Debates of Dec. 1st, 2020

Opposition Motion—Support for Health Care Workers

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Madam Speaker, I am so pleased to stand in the House today to speak to this important motion, which is so timely and needed right now in our country. The motion would do a number of critically important and profoundly worthy things. It has us acknowledge the extraordinary work of health care workers, including doctors, nurses and all allied health professionals and workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It calls on us to recognize the courage and sacrifices that have been required from all front-line health care workers and their families as they tend to the very important health services on which so many of us are counting. It highlights the work of all the provinces in respect to the health crisis. It calls on the federal government to significantly and sustainably increase Canada health transfers, starting before the end of this year.

I want to begin by acknowledging the extraordinary work and sacrifice of health care workers in British Columbia. I would like to start with the top doctor in British Columbia, Dr. Bonnie Henry. B.C.'s provincial health officer, Dr. Henry, has been widely praised around the globe for her response to the COVID-19 outbreak leadership. In particular, she has been recognized for her ability to convey complicated health information in a clear way that does not talk down to people.

Under Dr. Henry's direction, B.C. led the way in implementing a testing strategy, physical distancing and control measures at long-term care facilities faster than every other province in the country. Dr. Henry's leadership, expertise and genuine care about the safety of British Columbians have also instilled a sense of trust that has helped foster public co-operation throughout the pandemic, which is critically important at this time.

When Dr. Henry declared an official health emergency on March 17, she ended her initial statement with the phrase that has been heard countless times throughout B.C. since, “This is our time to be kind, to be calm, and to be safe”.

Under Dr. Henry's leadership are the tens of thousands, perhaps the hundreds of thousands of health care workers and their families that have done so much to keep Canadians and British Columbians safe.

I want to particularly highlight the work of the health care unions in British Columbia as well. They have played such a leadership role during this crisis.

Nationally, according the Canadian Institute for Health Information, 19.4%, almost one in five of those infected with COVID-19 in Canada as of July 23, were health care workers. This was twice the global average.

According to the BC Nurses' Union, 40% of nurses are reporting serious depression and 60% are on track to have post-traumatic stress disorder. According to Christine Sorensen, the president of BCNU, B,C. nurses are not healthy right now. They are overtaxed. They are emotionally distressed, trying to manage all the personal and professional implications of COVID, which all of us are managing, plus they need to go to work and be exposed daily to COVID. By the way, this description of the stress and danger that are affecting nurses in British Columbia is true across the country in every province and territory, and in every community.

Dr. Kathleen Ross, president of Doctors of BC, says that physician burnout was an issue before the pandemic and it has become much worse. She says

We need to continue to recognize that as we head into this second wave, many of us are still recovering from the first wave...The pandemic has certainly required all frontline providers, including physicians, to step up to the plate and access our surge capacity, that ability to step forward and work harder.

It is not just health professionals shouldering the burden. Critical front-line health care sector workers like personal support workers, cleaning crews, maintenance workers and administrative staff have made tremendous sacrifices to keep the health care system operational throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

I want to recognize, in particular, care aides, not only in long-term care centres but in our hospitals. These workers do incredibly important work. They take care of our loved ones at their most vulnerable. This is skilled work. This is compassionate work. This is difficult work. It is also underpaid and undervalued work.

At this point, I want to single out the particularly strong and early recognition of these facts by the British Columbia NDP government under the tutelage and leadership of the best provincial health minister in the country, Adrian Dix.

What did the British Columbia government do early on? It was the first province in the country to ban the practice of care aides shuffling between care homes. They sometimes had two to three part-time jobs. Not only has this been very difficult on the care aides to raise their families with no benefits and the difficulty and precarity of the situation, but they were also seen as a vector of transmission.

However, backing up this move with money, the British Columbia NDP government poured $10 million per month to raise the wages of care aides and create full-time jobs. This was not only better for workers, but better for patients. Workers could actually have full-time jobs with benefits in one single place, which gave the kind of care the residents needed and the workers the kind of security they needed.

