Health Committee on April 19th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Very well. That brings us to the end of our first round of questions. We might be able to shoehorn in a quick snapper round. Would everybody be interested in one minute per party?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Okay, seeing no dissent, I will go ahead with Mr. d'Entremont for one minute.

[Chris d'Entremont, Conservative, West Nova, NS]

Thank you.

I had a great question for Brandon, but unfortunately he's not here.

Mr. D'Angiulli, my wife is a teacher. She and her colleagues have gone through a lot of instances where classes had to be shut down. Classes were not on today. There were two instances where schools had to be shut down in Halifax region.

When do you think we will see truly negative effects on our children as we start to recover from this pandemic? Will there always be a level of anxiety as we talk about pandemics or the effects of certain sicknesses, as it rolls around?

[Amedeo D'Angiulli]

I think it will be different for different age groups. We probably will see the largest impact on the younger kids who started kindergarten and grade 1, and then I would guess, if everything goes well, things will get really hot this fall at the beginning. I think the first three months or so will be hard for everybody.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you, Mr. D'Angiulli.

We'll go now to Mr. Van Bynen for one minute.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Clearly the provinces are the main players here but, Ms. Bisanz, how can the federal government help?

For example, one of the issues facing long-term care is the workforce, and while nurses are a key component, personal support workers make up the largest part of the LTC workforce. How can we address issues like recruitment, retention of staff, low wages, lack of benefits, insufficient training and inadequate infection prevention?

[Christina Bisanz]

That would take a whole chapter to answer, but it's a great question.

I think the biggest challenge we have right now is that there are very few people who are even interested in becoming PSWs because the wages are low, particularly so in the community sector, and that's a function of how we are funded.

As I said in my remarks, it's very difficult to compete with hospital and long-term care, and with the emphasis, certainly in Ontario, on increasing staffing and hours of care in long-term care, we can already hear the siphoning of PSWs out of community care and community support. That's very concerning.

I think from a federal perspective, we need to take a health human resource approach that also considers making personal support workers one of the priority groups for immigration, and then providing them with the appropriate support, adequate wages and working conditions that will retain them in those positions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you, Mr. Van Bynen.

Mr. Thériault, you have the floor for one minute.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Dr. Champagne, thank you for taking the time to come and give us a picture of the situation. It is very enlightening.

I have a quick question. Since the first wave, have you or your colleagues been able to identify any patients who have had less treatable cancers because of treatment delays?

[Dr. Martin Champagne]

Every week, we see patients coming in with cancers that are more advanced than they would have been if those patients had been diagnosed when their symptoms were starting or if they had been screened.

As a result, this is, unfortunately, a daily occurrence for oncologists. This situation does not occur only in Quebec. Some provinces were less affected than ours in the beginning, in the first wave and in the second wave, but when you read the newspapers today, you see that the same scenario is happening all over Canada.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

So the catastrophic situation that Ontario is currently experiencing should also have a fairly catastrophic effect on Ontario patients.

[Dr. Martin Champagne]

Absolutely.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

I see that Mr. Amyot is back.

Mr. Davies, I'll give you a bit of extra time, because you lost your witness earlier.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's generous of you.

Brandon, I want to give you a chance to answer my last question. It's budget day today. What advice would you give the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance regarding the best measures to help students in this country?

[Brandon Rhéal Amyot]

Thank you, and I apologize for my cut-off.

I was actually about to touch on the fact that Internet has been an issue for post-secondary education across the country. Even in bigger cities, it's an issue. I have missed many a class because my Internet cuts out, as it just did here, so now I'm on mobile data.

To answer your question regarding the federal budget today, we need to go bold with our post-secondary policy on funding. During the pandemic, we need to reimplement the Canada emergency student benefit. We need to extend it to international students. We need to put a moratorium on student loan debt repayment and interest. In the long term, we need to increase federal transfers to the provinces for post-secondary grants for students to reduce the amount of debt we have to take on.

We need to increase institutional funding, and the federal government should create a federal post-secondary education committee. We are the only G7 nation with no federal oversight of post-secondary education. It is time to get bold, when it comes to post-secondary policy, so that Canada can really stand out on the world stage.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you to all the witnesses for your excellent testimony. It is most helpful to our study.

Thank you to all the members for your excellent questions. Those also are most helpful to our study.

That concludes our business for this morning.

The meeting is adjourned.