Debates of March 23rd, 2010

Opposition Motion—Maternal and Child Health

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry]

Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to address the House today and highlight Canada's G8 priorities with a particular focus on a flagship maternal and under five child health initiative promoted by our government.

Under the theme of “recovery and new beginnings”, Canada is promoting a focused, results-driven agenda for the G8 that follows up on its past commitments and sets clear goals for G8 leadership going forward. We are focusing the G8 on areas where it can make the most difference and we are putting a strong emphasis on accountability. Canada believes that holding the G8 accountable for results lies at the heart of the G8's credibility and effectiveness. For this reason, Canada is leading a 2010 initiative to report on the G8's achievements and commitments to date, the first in what will be an annual exercise.

I will now say a few words about our thematic priorities in 2010. With the emergence of the G20 as the premier forum for international economic coordination, the G8 will focus on areas where it has the greatest value added: international peace and security and development. These are central to the values and interests of the G8 members and are areas where the G8 can make a real difference.

On international peace and security, the G8 summit will focus on critically important challenges, such as addressing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and developing supportive ways to help vulnerable states and regions further build their capacities to address peace and security, to strengthen institutions, prevent conflict and better mobilize civilian and military capacities. These are areas where the G8 and Canada have shown leadership in the past and, under Canada's presidency, the G8 will show leadership in the future.

I will turn now to our core development priority for the G8. The developing world continues to face important challenges which have only been exacerbated by the global economic crisis. From lack of adequate resources and services to tackling infectious diseases, the developing world continues to face a daunting array of challenges. The G8 can help the developing world meet these challenges. Indeed, the sustained leadership and commitment of the G8 to global health over the last several years have transformed the lives of millions of people in the developing world.

Through substantial investments targeted where they can do the most good, impressive results have been achieved. For example, in the scale-up of HIV prevention and treatment programs; the significant reductions in child morbidity and mortality achieved through child immunization, micronutrients and other interventions; including a major reduction in measles mortality; the rapid expansion of effective malaria interventions that has led to significant reductions in malaria cases; increased access to diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis; and substantial progress toward the eradication of polio.

While considerable resources have been mobilized in recent years for combatting infectious diseases, significant gaps remain for the health of mothers and children. The statistics are shocking. Each year, nearly 9 million children die before they turn five and half a million women die in pregnancy and childbirth. More than one-third of child deaths are attributable to undernutrition. Many of these deaths can be prevented with improved access to health care, better nutrition and by scaling up proven interventions, such as immunization.

As I have noted, the G8 has made significant investments in addressing the health challenges experienced in developing countries, including supporting such efforts as the African health systems initiative, the global fund for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and the global polio eradication initiative.

While significant progress has been made on many health indicators, there is a pressing need for global action on maternal and child health. It is where the millennium development goals four on child health and five on maternal health are the least likely to be met by 2015.

The millennium development goal four target on child health calls for a two-thirds reduction in the under five mortality rate by 2015. While there has been significant improvement in the rates of child mortality, it is uneven within and across countries and overall gains are far too slow.

As I mentioned a little while ago, nearly 9 million children in developing countries will still die each year before their fifth birthday, 37% of them in the first month of life. Little progress has been made in sub-Saharan Africa. Millions of these deaths are from preventable causes such as pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and undernutrition.

The millennium development goal five target means a 75% reduction in rates of maternal mortality and universal access to reproductive health by 2015.

The 500,000 women dying in pregnancy and childbirth annually is a figure that has hardly changed in 20 years. Ninety-nine per cent of maternal deaths occur in developing countries. Half of all deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa; one-third occur in southern Asia. Complications from pregnancy in childbirth are the leading cause of death in young women age 15 to 19 in developing countries. For every woman who dies, 20 to 30 suffer short- or long-term illness or disability, such as severe anemia, damage to the reproductive organs, severe postpartum disability, chronic pain or infertility.

Yet research indicates that approximately 80% of maternal deaths are preventable if women have access to essential health care services throughout the delivery.

In recent years maternal and child health have been on the G8 agenda, including commitments to scale up maternal and newborn health efforts and to close the funding gap for maternal and child health. G8 commitments on strengthening health systems and increasing user access to health services also help make a substantial contribution to maternal and child health.

The Muskoka summit will provide Canada with an opportunity to mobilize G8 members and assume a leadership role in setting the global agenda for improving maternal and child health.

Canada is well positioned to respond to maternal and child health as a Muskoka priority. In fact, Canada has provided leadership in several health areas, including the areas of major diseases, for example, HIV-AIDS and polio, and nutrition, for example, the micronutrient initiative, in addition to providing financial support through multilateral and bilateral programming.

Maternal and child health also directly aligns with the Government of Canada's development priority of securing a future for children and youth as articulated by the Minister of International Cooperation in May 2009.

There is also an interest in moving forward on nutrition, building upon last year's G8 food security announcement by targeting interventions to young children and mothers.

By championing a major initiative to improve the health of women and children in the world's most vulnerable regions, we believe that G8 members can make a tangible difference.

There is a strong interest among G8 countries and non-governmental organizations in addressing global maternal and child health issues in the coming year. Our G8 partners recognize that through concerted action we can achieve demonstrable results for women and children around the world. That is why Canada's proposal to build international leadership and action on maternal and child health has been fully endorsed by our G8 partners, the United Nations and the World Health Organization.

