes. We have very specifically identified the makes, models and variants that will now be prohibited.

Overwhelmingly I think there is a consensus among Canadians that these weapons have no place in a civil society, and that's why they are prohibited.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

A weapon used by a sport shooter or hunter is a recreational weapon. The minister is making a mistake that will result in hundreds of millions of dollars being wasted, when he should be tackling the real issues: illegal weapons and street gangs.

My next question is for the Minister of Canadian Heritage about an initiative that is apparently meant to counter the spread of fake news related to COVID-19.

How is it that the government is choosing what Canadians should or should not see?

Is it an attempt to control freedom of expression? If so, is the minister willing to withdraw his digital citizen initiative?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Madam Chair, the government considers freedom of expression to be absolutely fundamental. It invested—and continues to invest—in support for regional media and the broader media to ensure the diversity of news content.

My fellow member, whom I have great respect for, knows full well how fundamentally important the diversity of news content and media neutrality are to us.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

That's not an answer.

My last question—

[The Acting Chair, NDP, Carol Hughes]

We will go to the honourable member for Calgary Confederation.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Madam Chair, I too would like to offer my sincere condolences to the family of air force officer Captain Jenn Casey—our hearts are with them—and also for the speedy recovery of Captain Richard MacDougall.

We know that elective surgeries across Canada, such as heart valve replacements, heart bypass surgeries and even cancer tumour removals were put on hold as we braced for a wave of COVID-19 cases in hospitals. Some provinces are now finally re-booking these elective surgeries, while others are not. We have been sacrificing the health and well-being of many thousands of Canadians who have other equally significant health concerns. In many cases, these people are dying because their surgeries are not available. In fact, at the health committee, which I serve on, Dr. Paul Dorian, a cardiologist and researcher at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, testified that these cancellations are costing lives. He said he personally knew of four deaths in one hospital just last week due to hospitals prioritizing COVID-19.

I understand that surgery decisions are of provincial jurisdiction. However, Canadians expect the federal government to take a leadership position on these issues, as it is their advice provinces are relying on for guidance during this pandemic.

Can the Minister of Health tell us how many Canadians have died because their surgery was postponed due to COVID-19 prioritization?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Madam Chair, as the member notes, provinces and territories have the jurisdictional authority over how they deliver health care in their own territory or province.

I also want to thank the many hard-working physicians and hospital administrators, and in fact ministers of health and their ministries, for the very difficult decisions they've made over the last several months to ensure that we can actually deal with the COVID-19 situation. As we saw the rise in cases across Canada, these provinces and territories took appropriate action to ensure that they would have the capacity in their own health care facilities to deal with surgeries on an urgent basis and postpone those that were less urgent in order to be prepared for any potential wave.

Thankfully, the work of Canadians has meant that our health care system has managed to get through this first stage intact, and that was only through those hard decisions and, in fact, the patience and the perseverance of Canadians to ensure that we flatten the curve.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Can I ask this again, do you know how many Canadians have died because their surgeries were postponed due to the COVID-19 prioritization?

[The Acting Chair, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I don't particularly know, but I would ask the member to address the question to the minister through the chair.