Evidence of meeting #42 for Health in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was doses.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Thank you, Ms. Rempel Garner.
We'll now go to Ms. O'Connell, for two minutes.
Liberal
Jennifer O'Connell Liberal Pickering—Uxbridge, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mayor Dilkens, thank you for coming.
As an Ontario MP, I understand the frustration of the Ontario government with some of the vaccine rollout plans. I'm sure you've expressed that, including some of the four-month timelines, because other provinces had moved sooner to change that, but we're happy to see Ontario starting to put that pathway out for second doses.
I'm sure you've been having some fiery conversations with Premier Ford on that.
With regard to some of the conversations around these doses, while I certainly appreciate and agree that no doses should ever be wasted, the crux of this is that these doses don't belong to Canada. They belong to the U.S. and the U.S. people, and the taxpayers who paid for them.
Although we want to make sure that Canadians can access doses, we would need the State of Michigan, the U.S. government and, frankly, even Premier Ford to support this, which is what we were able to do in Manitoba and North Dakota. All of those levels of government came to the table, so it wasn't about creativity; it was really precise planning.
Do you have the support of the State of Michigan, the U.S. government and Premier Ford for the import of these vaccines like we had in other provinces?
Mayor, City of Windsor
That's a great question.
Premier Ford has been very supportive of this creative effort to get additional vaccines, which were destined for the landfill, into the arms of patiently waiting Canadians.
I would suggest that if it weren't for active efforts by this federal government to make this almost impossible, this would have already happened, as you see happening in other jurisdictions between the United States and Canada.
That is the most difficult part for me to accept. We are telling everyone that it's a race between the vaccine and the variant—
Mayor, City of Windsor
—and we're going to lose the race unless we get these vaccines.
Liberal
Jennifer O'Connell Liberal Pickering—Uxbridge, ON
If the U.S. and the State of Michigan don't support it, how is that the Canadian federal government—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Ms. O'Connell, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to cut you off there, because we're very short of time.
Liberal
Liberal
Bloc
Denis Trudel Bloc Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
I will once again address the representatives of the Canadian Association of Optometrists.
I will ask a somewhat specific question.
On page 10 of the cost of vision loss and blindness in Canada report, it says that the total cost of vision loss in Canada was $32.9 billion in 2019. That is huge!
It also reports that this includes $15.6 billion for the financial costs of vision loss and $17.4 billion in costs associated with lost quality of life.
Could you explain what these figures mean?
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Association of Optometrists
That is a very good question.
I must stress that this report contains a lot of expert information. It was prepared by experts who work for a subsidiary of Deloitte in Australia. It's very accurate, timely data.
At the Canadian Association of Optometrists, we prefer to quote the $15.6‑billion figure, because these are very tangible costs. These are health and productivity costs.
The $30‑million figure is for quality of life losses. It is not really about a tangible loss of productivity, nor costs. Those who prepared the report have a methodology for quantifying the loss of quality of life.
The Canadian Association of Optometrists prefers to refer to the $15.6‑billion figure. This is what we mentioned in our comments.
Bloc
Denis Trudel Bloc Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
I'm not sure I understand everything.
Can you explain further what the loss of quality of life associated with vision loss is?
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Association of Optometrists
If I can't go outside, to the cinema or to the grocery shop without being accompanied by a dog, I suffer losses in quality of life.
Those who did this study have a very sophisticated methodology that measures all of these things and quantifies this in absolute dollars.
Again, that's not what we're primarily looking at. We're looking at the first $15.6 billion, which is very tangible and relates to the costs to Canadian health systems.
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Association of Optometrists
Thank you for your questions.
Liberal
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Thank you.
Ms. Travis, how long has the federal government been using this hotel behind picket lines?
Research Director, Local 40, UNITE HERE Canada
The government has been in this hotel since March 2020, and workers went on strike on May 3—recently—because there were so many rounds of firings. That was in protest over the firings.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Have you brought this to the federal government's attention, or any Liberal MPs, that it is operating behind picket lines, giving money to this employer who is acting in this manner?
Research Director, Local 40, UNITE HERE Canada
We have made efforts to reach out to the Minister of Health multiple of times since last fall. We also made sure that they were aware of what was happening in May. We made sure that they were aware of the firings. We made sure that they were aware of the human rights complaint. We've also copied other ministers on our correspondence, and we haven't heard from them.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
That was going to be my question: What has been the response? Have you received no response so far?