Through outreach activities, Canada is also benefiting from strong support by private foundations, as well as domestic and international civil society organizations.

Canada continues to be engaged in proactive outreach with key partners, exploring ways to mobilize and leverage financial contributions to improve maternal and child health.

Proud of the strong endorsement we have received from partners and stakeholders alike on our choice of this signature initiative, we are continuing to work very closely with our G8 partners to come up with ways to best address maternal and child health.

As the House knows, there is no cookie-cutter approach and there are many ways and areas where we can work to improve maternal and child health.

As mentioned by the Prime Minister on Thursday, March 18, “The government is looking to work with G8 countries to save lives, to save mothers and children throughout the world. We are not closing the door on any option, including contraception”. But we are not reopening the abortion debate. Together, the G8 will forge a comprehensive approach to the issue of maternal and child health.

To conclude, I would note that despite advances, the task of bringing greater health to all the world's people is far from done. Sustained political leadership and commitment are needed to maintain momentum in global health, particularly in the areas where needs are the greatest.

Canada is showing great leadership in mobilizing G8 governments, non-governmental organizations, private foundations and the private sector to participate in setting a global agenda for improving maternal and child health.

[Keith Martin, Liberal, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Madam Speaker, it is good that the government is pursuing maternal and child health, but the path that it is taking is completely bizarre, illogical and utterly unscientific. Health systems and trained workers are important, but they are only as good as the tools that they have in their hands. What do they need? Yes, they need diagnostics. Yes they need power. They need access to medications. They need access to a full range of family planning options so they can treat the patient.

I am a physician. I have worked in Africa. I have delivered more than 200 babies. Women have died in hospitals. Why on earth is the government not giving these women and children the option to life that we have in our country?

One of the reasons the number of maternal and child mortalities has been reduced in Canada is that Canadian women and men have access to a full range of family planning options. Why do women need this? If a woman is too old, too young, or has babies too frequently, she is at risk of dying. As the member said, 63,000 women die each year, and 20 times that number suffer life-altering injuries, including obstetric fistula.

In order for people to deal with this and to save lives, they need to have in their hands family planning tools.

Will the government do the right thing and honour the commitments it made last year in Italy to allow that to happen?

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

Madam Speaker, my family and I know firsthand the expertise of the Canadian medical community when it comes to the health of mothers and children.

My wife and I have two kids, who are 14 and 10 now, but both were both born by emergency C-section. In fact, three weeks after my 10-year-old daughter was born, my wife had complications. I will not go into great detail, but she had a life-saving emergency hysterectomy. I would not have two kids and I would not have a wife, if it were not for the expertise in the Canadian medical community, and I really appreciate that.

That said, this is about ensuring that other people around the world have access to very basic medical expertise, clean water, nutrition and inoculations, to save nine million children's lives, to save 500,000 mothers' lives. It is completely unacceptable that we cannot come together on a motion that brings virtually 100% of Canadians together around an issue that is important.

[Jim Maloway, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Madam Speaker, while we in the NDP welcome this new-found interest in the health of mothers and children in the developing world, we would also like to bring the focus back to the situation of women and children in Canada. Canada is among the wealthiest nations in the world, yet 70% of Inuit preschool children live in homes where there is not enough food. There are many mothers in Canada who live in unsafe places, who are going without food, electricity or heat because of persistent deep poverty.

Now that the government has committed to catching up with other wealthy nations on maternal aid, will it commit to putting women and children first in Canada as well?

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

Madam Speaker, this government has taken many significant measures in the areas that the hon. member mentioned.

As I mentioned in my speech, 99% of the maternal deaths occur in the developing world. The focus of this issue is that about 500,000 mothers and nine million children under the age of five will lose their lives this year, again for want of very basic needs, such as clean water, inoculations, basic medical services and proper nutrition.

Some have indicated that the cost in some cases is pennies a day. It is completely unacceptable that in the past the G8 and countries have not been able to come together to make a difference in this area. There has been a lot of talk, but what we are focused on this time around is coming forward with a motion and a plan of action that will make a difference in people's lives.

What is critical as we have this debate today is to maintain our focus on those 500,000 mothers and those nine million children who will lose their lives in the next year if we do not act.

[Johanne Deschamps, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Madam Speaker, just a few days ago, on March 8, we celebrated International Women's Day. It was an opportunity for us to advocate for equality, to assess the situation and the status of women in our society, and to realize the importance of protecting the gains we have made. But despite all of that, women still have many battles to fight. One of these battles is maternal health, which is being debated today in the House.

It is unthinkable that in 2010, hundreds of thousands of girls and women still do not have access to adequate health care to make childbirth, which is supposed to be the most incredible experience of their lives, a positive experience. For many girls and women, this experience is filled with dread, fear and suffering.

In 2000, leaders from around the world committed to making maternal health one of the eight millennium development goals. The goal is to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters by 2015 and to achieve universal access to reproductive health care.

Unfortunately, in 2010, this goal is far from being achieved. According to the UN Millennium Development Goals Report 2009, every year, 536,000 women and girls die as a result of complications during pregnancy, childbirth or the six weeks following delivery.

