Madam Speaker, first off the top, I would like to note that I will be splitting my time with the member for Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek.
Today, as Canada and the world continue to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, Conservative opposition members find ourselves once again fighting to do our jobs as parliamentarians. We are fighting for an accountable and ethical government. We are fighting for Canadians to get the answers that they deserve. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister and his Liberal government yet again continue to fight us every step of the way.
The motion we are considering today would allow the health committee to thoroughly study and evaluate the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and present its findings to the House. This is at a time when Canadians need answers and confidence in their government. The necessity of the motion should be indisputable. It is a motion that could and should have been settled at the health committee, but the Prime Minister's Liberal members of Parliament have been hard at work preventing the adoption of this motion.
They have wasted time filibustering and coming up with any excuse to shut down the health committee meetings. This is the same behaviour that we have also seen at the ethics and finance committees ironically, and it is disrespectful to all Canadians who are facing so much uncertainty. It is disrespectful to all Canadians who have been asked to and have sacrificed so much.
There is a troubling pattern with the Liberal government that started well before this pandemic. The Liberals have repeatedly shown disdain for Parliament and the duties of parliamentarians. This is a Prime Minister who has so much to hide that he threatened an election just this week to avoid the formation of a special committee to review the WE Charity scandal. In what seems to be an effort to avoid accountability at all costs, we have had a prorogation, a resignation, hours of filibustering and threats of sending Canadians to the polls.
The Prime Minister claims that he wants to focus on the pandemic. If that is sincere, then there should be no reason to obstruct the motion. We are already seeing rising numbers of COVID cases in Canada this fall, and Canadians need confidence that there is a plan to navigate us through this pandemic and beyond. However, this government has failed to demonstrate that it has any kind of plan.
The Prime Minister claimed to have prorogued Parliament so that he could deliver a throne speech with a detailed path forward. As we know, that proved not to be true. There is no detailed plan to keep Canadians safe and healthy, and there is no real plan to keep our economy going. In fact, the Prime Minister has now broken a record for the longest stretch in Canadian history without the federal government presenting a budget. Canadians deserve to know exactly what decisions have been made by this government and based on what evidence. They need to know that the Liberals are learning from their failures in this pandemic.
The Prime Minister would prefer to compare Canada to countries that are faring the worst so that he can pat himself on the back. That low bar fails Canadians, and none more so than Canada's seniors who have been the hardest hit in this pandemic.
Long-term care homes have been at the epicentre of this health crisis in Canada. The Canadian Institute for Health Information released an analysis in the spring that painted a clear picture of the devastation in long-term care. Long-term care residents accounted for 81% of COVID deaths in Canada. Compare that with the average of 38% in other OECD countries, and it is more than double our international counterparts. That is the standard we need to measure ourselves against, not those who are doing worse. We need to understand how other countries manage better in long-term care homes and work in collaboration with provinces to quickly adopt better measures. We owe that to Canada's seniors living in long-term care, their families and those working in these facilities.
That same Canadian Institute for Health Information analysis identified prevention measures taken in countries with fewer infections and deaths in long-term care, which included infection control measures, broad testing, increased training, isolation wards to manage clusters, increased staffing and access to personal protective equipment. When we consider those prevention measures, we already know that Canada is not up to par.
Well before the pandemic, long-term care voices were asking for infrastructure investment and raising the alarm on staffing shortages. We have seen these issues exacerbated during this pandemic, and we have all read the heartbreaking reports on the conditions in some of these care facilities.
However, what actions have really been taken in the immediate term to protect seniors living in care? Long-term care voices are still asking for stable access to adequate personal protective equipment. They are asking for regular and mass testing. They are asking for a plan to ensure the effective delivery of a vaccine. The Liberal government has not been forthcoming with a concrete plan to ensure their health and safety.
Either the Liberals have a plan and do not believe they need to be transparent about it or there is no plan. Canadians need answers.
While this motion would allow the health committee to ensure that there are real-time lessons learned to help improve our response to the pandemic, it would give the committee direction to study, evaluate, review and examine the government's response. It covers testing procurement, vaccine development, the efficiency of long-term care protocols, the adequacy of health transfers, levels of preparedness and so much more. It would also compel the government to produce documents in relation to the decisions that it has already taken during the pandemic.
The comprehensive motion is necessary and it is completely within the health committee's purview. This is an opportunity for the government to work with Parliament to improve its response and to ensure transparency.
The notion that the Liberal government would throw so much effort at blocking this motion at committee is troubling. The Liberals' all out efforts to prevent this motion raises so many questions. What do they have to hide? Why are they trying so hard to prevent Canadians from getting answers? What is so incriminating in the documents that they do not want Canadians to see it? What happened to the team Canada approach?
We already know that the Liberals were slow to close the borders. They closed Canada's early pandemic warning system. They failed to maintain our emergency stockpile of personal protective equipment. They sent critical personal protective equipment to China when we did not have enough in Canada. They flip-flopped on the use of masks. They failed to keep up with our allies in the procurement and approval of rapid testing. We are lagging behind on securing COVID-19 vaccines.
What more do the Liberals have to hide that their Liberal members of Parliament on the health committee would spend hours filibustering and playing games to prevent this motion from passing? The more they protest, the more pressing it seems to become that there is greater need for accountability and transparency surrounding their COVID-19 response.
The Liberal government's failures cost Canadians their livelihoods and cost some them their lives. At a minimum, the Liberals should be willing to evaluate the lessons we have learned from those failures, not fighting the opposition tooth and nail.
The Prime Minister has asked Canadians to sacrifice a lot this year in the interest of public health, and they have. Canadians have sacrificed and they have given the government time to develop better responses.
The only solution to the pandemic cannot be to keep shutting down our economy and just hoping for the best. That is not sufficient for Canada's seniors, who have seen the highest infection and fatality rates. It is not sufficient for Canadians who are living with compromised immunity, for health care workers who are on the front lines or for our small business owners who are barely hanging on.
Rather than just cancelling Christmas, months in advance, it is time the Prime Minister demonstrate to Canadians that he has a concrete plan to navigate through and beyond this pandemic. This motion is an opportunity to demonstrate just that and to work together to improve Canada's response to this health crisis.
Let us pass the motion and get on with the work that Canadians elected us and expect us to do.