House of Commons Hansard #324 of the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was c-81.

Topics

Natural ResourcesCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

8:50 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

On division.

Natural ResourcesCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

8:50 p.m.

Conservative

The Deputy Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton

I declare the motion carried.

(Motion agreed to)

A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved.

Employment InsuranceAdjournment Proceedings

8:50 p.m.

NDP

Brigitte Sansoucy NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC

Mr. Speaker, on April 24, I rose in the House to once again remind the government of its commitments regarding EI sickness benefits, which are currently limited to 15 weeks. Nine years have already passed since Marie-Hélène Dubé brought this to the attention of members of the House with her petition entitled “15 weeks to heal is not enough!”. I want to commend her for her courage and determination.

Just like the one million Canadians who supported this petition, I believe that 15 weeks is not nearly enough, especially for people with serious illnesses. That is why the NDP is proposing to extend the benefit period to 50 weeks. The employment insurance system as it exists today creates real injustice.

People do not choose to become ill. Can we accept the fact that we are letting some Canadians live in precarious circumstances because they are ill? Statistics show that one in two Canadians is at risk for cancer. How can this government be insensitive to the fate of half the population?

Marie-Hélène Dubé, who has had cancer three times, lost her job while fighting for her life. Hers is not an isolated case. Some people have lost everything, including their home and life savings. On top of struggling to get better, they have to cope with losing everything, but what is this government doing to support them? Nothing.

One of my constituents, Mélanie Pelletier, exhausted her 15 weeks of EI sickness benefits. Mélanie has told me how hard things are getting. She said she is no longer living, she is just surviving. Stress, anxiety and pain are the reality that Mélanie and many people like her are facing, with no support or attention from this government. Speaking for myself, I cannot remain unmoved by the plight of people like Marie-Hélène and Mélanie. I want concrete action. I want results. I want this government to show some compassion. I want this government to keep its promises and improve EI sickness benefits.

The government's figures clearly show that more than one-third of people applying for EI sickness benefits need more than 15 weeks to recover. These figures come from the ministry of families, children and social development. In 2015, the Liberal Party based its campaign on EI reform. In 2016, it promised to improve sickness benefits, but to date it has done nothing.

To make matters worse, the Minister of Social Development was there when I moved the motion asking that the issue be examined and that experts and groups representing unemployed and sick workers be called upon to make recommendations to the government. The Liberal members of the committee refused to vote on the study and dismissed out of hand the opportunity to finally move forward. Extending the benefit period to 50 weeks would give Canadians a chance to heal.

Will the government finally keep its promises and accept its responsibilities or does it intend to continue to turn its back on the most fragile among us, those who are suffering, those who are asking for just a few more weeks so that they can heal?

Employment InsuranceAdjournment Proceedings

8:55 p.m.

Spadina—Fort York Ontario

Liberal

Adam Vaughan LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her very important question about the program reform.

I want to thank the hon. member for her concern about this matter. I certainly understand that there are difficult and very sensitive cases among the thousands of people who receive assistance under employment insurance sickness benefits.

El sickness benefits are an important support measure for Canadians who have to leave their job due to injury or sickness.

Employment insurance sickness benefits are an important support for Canadians who have to leave their jobs because of illness or injury.

El sickness benefits provide 15 weeks of income replacement for Canadians who leave work due to short-term illness or injury. ln 2016-17, almost 379,000 new sickness claims were made, with approximately $1.6 billion being paid to beneficiaries. Sickness benefit claimants collect, on average, 10 weeks of the maximum entitlement of 15 weeks. This shows that the available coverage is sufficient in the majority of cases.

However, we are fully aware that some claimants do exhaust all 15 weeks of benefits before they are able to return to work. That said, El sickness benefits complement a range of other support measures in the case of long-term sickness or disability, including employer and private insurance programs, Canada pension plan long-term disability benefits, as well as numerous other supports provided by provinces and territories.

I want to assure my colleague that we take this issue very seriously.

I want to remind the House that we have already implemented several measures to ensure the EI program is more flexible, inclusive and easier to access.