The vast majority of maternal deaths are preventable. According to Ann Veneman, the Executive Director of UNICEF, 80% of maternal deaths could be prevented if women had access to essential maternity and basic health care services.

This is why the Bloc Québécois supports the Liberal motion. The Bloc Québécois will support any initiative that aims to effectively fight this problem, just as it will condemn and fight any initiative that could jeopardize the health of women and children, regardless of where they live.

The Bloc Québécois is in favour of a maternal and child health initiative that would include family planning, as well as sexual and reproductive health, including contraception.

The Bloc Québécois supports this motion, but it is worried about the Conservatives' ideological leanings on women's rights, and it once again decries the fact that the House must speak out against the regressive policies of this insensitive government.

The Bloc Québécois believes that all women, from all walks of life, are entitled to a continuum of health care that includes all services, since they are all important and interconnected. Furthermore, the factors that lead to maternal mortality and the consequences related to pregnancy and childbirth can vary from one region to the next and from one country to the next.

It is crucial that women have access to a complete range of sexual and reproductive health services as well as family planning services. A continuum of care should include access to trained, qualified health personnel; to adequate health care facilities; to contraception, medication and emergency care; to skilled care during pregnancy and labour; and to ad hoc services after an abortion, as well as the chance to have an abortion under safe conditions where abortion is legal.

With this range of services, the international community could provide the necessary tools to countries looking to reduce maternal mortality.

More than 80% of maternal deaths in the world are directly linked to five main causes: hemorrhage, infections, abortions performed under dangerous conditions, difficult labour that requires medical intervention and pre-eclampsia.

Last week we saw that there are contradictions galore within the Conservative government in terms of what should be included in the maternal health strategy that the government intends to present to the other G8 leaders.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs told committee members that his party's policy had nothing whatsoever to do with family planning, but two days after this statement the Prime Minister and the Minister of International Cooperation said the exact opposite during question period.

The Prime Minister said that contraception would be part of the scenario that would be studied: “We are not closing the door on any option, including contraception. However, we do not wish to debate abortion in this place or elsewhere.”

The abortion debate will not be re-opened. In Quebec and in Canada, legislation has been put in place that allows women to put an end to a pregnancy. This is a very important gain for women and it is not being questioned, except by our right-leaning government, of course. It is perfectly logical that women in Quebec and Canada are supporting the efforts of women in developing countries where abortion is legal.

Contradictions, ambiguity, confusion—that is what the Conservative Party has been serving us since they came to power. Members of Parliament, civil society and the public are in total confusion. The government is opening doors but will make no real commitment. We want a clear commitment that will not allow for any ambiguity.

Canada is hosting the next G8 summit in June 2010. The Conservative Prime Minister wants to make maternal and child health a priority, and this would be a commendable initiative if it included a continuum of health care services. Nonetheless, the Prime Minister intends to take a different approach. He is taking advantage of his position as host to get the countries behind certain aspects of the maternal health program that can have an immediate impact, such as access to drinking water, immunization, nutrition and training for health care workers.

In his statement, the Prime Minister intentionally—or unintentionally, that is the question—failed to mention anything about reproductive health and family planning. The Bloc Québécois became concerned about the Conservatives' intentions when it learned that family planning, contraception and abortion would be left out of the strategies for fighting child and maternal mortality.

The government cannot go back on past commitments. At the last G8 summit in Italy in 2009, the member countries, including Canada, made a commitment to the international community to speed up progress in the fight for maternal health through sexual and reproductive health care and voluntary family planning.

Although we believe we need to fight effectively for maternal and child health in developing countries, the Bloc Québécois is very skeptical about the Conservatives' true will to do so. In fact, we could even say that they are being shamefully contradictory.

Canada's civil society reacted favourably to the government's statement that it would make maternal and child health a priority for the upcoming summits. In preparation for the G8 and G20 summits, Canadian NGOs have made a series of requests about the issues they would like the member countries to address. In its platform, Canada's civil society explicitly includes maternal and child health.

Could the Conservative government put aside its ideology and finally agree to meet with and listen to the civil society organizations that have the expertise and are well acquainted with the realities these women face?

In addition to the G8 and G20 meetings that will be held in Canada in June, world leaders will also meet at the United Nations in September 2010 to assess progress made on the millennium development goals.

The Bloc Québécois thinks that development assistance must revolve around general, but well-defined, principles and objectives. They must be based on the UN millennium goals that Canada agreed to.

The international community agreed on eight goals: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for development.

As we can see, child health and maternal health are two of these goals. When Canada agreed to these goals, it agreed to fight infant and maternal mortality. It is quite clear that if the government adopts an effective maternal and child health care strategy, it will have a direct impact on achieving the other goals.

Here is another Conservative Party contradiction. In order to implement these goals, the UN called on member countries to commit 0.7% of their GDP in development assistance by 2015.

But in the 2010 Conservative budget, the government announced that it would cap the budget for development assistance at $5 billion per year. According to the federal government's budget projections, the ODA/GDP ratio for 2010-11 would be 0.29%, which equals a total of $5 billion in assistance.

