Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be back in the House today. This is the second time in less than 12 months that I have been able to respond to a Speech from the Throne. I find it quite comical that we are doing this again, after a prorogation that was not necessary but was to hide scandal.
That being said, I am eager to have the opportunity to participate in this debate, not only as the member of Parliament for Battlefords—Lloydminster but also as the Conservative shadow minister for seniors. I am very honoured that our leader has asked me to serve in this capacity. It is one that I do not take lightly.
This year has been particularly challenging. Now more than ever, Canadians need a government with a clear plan and vision going forward. That is why the Speech from the Throne was such a disappointment when it was delivered. Many Canadians did not find themselves in the Liberal government's vision. In fact, Saskatchewanians and westerners once again found themselves explicitly excluded. Despite the Prime Minister's disbelief, western alienation is real and it is largely a product of the Prime Minister's own attitudes and failed policies.
Well before this pandemic, the agriculture sector and the oil and gas sector had been completely left behind by the Liberal government. These two sectors have contributed so much to our entire country, and have the potential to contribute so much more. Despite the families, the businesses and communities that depend on these sectors, they continue to be left behind by the Prime Minister. His continued indifference continues to make things worse. This is underscored by the absence of western Canada and its priorities from the throne speech.
When it comes to what was actually in the throne speech, it still falls very flat. There was no real plan. There was no detailed plan laid out to help the millions of Canadians who are struggling, and the complete lack of a clear plan failed to instill confidence in Canadians that the Prime Minister can or will follow through on his throne speech promises.
I will pre-empt the defence that my colleagues across the way will try to build: that there are never details in a throne speech. However, as has been said countless times, these are unprecedented times. Unprecedented times call for an unprecedented response. Beyond that, the Prime Minister himself told Canadians that he was proroguing Parliament so he could deliver a detailed plan going forward.
It was his own office that had a press release announcing the prorogation of Parliament. It said:
The Speech will outline a detailed vision for the future...
Now that we have all had ample time to reread the speech, we can be certain that we have not missed the details. They are simply not there, confirming what we already knew. The Prime Minister prorogued Parliament and wasted six weeks just so that he could hide from his ethical scandals. That is shameful.
The Prime Minister prioritized hiding his scandal over the interests of Canadians. He prioritized himself over that single mother who lost her job through no fault of her own, and who did not know how she would pay her bills and put food in her children's tummies when CERB ended. He prioritized himself over all the other Canadians who were unsure of what would happen when the program ended.
The shutdown of Parliament was in no one's interests but those of the Prime Minister and his friends. I would hope that the Liberals would stop insisting otherwise because, honestly, Canadians are not buying it and Canadians deserve better.
It is Canadians who pay for the failures of the government, and Canada's seniors have paid dearly. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on our seniors. They have faced greater health risks, higher fatalities, forced social isolation, limited access to services and so much more. Despite this, the throne speech did not provide great attention to our seniors, nor did it offer them any semblance of a detailed plan to help them get through the rest of the pandemic healthy and safe.
Last week, on National Seniors Day, I reminded the House that we owe a lot to our seniors. We cannot leave them behind, and we have to do better than the little that was described in the Speech from the Throne. The throne speech reannounced past policy commitments that the government, frankly, has just failed to deliver.
The commitment to amend the Criminal Code to penalize those who neglect seniors is not new, nor is the commitment to increase OAS and the CPP survivor benefit. They have all been said before. With no clear outline of how the Liberals plan to deliver these promises, it is difficult for seniors to put stock in any of these. It is also not possible for us to put stock in other vague commitments, like taking action to help people stay in their homes longer. While the benefits of aging in place are broadly accepted, the Liberals have offered no indication of how to accomplish this, leaving us to believe that it is not a real priority for the government.
As we continue to navigate this pandemic, which should without a doubt be a priority for the Liberal government, we need to make sure the health care workers who take care of our seniors have the critical supplies and the resources that they need. The outbreaks and fatalities experienced in long-term care homes during the first wave of the pandemic were devastating, and too many Canadians experienced the pain of losing loved ones.
The government's number one priority in supporting our seniors in the immediate term should be working to prevent the same outbreaks and fatalities in long-term care homes. As we know, the provinces' premiers made their case crystal clear to the Prime Minister ahead of the throne speech: that additional funds and resources were needed to deal with the pressing health care needs, and that the provinces needed flexibility to use those funds accordingly.
This is also an issue that our leader raised with the Prime Minister in advance of the throne speech. It is absolutely shameful that the Prime Minister failed to even respond to the premiers' requests. Instead, he opted to weigh in on provincial jurisdiction like he always does, committing to an Ottawa-knows-best approach. That approach does not work when the immediate care needs differ, not only from province to province, but from community to community. Provinces are much better suited to address the specific needs in their regions.
To be clear, the commitment to develop a national care standard is positive. The federal government should work with its provincial counterparts to ensure that Canada's seniors have access to quality, consistent care throughout the country. However, Canada's seniors living in long-term care, and their families, cannot afford to wait for care standards to be developed at the government's pace, and much less at the current government's pace.
We are in the middle of a pandemic. If the Prime Minister acknowledges that we are in the second wave, resources are needed now and that is well within the government's jurisdiction. With no commitment to provide greater resources to long-term care workers, I would also caution the government: Liberals cannot vilify our health care workers who are working extremely hard, some in precarious environments, to support our seniors because they do not have the resources they need to provide the highest quality of care. Just the same, knowing the significant impact that this pandemic has had on Canada's seniors, we cannot afford to fall behind in our response. The government's failure to close our borders and secure personal protective equipment at the outset of this pandemic cost lives and livelihoods.
As we see Canada lag behind our allies in securing testing, it is Canadians who pay the price. We run the risk again that Canada's seniors will pay the greatest price. We have to do better for our seniors and for all Canadians. That is why, as Conservatives, we are focused on holding the Prime Minister and his government to account. We will fight for all Canadians, including those the Liberal government has left behind. We will fight for the interests of Saskatchewan and western Canada, and we will focus on putting forward a real plan to keep Canadians safe, protect jobs and get back on track because our country's unity and strength depend on it.