Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join the Parliament of Canada from beautiful Mission, British Columbia, today.
Last week the Prime Minister was unwilling or unable to answer whether he had consulted with Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, before threatening Canadians with an election during a pandemic simply because he did not want to reveal what must be some very damning WE Charity scandal documents.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Liberals' failures have cost Canadians greatly. These failures include: one, telling Canadians there was no person-to-person spread of COVID-19; two, telling Canadians that border control measures and masks did not work; three, sending critical supplies of PPE to China when we had a shortage; four, abdicating pandemic responsibilities to the provinces; five, failing to ensure Canadians have access to rapid and at-home tests; six, shutting down the federal pandemic early warning system just months before COVID-19; seven, falling behind our allies in approving rapid tests and securing future COVID-19 vaccines; and, eight, the Prime Minister threatening elections with a blatantly incorrect understanding of what a confidence motion is and without having consulted Canada's chief public health officer.
Canadians deserve a government that will have their backs, a government that will develop our local medical equipment production chain without the worry of Liberal insiders getting rich off taxpayer dollars. All Canadians waiting for ventilators to arrive, all Canadians depending on rapid testing so they can get back to work and all Canadians having lost a loved one to the virus deserve answers. The PMO staffers trying to throw Canada into an election, using a confidence motion for matters that are not actually matters of confidence to lay the blame on opposition parties, should also want these answers for the safety of Canadians.
This week's opposition motion instructs the health committee to study Canada's COVID-19 response, including rapid and at-home testing approvals and procurement, vaccine development and distribution protocols, a review of federal public health guidelines and the data used to inform government decisions, a review of long-term care facility COVID-19 protocols, the availability of PPE in Canada, a review of Canada's emerging PPE stockpile, the impact of using WHO advice to delay closing borders and delay recommending masks, and the reasoning behind and the impact of closing Canada's public health early warning system.
Despite the Liberals' unfortunate opposition to it, this motion passed and now provides the government a chance to work with us to improve its approach and to act with transparency. Canadians deserve a government that learns from its mistakes and successes so we can prepare better for the future. However, unfortunately, the Liberals only seem interested in threatening an election and shutting down studies on the pandemic response.
Canadians do not want an election. With the number of cases continuing to rise, no access to rapid testing and concerns about the number of hospital beds, it is shameful that the Prime Minister had not consulted Dr. Tam about the implications of an election during a pandemic.
Could the member opposite answer the basic question that the Prime Minister was not able to answer last week. Has the government consulted with Dr. Tam about holding an election during the second wave of COVID-19?