The B.C. NDP government tore up the Liberal legislation that created the crisis in the first place, which was Bill 29. The bill was passed in 2002 by a provincial Liberal government in British Columbia. It attacked health care collective agreements and unions. Plus, the B.C. NDP government added more care hours, fewer shared rooms for seniors, more non-profit ownership of long-term care centres and more inspections of long-term care homes. This is the kind of work and leadership done by a provincial government, a New Democrat government, that puts a priority on health care.

On March 23, the B.C. government also approved a $5 billion pandemic contingency allocation to support its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This funding has supported a number of initiatives: to hire contact tracers; to provide additional funding for long-term care facilities; to support mental health initiatives; to increase funding for long-term care; and, as I said earlier, to provide more care hours for residents, have fewer shared rooms and have more non-profit facility ownership in the long-term care sector. These initiatives were done by the Province of British Columbia, starting last spring.

This federal government has yet to actually act on those very important measures. I was disappointed to see in the economic statement yesterday that we were still waiting for national guidelines on long-term care homes.

The motion also calls on the federal government to significantly and sustainably increase the Canada health transfers before the end of 2020.

When medicare was first established in Canada, the federal government agreed to assume 50% of the costs incurred by provinces and territories. At a first ministers meeting in 1976, prime minister Pierre Trudeau proposed replacing the 50/50 cost sharing with a new regime of block grants that exposed the provinces and territories to unilateral federal cuts over the subsequent decades, which successive Liberal and Conservative governments in fact did. Today, the federal share of overall health care spending in Canada has plummeted from that original 50/50 share to approximately 22% today.

Seeking re-election in 2011, Stephen Harper pledged to negotiate a health accord with the provinces and territories, however, no negotiations ensued. Instead, finance minister Jim Flaherty announced that when the 2004 accord expired in 2014, the Canada health transfer escalator would remain at 6% until 2017 and then grow no higher than 3% for the next decade. The Liberals under the current government promised to address that but instead adopted the Harper cuts.

The impact of that is clear. Health care costs in the country are rising at an average of 5.4% per year. If the federal government is increasing spending at 3%, clearly that is a recipe for long-term fiscal problems and cuts. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the Conference Board of Canada estimates that total health care expenditures will actually rise between 6.5% and 8.4%. Therefore, today it is more important than ever.

It is time for this federal government to put its money where its mouth is, reverse the long-term slide of federal funding in health care transfers and start getting it back up toward the 50%, so that we can bring pharmacare, dental care, long-term care, mental health care, eye and ear care coverage for every Canadian in the country.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, I can understand and appreciate a number of the comments my colleague has made.

For me, I look at it with respect to what we have seen over the last number of years, such as record amounts of health transfers to provinces. In this year of the pandemic we have seen hundreds of millions of allocated tax dollars from Ottawa to the provinces, with emphasis on issues such as mental health and home care services.

We have seen an ongoing commitment toward the establishment of a national pharmacare program. I know the NDP likes to say that it has been 20 or 25 years, but this government has been in office since 2015.

The member talked a great deal about what is happening in B.C., with the NDP and its progressive attitudes toward health care. Does he know if the Province of British Columbia, because I am sure the member agrees with me, believes that the best way to have a truly national program is to have the support of provinces? Where does the Province of B.C. stand on a national pharmacare program?

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Madam Speaker, I would point out that the Liberals have been in power for 18 years of those years since 1993, 16 of that in majority government. They have had a lot of time to address these structural problems.

I want to just quote from a letter that was written yesterday by the president of the Canadian Medical Association, Dr. Ann Collins. She says:

I shared my deep concern about the state of Canada's health systems, which were stressed before the pandemic and now have reached a critical tipping point. Many of my physician colleagues ... are exhausted and facing burnout. They are under immense pressure while they tackle the second wave of this pandemic ... Today's federal economic update should have offered health care providers hope of relief and a glimpse of the federal leadership required to keep our health system afloat. But instead it fell short. ... The reality is that our health care system is on the verge of crumbling.

This is what the head of Canada's doctors is saying.

Pharmacare, to answer my hon. colleague's direct question, is something that all provinces will join if the federal government puts sufficient money on the table and plays a leadership role so we can expand pharmaceutical coverage to be the exact same as any medical service, from hip replacement to cataract surgery to broken arms.

It is long overdue and the government should play a leadership role. It continues to say that it wants it in every throne speech, but fails to act on it.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Madam Speaker, one of my questions is around the Canada Health Act. I know my colleague is extremely knowledgeable about that act.