By way of comparison, an additional $7.2 billion is required to reach 0.7% of GDP. Therefore, as the 2015 deadline approaches, we are forced to admit that the inaction of successive federal governments makes it increasingly unrealistic for Canada to attain the objective of 0.7% of GDP, which is exactly the means agreed to by the international community to reach the millennium development goals.

The government is fulfilling its promise to double the international aid budget from 2001-02 levels. However, that does not mean that it has reached the objective of 0.7% of GDP. This year, international aid represents 0.29% of GDP. At the least, we can say that the government has not really contradicted itself in this matter.

Given the circumstances, we doubt that the government has the will to effectively combat maternal and child mortality. In its budget, the government states that it will make infant and maternal health a priority at the G8 and G20 summits. Does Canada have the credibility to convince the G8 and G20 nations to make maternal and child health a priority when it is not making the financial effort required to meet the millennium development goals, which include maternal and child health?

Is the Canadian government aware that a number of G8 leaders are already promoting the issue of maternal health much more actively?

For example, as soon as he came to power, U.S. President Barack Obama repealed the Mexico City policy, established by President Reagan in 1984, which prohibited the U.S. Agency for International Development from providing funds to organizations that included abortion in their family planning measures. He believed that the exceedingly broad restrictions imposed on donations and aid were not justified and that they impeded efforts to promote effective family planning programs.

The American Congress recently allocated $648 million in aid to global family planning and reproductive health programs. The United States launched a new program that will be the centrepiece of its foreign policy, the global health initiative. It is committing $63 billion over the next six years, and a large part of that money will be invested in reducing maternal mortality and preventing millions of unwanted pregnancies.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown hosted the event, “Investing In Our Common Future: Healthy Women, Healthy Children”, was held at the United Nations on September 23, 2009, which resulted in the consensus for maternal, newborn and child health.

Maternal health is a human rights issue. As Amnesty International Canada recommended, it is critical that Canada now advance a human rights approach to addressing and reducing maternal mortality around the world.

According to Amnesty International, this approach must include: confronting the widespread discrimination, inequality and violence faced by women and girls worldwide; taking action to eliminate customary practices such as female genital mutilation and early and forced marriages that are harmful to or reinforce the subordination of women; ensuring access to family planning and contraceptive methods, and information about sexual and reproductive rights and health; removing financial and other barriers to accessing quality maternal health care; ensuring the accessibility of sexual and reproductive health services, including emergency obstetric care; ensuring the equitable distribution of health facilities, goods and services, and prioritizing access to essential health care for the most marginalized and disadvantaged women and girls.

Family planning and the use of contraception are an integral part of the fight against child and maternal mortality in developing countries. On July 11, 2008, as part of World Population Day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “Family planning is a fundamental component of reproductive health, as it allows for determining the spacing of pregnancies.”

Family planning, contraception and abortion cannot be separated from the issue of maternal and child health. On that, the UN Secretary-General is clear:

—world leaders proclaimed that individuals have a basic right to determine freely and responsibly the number and timing of their children. Millennium development goal 5, improving maternal health, affirms this right—

Responding to the contraception needs of developing countries would avoid millions of unwanted pregnancies and would save the lives of both mothers and children.

According to the United Nations Population Fund, an estimated 215 million women want to avoid becoming pregnant but do not have an effective method of contraception. Each year, 19 million abortions take place under dangerous conditions, resulting in 68,000 deaths. Many of these deaths could be prevented if information on family planning and contraception were available and used.

There is a desperate need for contraception. In nine sub-Saharan African countries, more than 30% of married woman have an unmet need for contraception. If these needs are unmet, it is obviously not because these women are not asking for it.; the large majority of them would like to have family-planning options.

Approximately 200 million women of child-bearing age want to delay their next pregnancy, but 137 million women use no contraception methods at all and 64 million use traditional methods that are less effective. Because of this, more than 63 million women have unwanted pregnancies each year.

By ensuring that women in developing countries have access to family planning without any obligation, it is estimated that maternal mortality could be reduced by one-third and infant mortality by 20%.

In Quebec and Canada, most women have access to proper medical care, contraception and abortion. It is rare for a woman to die in pregnancy or labour. It is clear that in developing countries these options could mean the difference between life and death for thousands of women and children.

The Conservatives must recognize this and integrate these options into their aid strategy for these countries. They should not remain insensitive to these questions when the time comes to help the least fortunate mothers and children.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Madam Speaker, when we talk about foreign aid and development, words are cheap, but what really matters is whether governments put their resources, financial and otherwise, behind it.

When the former Liberal government was in power, it promised its famous target of contributing 0.7% of GNP to international aid, but never met that. Canada, today, contributes less than half the 0.7% of the gross national income that we and other rich nations pledged to developing countries 40 years ago.

The 2010 budget, announced just a while back, contains a freeze on foreign aid levels. Officials have said that the maternal health program will have to come out of existing budget funds.

Would my hon. colleague comment on whether she thinks Canada is actually fulfilling its pledge and its promise internationally by promising these programs but never developing or delivering the money and resources needed to carry out its lofty goals?

[Johanne Deschamps, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for his question. In fact, the answer is more or less in the question.