For instance, in the past few months we have created an employment insurance family caregiver benefit for adults, which provides up 50 weeks of benefits to eligible caregivers to offer support to an adult family member who is critically ill or injured. Immediate and extended family members with critically ill children now have access to a new benefit that was only available to parents in the past. This replaces and enhances the benefits for parents with critically ill children and continues to offer a maximum of 35 weeks of benefits. In addition, medical doctors and nurse practitioners can now sign documents attesting that the child or adult is critically ill or injured. This change also applies to compassionate care benefits for providing end-of-life care to family members.

Budget 2018 announced that the government would extend the working-while-on-claim provisions to sickness and maternity benefits. This provision came into force in August. It will allow Canadians recovering from illness or injury to have much greater flexibility to stage their return to work and also keep more of their EI benefits.

As the member can see, we have already taken real action to support Canadians. I want to assure her that will continue to do our utmost to ensure the EI program is better aligned to today's labour market realities and is responsive to the needs of Canadian workers and employees.

As hon. members can see, we have taken tangible measures to support Canadians. I can assure the House that we will continue to do everything in our power to ensure that the employment insurance program is better aligned with the realities of today's labour market and can meet the needs of Canadian workers and employers.

Employment InsuranceAdjournment Proceedings

9 p.m.

NDP

Brigitte Sansoucy NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC

Mr. Speaker, the fact remains that 15 weeks is just not enough. Mélanie told me that 15 weeks barely gave her enough time to undergo testing to confirm her diagnosis. Her treatments had not even begun yet. It has gotten to the point where doctors in my riding are contacting me to say that the patients under their care have to go back to work in the middle of their treatment and that is unacceptable.

The parliamentary secretary talked about benefits that are given to others, such as family caregivers. It is ridiculous to think that the family caregivers are entitled to more weeks of benefits than the person who is sick.

If the government is serious about addressing the needs of the sick, when will it put its money where its mouth is? These people are suffering and facing losses as I said earlier. Last week, during question period, I talked about Johanne and her family, who lost everything: their home and their life savings.

What is the government waiting for to do something?

Employment InsuranceAdjournment Proceedings

9 p.m.

Liberal

Adam Vaughan Liberal Spadina—Fort York, ON

Mr. Speaker, I want to reiterate that our government is resolved to provide support for all those who are in need to get the support they need. There has not yet been a budget with this government that has not addressed or reformed critical parts of the EI program to sustain and invest in the health and well-being of Canadians.

I would like to remind the House of our government's commitment to provide support to everyone who needs it in Canada.

That priority is reflected in our commitment to improve the employment insurance program so it responds to the needs of Canadian workers and employers.

I want to reassure the hon. member that we are fully committed to ensuring the employment insurance program, including EI sickness benefits, continues to serve Canadians in an effective and timely manner. We are reviewing it as we speak.

HealthAdjournment Proceedings

9 p.m.

NDP

Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC

Mr. Speaker, I am here today because Canadians simply cannot wait for pharmacare. Last spring, I asked the Prime Minister in the House about the urgent need for pharmacare in the face of so many people in the country not filling their prescriptions and with the Parliamentary Budget Officer clearly stating that over $4 billion a year would be saved by having a national pharmacare program. The Prime Minister's response was, “it is not surprising to see the NDP trying to implement something without a clear plan.”

I am not sure how many studies or consultations the government needs before it takes action. I would assume that the many exhaustive studies done in this place, the Parliamentary Budget Officer's report and the many Canadians who cannot afford their medications might be enough to engage the government to actually move forward and take some action. In fact, the consultation process the government has put forward is to consult on whether to do this. It is not a group that is set up on actively putting together a strategy for implementation.

Canada pays the second highest medication costs in the world. In my riding of North Island—Powell River, too many people are making terrible choices, which include choices between medication and food, or medication and heat or medication and a place to live. I often feel like I am a broken record, but I will keep speaking in this place until the government finally hears.

Seniors in my riding and across Canada are taking half of their medication to extend how long it lasts. Families are going into serious credit card debt to afford their children's medication costs. Doctors come to see me to talk about how hard it is to try to treat people who cannot afford their medication. It is more expensive to pay for a hospital stay than it is to pay for that medication.

Consultations are overdone and it seems to me that the government has this theme song of we are going to talk about it, we are going to consult about it and we are going to talk about it some more.

I really hope the government will hear really clearly from Canadians that pharmacare needs to happen now. There are too many high-risk people who are making terrible choices. I think of a constituent in my riding who recently had some severe challenges with his income. He is a senior, he is struggling every single day and has said that he just needs a little help because he cannot afford his medication. That is terrible.

