Mr. Speaker, as I rise today to speak to our Conservative motion calling on the health committee to begin a large-scale review of the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, I want to note that this is the first time I have had the opportunity to give a speech in this place since the decision was made back in March to change how we function as a result of COVID-19. I also cannot help but remember all the catchphrases that have been used every day by the Prime Minister, as he sought to reassure Canadians: there will be a “whole of government response” to this pandemic; “we are team Canada”, after all; and “we are in this together”.
Here we are debating an opposition day motion calling on the Liberal government to be transparent and provide parliamentarians, and all Canadians, with answers regarding how and why decisions were made in the early days of the pandemic and to provide a concrete plan to protect their health and our economy going forward. This study will bring much-needed transparency to what has been an opaque process. It is so opaque in fact that the Liberals have blocked the health committee from accessing routine documents on pandemic readiness, PPE purchasing and rapid testing approvals.
The government has made a habit of refusing to answer even basic questions, acting offended by the very idea of being held to account. That is why we are deliberating this motion in the House today rather than at health committee, where it ought to be debated.
We know that the Prime Minister's Office directed the Liberal members of the health committee to block the release of documents on the pandemic response, documents that the government has no right to block. Those documents belong not to the Liberal government, but to the Canadian people.
There was a time when the Prime Minister understood that. On June 16, he tweeted the following, “Canadians have high expectations of me and I intend to meet them by continuing to raise the bar on transparency and openness.” He made that comment in 2013. It is safe to say that those expectations have been crushed.
This is not merely an academic debate about the role of government and its responsibility to Parliament and ultimately to the Canadian people. No, this is about people's lives and livelihoods. Canadians need clear answers on what the future holds for them, on what plans the government has made and the progress made to date.
Well over a million Canadians are out of work through no fault of their own. Millions more are working fewer hours and suffering the economic consequences, with nearly all Canadians being forced at one time or another into lives of self-isolation, which has had untold consequences on their mental health.
Are we really asking too much in requesting that the members of Parliament serving on the Standing Committee for Health review the impact of the government's use of the World Health Organization advice in early 2020 to delay the closure of borders and delay the recommendation of wearing masks; or the availability of personal protective equipment in Canada and a review of Canada's emergency stockpile of PPE, otherwise referred to as the NESS, between 2015 and present? Is it too much to ask the government to tell Canadians why they shut down the pandemic early warning system, or how long they can expect to wait before rapid testing kits are available or where we are at in the development of a vaccine and how long before it will be available? The government seems to think it is, and this has been the case all along.
From the moment the House of Commons was recessed on March 13 until today, the government has refused to be open and transparent with Canadians. Time and time again, the Conservatives have called upon the government to clearly outline its processes and address important questions regarding its response to the pandemic, and every time the Liberals have obfuscated. Canadians rightly expect the government to adhere to the highest ethical standards when it comes to the procurement of medical equipment or PPE as well as any potential vaccines or treatments and understand that these things take time.
Given the motion we are debating today, we are left to surmise, as we were after Tuesday's debate, that the government has something to hide. Perhaps the information we do know regarding vaccine procurement, for example, can help us understand why the government is vehemently opposed to transparency on these matters.
The Liberals have failed on numerous counts by placing all our eggs in one basket and that basket is China. China has repeatedly shown that it will not act in good faith. It has shut down the import of Canadian pulse crops on false pretenses. It has illegally held Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor as political prisoners for nearly two years and it has blocked medical supplies from being shipped to Canada, not to mention its abysmal human rights record toward the people of Hong Kong and minority communities within their borders such as the Uighurs.
Despite all of that, the Liberals chose China. It certainly was not for lack of other options. We had an opportunity to work on a vaccine with the University of Oxford, in a little place called the United Kingdom, one of our closest allies. Instead, their choice has left us scrambling to find alternatives and placing us at the back of the line to receive a vaccine when it finally arrives. Their troubles with a vaccine is not the only problem we know of.
With such an abysmal track record, I suppose we should not be surprised that the Liberals would avoid transparency as much as possible, but Canadians deserve better. As my colleague, the shadow minister for health said, at a time when it is very clear that the Liberals were unprepared for the second wave of the pandemic and Canadians are worried about their loved ones, their jobs and their futures, they deserve clear answers from the government.
On that note, I would like to move, seconded by the hon. member for Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill:
That the motion be amended by replacing paragraph (aa) with the following:
aa) minutes of meetings of the Cabinet and its committees be excluded from this order and all documents issued pursuant to this order (i) be organized by department and be provided to the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel as soon as is practicable in light of the pandemic but in any event not later than November 30th, 2020, and if this is not possible, the Clerk of the Privy Council may request an extension, of no more than seven days, by writing a letter to the committee, (ii) be vetted for matters of personal privacy information, and national security, and, with respect to paragraph (y) only, be additionally vetted for information the disclosure of which could reasonably be expected to interfere with contractual or other negotiations between the Government of Canada and a third party, by the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel within seven days of the receipt of the documents, (iii) be laid upon the table by the Speaker, at the next earliest opportunity, once vetted, and permanently referred to the Standing Committee on Health; and