There is some inconsistency between what the government says and what it does. We see that it is preparing to freeze its aid starting next year and maintain it at $5.1 billion. It will thereby reduce its debt at the expense of the least fortunate.

The message is loud and clear that donor countries have to increase their aid. There is a great need. Canada made commitments just last year, in L'Aquila, Italy. How can anyone expect the government to keep its promises when we see it going backwards, limiting, freezing and cutting services and programs to which Canadian and Quebec women once had access, but do not any more?

The question is: how can Canada, the host country of the G8 in June, have any credibility or take a leadership role in this file? We wonder.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Madam Speaker, I listened carefully to the very eloquent speech by my colleague from Laurentides—Labelle.

I would like to know what she thinks about the fact that the government, over the past four or five years, has cut 99% of the funding that was allocated to the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health, which is directly related to the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

How does this fit into the context of what she was saying? What does she think about the government's sudden about-face on contraception this week? Barely a week ago, the government was not a proponent of contraception. Suddenly—they must think the women of Quebec and Canada are naive—they would have us believe that contraception is now an integral part of their measures.

What does the hon. member think of all this?

[Johanne Deschamps, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his comment and question.

We are no longer surprised that every throne speech and every budget the Conservatives have presented since taking office has a hidden agenda.

The government is committed to making maternal and child health a priority at the next G8 summit. But behind this commitment we still find anti-abortion and anti-contraception lobby groups, which are pressuring the Conservative government.

On the one hand, the government is making a commitment; but, on the other hand, it does not want to displease these lobby groups, its faithful friends.

[Rod Bruinooge, Conservative, Winnipeg South, MB]

Madam Speaker, I agree that our country should achieve the said 0.7% of GDP. Would the member expand on one part of her speech? She referred to existing pregnancy interruption legislation in Canada. I would appreciate it if she could perhaps give some examples of that.

[Johanne Deschamps, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Madam Speaker, I would like to answer my colleague, but I am having trouble grasping the thrust of his question.

He mentioned that his government will soon attain the millennium development goal of 0.7%. I do not know where he read that or how he came up with that figure. The data are very conclusive: we are lagging far behind and are nowhere near attaining these goals. And we should not expect to attain them by 2015.

I do not understand how we can make maternal and child health a priority if we do not provide women with the basic tools to prevent a pregnancy when their health makes it impossible for them to have a child. In war-torn countries, women and 12- and 13-year-old girls who have been raped and mutilated must have access to safe abortions. If these children are born, there will be two victims: a child who will likely be neglected and a mother who is going to suffer the consequences for the rest of her life.

It is my belief that, in order to help women, we must intervene at the beginning, when they can make a choice. They must be given tools and provided with access to contraception and trained staff to provide impartial guidance so that they, as women, have the right to choose—

[The Acting Speaker, NDP, Denise Savoie]

The hon. member for Burnaby—New Westminster.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Madam Speaker, I very much enjoyed the speech given by the hon. member for Laurentides—Labelle.

Every 24 hours, 30,000 children die worldwide because of famine or a lack of health care. We also know that 1,400 pregnant women die in the same 24 hour period.

Clearly, this is a major crisis and Canada must take action to respond to the desperate needs of the victims who are dying every 24 hours. What is happening around the world is appalling.

The government seems to want to turn this crisis into a political issue and impose its ideology.

In the member's opinion, why is the government responding to this crisis with its inappropriate ideology?

[The Acting Speaker, NDP, Denise Savoie]

The hon. member for Laurentides—Labelle has just under a minute to reply.

[Johanne Deschamps, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Madam Speaker, I would like to say to my dear colleague and friend that the answer is clear. The Conservatives' right-wing, archaic ideology shackles women to practices from 60 years ago or more, and permeates everything they propose.

They oppose abortion and same sex marriage. They are influenced by extremely religious right-wing groups. Of course, this permeates everything they propose. They even modify their policies to be able to include this ideology—

[The Acting Speaker, NDP, Denise Savoie]

Resuming debate, the hon. member for London—Fanshawe.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Madam Speaker, I welcome this opportunity to participate in the debate regarding the Liberal opposition motion. I will be sharing my time with the member for Ottawa Centre.

I believe it is essential to clarify what has happened both outside and inside the House over the past few weeks. A good starting point would be the declaration by the Prime Minister in regard to the agenda of the upcoming G8 and G20 meetings that will be hosted by Canada.

On or about January 26, the Prime Minister told the world that the lack of the most basic services could lead to dire consequences, especially for the world's most vulnerable populations. Each year it is estimated that 500,000 women lose their lives during pregnancy or child birth. Further, an astonishing nine million children die before their fifth birthdays.

The United Nations had hoped to reduce the number of deaths related to pregnancy by 75% by 2015 as part of its millennium development goals. It now appears this target will go unfulfilled.

What makes it worse is the bulk of the deaths during pregnancy are easily preventable. There is a pressing need for global action on maternal and child health. The Prime Minister went on to say that the solutions were not intrinsically expensive. It is a laudable statement and, as the Prime Minister said, the solutions are not intrinsically expensive.

The problem is the Prime Minister left out one of the key actions if we are to make a difference in the lives of women and their children. He omitted any reference to contraception. We might have been willing to believe that this was a mere oversight, except there is much evidence to the contrary. Government ministers made it abundantly clear that the omission of contraception was a deliberate policy decision based on an ideological agenda.