I am asking the government to take some responsibility, to look at the reports that are coming out of this place, to look at the years and years of promises made that this would actually happen, that we would finally fulfill our medicare system with a pharmacare system, which every other country that has a medicare system has, and actually take action so people in our country are not going without their medication simply because they cannot afford it.

HealthAdjournment Proceedings

9:05 p.m.

John Oliver Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health, Lib.

Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to strengthening health care systems across the country and supporting the health of Canadians. We know Canadians are proud of their publicly funded health care system. It is based on need and not ability to pay. We also recognize almost a million Canadians have to choose between food or heat or the prescription medications they need. In many cases they do not take prescribed drugs due to the high prices. That is why our government is taking steps to make prescription drugs more affordable and accessible, but we recognize there is even more we can do.

As part of budget 2018, we have created an advisory council on the implementation of national pharmacare. This council, chaired by Dr. Eric Hoskins, will build on the valuable work done by the Standing Committee on Health. The council will work closely with experts and provincial, territorial and indigenous leaders as well as exploring domestic and international models. The final report, expected by spring 2019, will recommend actions on how best to move forward together on this important issue.

As we await the findings of the council, our government will continue working collaboratively with the provinces and territories and with leading pan-Canadian health organizations to lower drug prices, provide more timely access to the new medicines Canadians need, and support appropriate prescribing. For example, our government is modernizing the way the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board works through amendments to the patented medicines regulations. These changes will better protect Canadian consumers, governments and private insurers from excessive drug prices.

Our government is also working closely with the provinces and territories through the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance to lower drug costs. By combining governments' collective bargaining power, the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance has completed more than 170 joint brand drug negotiations and achieved price reductions on 18 generic drugs, resulting in combined savings of almost $1.3 billion annually.

In addition, our government is working to provide Canadians with more timely access to important new medicines. Health Canada is making changes to better align its drug review process with health partners and to expand its priority review process to more effectively meet health care system needs. It is doing this while continuing to ensure that approved drugs are safe, effective and of good quality. This will include establishing new regulatory pathways for drugs and working more closely with organizations that assess the cost-effectiveness of drugs.

Finally, our government recognizes that the overuse, underuse and misuse of prescription drugs creates risks for patients and unnecessary waste in the health care system. To address this, we will work with our partners to build evidence and promote best practices in the appropriate prescribing and use of drugs. These actions are moving Canada towards a more sustainable and responsive pharmaceuticals management system. Our government recognizes there is an opportunity to do even more.

We welcome the results of the extensive study the health committee conducted on pharmacare. The advisory council has begun an important national dialogue on how to move forward on this important topic.

HealthAdjournment Proceedings

9:10 p.m.

NDP

Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC

Mr. Speaker, the main point that I think needs to be said really clearly is that Canadians simply cannot wait. I talk to people across Canada about their health challenges and the expense of their health challenges. Families have loved ones who need a certain amount of medical care or medication that is very expensive. They are having to make choices about selling their home to pay for that medication so that that loved one can live. I do not know how much more time so many Canadians can take and can wait for a report that is going to come up next year in the spring.

I appreciate that there are actions being taken but there are not enough actions for those people who are making destitute decisions, for seniors who are taking half of their medication, for doctors who are trying to find the cheapest way to prescribe to the patients but still finding absolutely no way to give them something that is affordable. I hope that out of all this, the government will hear that Canadians cannot wait.

HealthAdjournment Proceedings

9:10 p.m.

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health, Lib.

John Oliver

Mr. Speaker, implementing national pharmacare is not something that can be achieved overnight. It will require working closely with experts from all relevant areas, as well as with provincial, territorial, indigenous and national leaders. That is a key part of the role of the advisory council on the implementation of national pharmacare led by Dr. Hoskins. We have to get the details right. While the council does its work, we are continuing to improve Canada's pharmaceuticals management system.

Unfortunately, even as public and private payers wrestle with growing costs, Canadians are not experiencing all of the benefits that this level of spending should provide. Some Canadians face real barriers to access. The Government of Canada is firmly committed to working with its partners to address these challenges and, as outlined here today, our government is taking action.

HealthAdjournment Proceedings

9:10 p.m.

Conservative

The Deputy Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton

The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m., pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 9:12 p.m.)