When the transfer payments to provinces become so low, like they are now, and increasingly get lower and lower as we go forward, how does that impact our ability to ensure that Canadians across the country can access the same level of care and ensure that the different provincial jurisdictions do not privatize some services or chip away at that very cherished public universally accessible system?

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague from Edmonton Strathcona for her excellent work in standing up for a strong public health care system in the face of, in her province of Alberta, a Conservative premier who is attacking the very notion of public health care and floating the idea of privatizing parts of our system.

Canadians value and cherish our public health care system. They know how important it is that every Canadian can get access to the medical care they need, regardless of their wealth or their social status. Canadians are most proud of that.

To make it work, we need a strong federal government as an equal partner at the table that is meeting its fiscal obligations and also enforcing the Canada Health Act, which has five principles. We count on the federal government to ensure that any province that violates those principles is immediately addressed.

Frankly, I have seen successive federal governments, both Conservative and Liberal, fail on that front. We have privatized MRI services in Saskatchewan, private surgical ideas floated in Alberta and the New Brunswick government failing to ensure women have access to reproductive health services. We need the federal government to get back in the game, to exercise its jurisdiction and to fund the health care system properly, so Canadians can not only have the health care system they are used to, but expand our health care system to make it more comprehensive and deliver health care in the most efficient way. We know public health care is the best and most efficient way to deliver that care.

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Madam Speaker, I want to inform you that I will be sharing my time with my esteemed colleague from Thérèse-De Blainville, who will deliver a most interesting speech, as usual.

The Bloc Québécois's motion today is meant to offer a huge thank you to workers, most of whom are women, on the front lines in long-term care homes, in hospitals, and all across our health care system.

These people are working under very difficult and unsafe conditions. They can be told at the last minute that they need to work a second shift because of a lack of staff. They are always directly exposed to COVID-19 and must deal with never knowing if they have been infected or have infected their families. They are living in uncertainty and have been making a huge daily sacrifice for several months. We tip our hat to them and thank them from the bottom of our hearts. They matter a lot.

The current pandemic, a crisis that affects us all, has shown just how fragile our health system has become after decades of underfunding by Ottawa. No matter the party in power, the approach has been to disengage and provide less and less funding, which has weakened the health system and led to the lack of resources we are facing, including at long-term care homes. This pretty much explains the tragic situations that have occurred during this pandemic.

This fall, the CHSLD Saint-Eusèbe, in downtown Joliette, also experienced significant challenges. We want to commend and thank the front-line workers who look after patients.

I have no words to describe the government's arrogant and contemptuous attitude in the House towards the provinces and Quebec. This government is telling us that it is our fault that things are going badly, and that we did not do our part. This government claims that it could have done better and continues with its centralizing agenda by attempting to take over provincial responsibilities and powers under the pretext that it can do better.

All of this is happening while the federal government is failing to properly fulfill its role and responsibilities. One such example is vaccine procurement, which I think has been a disaster compared to other countries. We will have the proof in the weeks and months to come. Another example is border control, which was very poorly managed at the beginning of the pandemic.

Yesterday the government delivered its economic update, and clearly it will continue to interfere in provincial jurisdictions, while refusing to provide additional funding for health care. I expected the economic update to finally get health transfers back on track. I would have liked to see some acknowledgement that Ottawa has been shirking its responsibilities and not contributing for the past 25 years.

All we got was a promise of $1 billion for long-term care centres, or roughly one four-hundredth of the deficit, which is up to $382 billion.

If only this government would let us apply our standards. In her speech last week during the committee of the whole meeting, the Minister of Health insisted that her government was going to impose Canada-wide standards, as if what is missing from long-term care and health care is more standards.

During the first wave of COVID-19 in the spring, the military was called in to help in the long-term care facilities. According to reports from the Canadian Armed Forces, it was not a lack of rules and standards that caused the crisis in the long-term care facilities, but rather a lack of resources.