Hansard and a variety of media reports provide some assistance in this regard. On March 18, the leader of the NDP, the member for Toronto—Danforth, asked the Prime Minister if the Conservatives were indeed excluding contraception from their plan to improve maternal health throughout the world. The Minister of International Cooperation responded, but did not answer his question. She evaded him by talking about plans to provide clean water, vaccinations, better nutrition and training for health care professionals.

The minister was much more direct the month before when she told the media that Canada's focus on maternal and child health would not address unsafe abortions in developing countries or support access to family planning and contraception. The Minister of Foreign Affairs was equally blunt in his statement that family planning would not be included in the G8 maternal child health initiative.

Since that time, the Prime Minister and his ministers have fallen over each other like Keystone cops in their efforts to backtrack or save face. Why on earth would the Prime Minister and members of his government make such shamefully ill-informed statements in the first place, unless, of course, they were playing to their socially conservative base?

What is more troubling is that they are supposed to lead. They are supposed to use the best evidence they can find to make intelligence, reliable decisions for Canada. They are not entitled to make ideological, irrational decisions that can only be categorized as completely devoid of any real concern for women and their children.

They played the game of seeming to care about these people. The reality is, as was stated by Dana Hovig of Marie Stopes International, an internationally-recognized reproductive health care organization, they were only able to demonstrate “a new low for political pandering to social conservatism”.

Ms. Hovig went on to say:

There's no question that family planning saves lives by preventing unwanted pregnancies, including those that would otherwise lead to complications and hence the death or injury of the mother or child.

The World Health Organization has been equally clear about the need for contraception if maternal and child health is to be addressed seriously and effectively. Every day 1,500 women die from pregnancy or childbirth-related complications. In 2005 there were an estimated 536,000 maternal deaths worldwide. Most of these deaths occurred in developing countries and most were avoidable.

Improving maternal health is one of the eight millennium development goals adopted by the international community at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000. Goal 5 commits countries to reducing maternal mortality. We have a long way to go to achieve the objective of reduced mortality and the conduct of the Prime Minister and his ministers undermines the role Canada has to play to achieve this reduction.

The WHO is very clear about what is needed. The first step for avoiding maternal deaths is to ensure that women have access to family planning. This will reduce unwanted pregnancies because women in developing countries have many pregnancies on average in their lifetime and they are very often at risk.

The Planned Parenthood Federation is equally clear on the subject. Planned Parenthood, another international organization that provides education and services, in particular, to the poor, the underserved and marginalized in parts of the world where public and private health care facilities do not exist, has a mandate to work at the community level, with local leaders, to overcome barriers based on misinformation, prejudice and gender discrimination.

The research and expertise of Planned Parenthood and the United Nations tell us, and I am sure would have told the Prime Minister had he done his homework, that despite significant progress over the last three decades, access to sexual and reproductive health services and information remains beyond the reach of much of the world's population.

Some 120 million to 150 million women worldwide want to limit or space their pregnancies but are still without the means to do so. Allowing a reasonable space between pregnancies allows women the chance to regain their health, look after their children, and decreases the chance of maternal mortality and child death. Most children who perish before age five die because they have lost their mothers.

Tragic numbers of women continue to die or suffer lifelong injuries because they lack access to sexual and reproductive health information, education and services. Young people face the barriers of cost, stigma and fear of going to a clinic. The lack of information limits young people's awareness of the issues of sex and sexuality. High rates of unwanted pregnancy and sexually-transmitted infections are powerful evidence that more programs are required to meet their needs.

The goal of Canada's G8-G20 agenda should be to ensure that all people, particularly those who are young, poor, marginalized, underserved or victims of gender discrimination, have the opportunity to exercise their rights and to make free and informed choices about their sexual and reproductive health.

This concern for sexual and reproductive health brings me to the issue of HIV-AIDS.

As we know, the scourge of AIDS is destroying the very fabric of many African communities. The best defence against the transmission of HIV is the condom. Yet, when the member for Toronto—Danforth questioned the Minister of International Cooperation about providing condoms to African men and women, she was utterly silent. The government should know the importance of condom use to the effective prevention of sexually-transmitted diseases like AIDS.

This House has, many times, paid tribute to the grandmothers who are raising orphans of their own dead children. They are the multitude of African grandmothers looking after their orphaned grandchildren, with little money, little food and little help.

Some 14 million children have been orphaned by AIDS in Africa, and the number continues to rise. To put that into perspective, that is more than all the children in Canada, Ireland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark combined.

It is estimated that in the next few years, there could be as many as 40 million orphans from 19 African countries. These children suffer the privation of trying to manage in poverty and their grandmothers are the overlooked members of society and the unrecognized heroes. Canadian Stephen Lewis, the United Nations' special envoy for HIV-AIDS in Africa, describes these grandmothers as the silent victims of the disease. Stephen begins his book, Race Against Time, with the words:

I have spent the last four years watching people die. Nothing in my adult life prepared me for the carnage of HIV/AIDs.

