House of Commons Hansard #105 of the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was pandemic.

Topics

11:45 p.m.

NDP

Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB

Mr. Speaker, would my colleague comment on the situation that we learned of today with respect to private clinics in Toronto and in Vancouver getting access to the H1N1 vaccine and being able to give this vaccine to highly paid wealthy individuals, while people in her constituency, who are living in poverty, are wondering where they are going to get their vaccine?

Today, the Canadian Health Coalition put out a press release and basically said:

Priority flu shots are meant for people at high risk, not those with high incomes...It's queue-jumping plain and simple.

How does my colleague feel about this issue?

11:45 p.m.

NDP

Niki Ashton NDP Churchill, MB

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for bringing this up time and time again. It is absolutely shocking. It is time we see the federal government take a stand for a system that we are so proud of as Canadians, the medicare system. I am proud to be part of a party that fought for it.

This is the time for the government to stand up, put its foot down to ensure that this does not happen. It should work with the provinces because it is unacceptable and unjust.

11:50 p.m.

NDP

Carol Hughes NDP Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON

Mr. Speaker, I stand before you tonight, as have many others, to discuss the serious issue at hand, which is the lack of H1N1 anti-virus.

I have to say that many of us have been quite worried as to whether the government had a good handle on the situation at hand. It became evident toward the end of last week that our fears were well founded. As the weekend progressed, we heard about the long lineups at clinics. Then we heard about clinics turning people away. We heard about pregnant women waiting for hours on end, standing in lineups. That was followed by the headlines this morning about private clinic patients jumping the queue.

Had the Liberals and the Conservatives stopped privatization of health care and did what Canadians expected government to do, which is to enforce the Canada Health Act, we would be living in what the father of medicare's vision had founded. Our universal health care would not be two tiered and jumping the queue would not be an issue.

Tons and tons of concerns have been voiced in the House throughout the day and this evening. The issue is of great concern for many people.

A couple of months ago I visited the Pic Mobert First Nation community in my constituency. The residents had some concerns with regard to the directions they were being provided to get ready for the H1N1, such as to name someone to take care of the H1N1 virus in case it hit and to name someone to get out the protocol. The only thing is there was no money attached to hire a person. They wondered what they should do in the meantime. Should they stop giving the preventive medicine that they are giving for the high rate of diabetes in their community? That is a shame. This is a first nation community.

We heard from other members with regard to the impact on first nations. We heard about the situation in Manitoba. Some of the highest rates of H1N1 illness are on first nations.

What is of great concern as well is that there is a high amount of tuberculosis in these communities. It is all linked to the fact that there is poverty, a lack of water and a big problem with housing.

I met with an elder from Nunavik last week. It was quite evident that even in Nunavik, and we know that the Minister of Health is from Nunavik, there are big concerns with regard to the housing crisis. People are packed into houses. It is almost as bad as what is happening in our jails these days, where two, three or four people are being packed into a cell that is supposed to hold one person.

Getting back to the first nations, the newspapers showed today that TB is at an all-time high. We probably are experiencing one of the world's biggest pandemics with regard to tuberculosis. It is 100 times the amount that we have seen in other communities. This is only in Manitoba. It is a shame that we are seeing this over and over again. We do need a government that will act on that.

I received a call from one my constituents in White River. The lady was very worried. We have been telling people to get vaccinated, to get the H1N1 anti-virus. We have been telling people to get that vaccine and yet, when they go to get it, they are turned away. She was very worried because her son is a severe asthmatic and he is high risk. We had to make arrangements. We had to tell them how high risk her son was and that he really needed to get his shot. Finally, they agreed to give him the shot. That family will sleep well tonight, but there are many more families that will not be sleeping well tonight because they are at high risk and they do not know whether they will be able to get their shots tomorrow.

We heard about the young boy in Timmins who passed away. There are a few others, one in Ottawa and I believe one near Toronto. It is a sad thing that people are dying. These were healthy people.

We have been telling Canadians to get vaccinated, that we are going to be ready to roll this out. The government did not say it was going to be a pilot project and that maybe there would only be enough serum for a couple of days. It is sad that the government cannot see fit to ensure that there is enough vaccine for people.

The best thing that happened tonight was something our leader did. The member for Toronto—Danforth got up and indicated the solutions that we should be looking at at this point. There needs to be better communication. We need to take some of those ads that the current government is running with regard to the infrastructure stimulus and redirect that money into better education on the anticipated vaccine that we hope is going to be coming through again soon, and we need to fund initiatives to help these provinces and communities to deliver those.

As some of my colleagues have indicated through the night, there have been some very serious concerns with respect to how the government has handled the H1N1 file. It would appear that we are seeing a situation similar to the SARS outbreak, which the government cannot seem to get a handle on. We are really hoping that the government will work with opposition members to ensure that everybody's voice is heard and that the communities are not being left out in the cold, as we are seeing today.

I want to go back to first nations. I have also not yet mentioned rural communities. In rural communities, it is not very easy for people to displace themselves to go and get the medical help that they need. Some people have to travel quite a ways and others do not even have a way to get there.

I will just mention my communities of Pic Mobert First Nation and even Manitouwadge. If they had to go somewhere else to get their shots, it would be very difficult for them to get out of their community because there is no public transportation there. People from Pic Mobert have to travel at least 20 minutes to get to the highway to take a bus to go see the doctor. These communities are finding themselves in hard times and now in harder times, because we are saying that for them it is not a big deal and that they will eventually be able to get the vaccine when it becomes available.

I must reiterate a lot of the information that was provided here tonight. I sit on the health committee, and I know the committee has had a lot of concerns about what has been transpiring here. Lots of questions have been asked. We were always told that everything was rolling out and that everything was on time. Obviously, it has not been.

I think I have said just about all there is to say on the issue, except that we would really like the government to apologize to those who have not been able to get the vaccine and to ensure that it gets back on board and does everything it can to make sure that people have access to that.

11:55 p.m.

Conservative

The Deputy Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

It being 12 a.m., I declare the motion carried. Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until later this day, Tuesday at 10 a.m., pursuant to Standing Order 24.

(Motion agreed to)

(The House adjourned at 12 a.m.)