He goes on to say:

Every time I go back to Africa I see the carnage. I visit the huts where women are dying in the presence of their children. What the Western world has so failed to do is to respond on an emergency basis to a huge human apocalypse. There’s no other way of describing it.

The grandmothers, describes Lewis, are “so impoverished and so frantic for support that they are emotionally decimated,” and often bury their sons and daughters, and become mothers again to the children left behind, many of whom also suffer from AIDS.

As I said, I am indeed glad to participate in this debate. It puts into clear and jarring focus the need for veracity and humanity from the current government.

In the wake of all this suffering, we, as a nation of compassionate people, must show leadership and humanity. I just wish I could trust the current government to provide the direction that such humanity demands and needs to take.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Madam Speaker, I would like to congratulate my hon. colleague from London—Fanshawe and thank her on behalf of all Canadians, particularly women, for the wonderful work that she does on behalf of the women of this country and, in fact, around the world.

We in the NDP of course welcome this interest, however new-found it may be, in the health of mothers and children in the developing world by the current government. We would also like to bring the focus back to the situation of women and children in this country.

Being one of the wealthiest nations of the world, it is shocking that 70% of Inuit children, pre-school age, live in homes where there is not always enough food. There are many mothers and children who live in this country who live in unsafe places, who go without food, who do not have electricity or heat because of persistent deep poverty.

Now that the government has committed to catching up with other wealthy nations on maternal health aid in foreign countries, I wonder whether my hon. colleague would comment on what she feels is needed in this country to help put women and children first in Canada, as well.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Madam Speaker, there is absolutely no doubt that while the government talks a game about maternal and child health in the third world, in developing nations, it is quite prepared to undermine anything in terms of the aspirations of the women of this country to live in a healthy manner and provide for their children.

We have seen it over the last four years. In fact, we have seen it over the last 15 years from this government and the previous government. There have been cuts to the services for women, cuts to Status of Women Canada, cuts to the organizations that advocate and do the research that tells us that women in this country have not achieved equality.

I am thinking about the fact that there is no affordable housing in this country for the women who are desperately trying to leave abusive situations. There is no regulated child care for all of the women who would desperately like to get back into the workforce so that they can look after their families, so that they can provide for their children.

The government has turned its back on the women of Canada, has tried to pretend that it is interested in the women of the world, but we know better. We know differently. I say it is time for women and children first in every country, in every nation, and that includes Canada.

[Tony Martin, NDP, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

Madam Speaker, I also want to thank the member for her comments here this morning on this important initiative, if the government indeed does follow through and do the kinds of things that we all know in this place need to be done, both in other countries and at home.

It is always telling to me in trying to figure out whether somebody is sincere in his or her commitment to doing something when we look back at his or her track record, and the member for London—Fanshawe will remember, when we were government in Ontario together in the early 1900s, the kinds of things that we did to improve the lot of children, women and families in those very difficult, recessionary times.

However, subsequent to that, and this is what gives me concern here and why I ask the question of her this morning in light of the motion that is in front of us, following our time in government, we then had a Conservative government come to power in Ontario. One of the first things it did was cut welfare by 21.6%. As a matter of fact, it was the first thing it did, in order to send a message to anybody else in that province who might challenge the government in terms of its agenda where the at-risk and marginalized are concerned.

With that and shortly following that, it cut many programs that were targeted for women. One of them was a nutrition program that would give pregnant women a little extra money to buy milk so that they might have healthy children.

I am just wondering if she remembers that and if she might want to comment on the fact that the provincial government cut that program.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Madam Speaker, I do indeed remember those cuts. I remember being on the street because they were such desperate and cruel cuts. When he speaks of cutting nutrition programs for pregnant women, the excuse of the day from the premier of the day, such as he was, was that he was depriving these women of beer, that they would only go out and spend it on beer.

It is very clear that the attitude toward the people in this country who are struggling is one of derision from this government and from previous Conservative provincial governments. People need support and help. They need understanding. They need to be able to help their kids. They do not need the backhand of this bunch.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Madam Speaker, here are some key statistics on maternal health. It is very important.

Every year, over 500,000 women die from pregnancy-related complications, and 9 million children die before the age of 5.

According to the World Health Organization, the first step for reducing the maternal death rate is to ensure that women have access to family planning and safe abortion.

Modern contraceptive options help fight the spread of HIV/AIDS, by allowing HIV-positive women to plan the timing of their pregnancies, so that they can recover from childbirth, and by providing access to health care in order to prevent transmitting the virus to their children.

Maternal mortality tends to be inversely proportional to women’s status in countries with similar levels of economic development.

We want the maternal health initiative to include a full range of family planning options. The government must make a firm commitment in terms of the funding, content and duration of the project.

The Prime Minister has come in late to the debate. Other countries have been interested in maternal health for years and have taken the lead in terms of funding—the facts are clear—while the Prime Minister is still playing catch-up.

The Conservatives have very little credibility when it comes to women's issues in developing countries. After all, their government was the one that banished the terms gender equality, gender-based violence, impunity and justice from its vocabulary when calling for an end to sexual violence in the Republic of Congo.

But maternal health problems continue because women cannot decide when and with whom to have a child, how many children they want, or how to space their pregnancies.

If we look at many of the indicators of maternal health, right across the board they prove that investing countries are successful when they have made sure the investments are adopted according to the needs of the countries they are trying to help. What is not successful is trying to tell those countries, those communities, those people they are trying to help when it comes to maternal health, how to do it.

I sincerely hope we are past this kind of social Conservative ideology when it comes to maternal health, when it comes to development in general terms, which we saw with previous administrations both here in Canada and elsewhere. What we need to see is not only the commitment in words but the commitment in deeds and understanding. If we look at where other countries have made commitments to the millennium goals and said not only would they support them in words but in actions, we will see tremendous success in the projects they have invested in when it comes to maternal health.

Look at other countries that have been deeply involved in the issue of maternal health over the past three years. Last year alone, other countries pledged $5 billion to a new global consensus for maternal, newborn and child health. In 2007, Norway and Holland pledged $1.2 billion over 10 years for maternal and child health. I said earlier that we are coming to this conversation late, and the statistics I just read into the record would show that. Other countries have not only said they are interested in this but they have actually said “here is the money down on the table to invest”.

What we need to see is not just someone who has come late to a debate and understanding of an issue, and make no mistake, we welcome and embrace that the government wants to deal with maternal health, but we need to see profound understanding of the issue. We cannot just come to the table and say we want to do something and walk away without putting money on the table. Some have concerns, which I share, with an idea that there are going to be tags on dollars that are sent to help with maternal health. If that is the case, if that is what we are looking at, that is not going to help women who need help the most right now. That is just an ideological game that is being played by the government.

What we would hope from the government is, and I would actually support this motion, that it would say we want to embrace maternal health, we want to deal with the statistics that repeat themselves year after year, that women are the ones who suffer the most. Why? Because they are the ones on the front lines when it comes to third world economies.

I referenced the Democratic Republic of Congo. Right now there is a war going on there. It is a gender war, and the ones who are on the front lines are not soldiers; they are women. Rape is used as a weapon of war right now in the DRC. It is happening in other locations. These women are having to raise children whilst they are being subjected to rape, to intimidate communities to move them out from where they live so mining companies can go in and get their coltan and other minerals that end up fueling the conflict.

If we do not understand the role of women and gender, then we will have abandoned women, then we will have just given lip service to an issue that is so profound. And I am not talking about just giving them some clean water and things will be fine. I am talking about centring women in the decision making, women who, as I said, are on the front lines of conflict in the third world, who are on the front lines of making sure kids have enough, who have always been on the front line throughout history to ensure that our species actually exists.

If we look at what the government stated recently of its intention to have maternal health as a key issue for the G8 and, presumably, G20 talks and then look at the budget, there is a bit of a gap here.

The government says, on one hand, that it wants to embrace maternal health and make sure we invest and help women in terms of development and to make sure they have all they need to help their children. On the other hand, we see what its intentions are with the budget. In the next couple of years we would have thought the government would be saying it would raise its contributions for foreign aid to make sure maternal health would be funded, not just this year but at least for the next five years, because 2015 is the end of the millennium goal agenda. However, what we see is a government that is cutting foreign aid.

What do people say if they are on the front lines dealing with maternal health issues and they want to see those women in the Congo be able to take initiative and power over their lives and to give them the tools they need, because they know how to turn things around, and they need the resources and help from us? Would they say there is an honest broker here, someone who actually wants to help, when they look at the budget and see it is being cut?

We embrace the idea of maternal health as a priority. We want to make sure it comes without tags on dollars and on the places this money is to be spent. We want to make sure it helps women around the world. We do not want ideological lenses put on this. We want to make sure the money is going to the people who need it. But to finally do that, our government has to commit to it, not just in words but in deeds, and when it comes to the budget, it has failed.

If the government is to embrace this, it needs to change its economic priorities. It needs to make sure we have money for this year, next year and the years following.

The NDP will support the motion, not just today, but as we always have, now and for continuing years to make sure women abroad who need the help will get it.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for his very thoughtful, well-reasoned and consistent message. I emphasize the word “consistent” because, as we have found when we talked about commitments to women or to alleviating the effects of poverty or the health impact on people that is caused by poverty in this country, words are cheap and hollow. What we really need in this country is a government that will back up those words with the resources necessary.

I want to focus on the economic underpinnings of the health problems facing women, because I believe there is a clear connection between poverty and lack of opportunities and the health outcomes of women and children in our country.

I am wondering if my hon. colleague might comment on that for us and tell us what he thinks needs to be done in this country and around the world, economically, to help improve the health outcomes of women and children.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question, because this is about investments. It is also about what those investments can do. We know the one-to-seven equation. We know that when we invest early in childhood development, one dollar saves us seven later. That study has been done and has been referenced many times before. It applies not only in developing countries but also domestically.

If we invest in family planning, we are looking at preventing about 25% of maternal and child deaths in the developing world. That is by preventing risky births that are too close together and allowing women to have power over their reproductive systems, which enables them to actually plan their families.

Those are the kinds of investments we can make. They give us a multiplier effect, because by investing in the present, we invest in the future. They alleviate costs in the health system. They substantially support women in terms of being involved in the economy, in which they play a key role in developing countries, as we know. There is a multiplier effect and that is why it is so important that we invest.