Why was there a lack of resources? Because the health care system had been undermined. Why was the health care system undermined? Because the federal government has been saying for 25 years that it will not play its part. How will it tackle the deficit? By cutting health care funding, too bad. People will complain to the governments of Quebec and the provinces. It was Jean Chrétien who said that at a G7 meeting at the time. His counterparts said that they were going to impose austerity measures and that there were all kinds of demonstrators in front of their parliaments. Jean Chrétien told them that he did not have that problem, that he was cutting funding to the provinces and that people would demonstrate in front of the National Assembly and the legislative assemblies of the different provinces. He laughed about it, but they cut funding from essential services.

Originally and until the end of the 1970s, the agreement was that half of health spending would be funded by Ottawa. That was an entirely logical criterion. When taxpayers pay their taxes, they pay roughly half to Quebec and the provinces and the other half to Ottawa. After that, it is only normal that we share health funding fifty-fifty.

To deal with its deficit, Ottawa said it would no longer play its role. Its share has decreased to 21% or 22%. That is clearly not enough. As the fiscal capacity, the surplus or the flexibility are in this Parliament, Ottawa is using this flexibility to invest in programs that give it greater visibility. Ottawa is not listening to Canadians who say that health care is the priority and that they need funding for health care. No matter the party in power, Ottawa refuses. That is unacceptable and deplorable.

To add insult to injury, in yesterday's economic statement the government boasted that 80% of every $10 injected to get through the pandemic comes from the federal government. It is patting itself on the back for that.

The government fails to mention that all of that adds to the national debt and that taxpayers will be the ones who will eventually have to pay it back. The government also fails to mention, and I find this particularly insulting, that the exact opposite is true when it comes to health care. Ottawa is providing barely more than 20% of health care funding. It gives itself some wiggle room and then tells us to look at how well it is dealing with the pandemic. The wiggle room is here, and the needs are in the health care system. Our workers are doing miracles. They are living in very difficult conditions to try to deal with that and the government is taking a haughty attitude and saying that it will show the provinces the right thing to do because it knows all about this sort of thing. It is showing contempt for Quebec and the provinces. That is unacceptable and it needs to change.

I was expecting that to change in the economic update. Obviously, that was an unpleasant surprise. Perhaps it will change at the meeting with the provincial premiers, which was finally announced today and which will take place on December 10, just before the break. We will not be able to question the government about this meeting, but I hope that the government will get back on track.

Earlier this afternoon, Quebec's finance minister commented on yesterday's statement. Of course he said how disappointed he was. He thought it was unacceptable for Ottawa to impose standards on the provinces. It disrespects jurisdiction, and it has to change. The December 10 meeting is an opportunity. Let us hope it is not a missed opportunity, despite the Prime Minister's statement that he has already done quite a lot for health. He believes the provinces have adequate health funding. The Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs tweeted that all kinds of other subjects would be on the agenda. He is determined to downplay the importance of health funding.

Will Ottawa do what it usually does by lowering the bar and trying to divide the provinces? When the provinces are struggling financially, there are always some that give in for cheap. Ultimately, Quebec will be the only one asking for more money, and the health system will continue to be underfunded.

That needs to change now.

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Seniors]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his speech.

He really emphasized the measures our government has taken during the pandemic. He finds it insulting that the government has paid $8 out of every $10 spent during the pandemic.

Could he tell us whether his constituents oppose the measures this government has taken? The government has invested during this crisis to save lives, households, businesses and seniors in his riding.

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the government claims to have saved seniors, while their cheques have increased by 61¢ in taxable income. That is completely unacceptable.

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC]

That is false. It is an adjustment. Do you know what that is, in tax policy?

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Seniors asked his question and was allowed to speak. I did not agree with the premise of his question, and I will explain why, but I would now like him to let me answer.

What I am criticizing is not the fact that Ottawa spent during the pandemic, but rather that it is bragging about being better than the provinces. It still has such an arrogant attitude towards the provinces. The reason the fiscal capacity and fiscal flexibility remain here is because the Liberals have slashed what matters, that is, health care funding.

It was a Liberal government that began this practice in the 1990s. This puts pressure on the system, and the current pandemic has revealed just how fragile that system has become. The pandemic should serve as an opportunity to fix the problem and better fund the health care system.

[Scott Duvall, NDP, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my friend's intervention on this.

What I have been hearing lately on this is that health care is in the provincial jurisdiction. Provinces do the administration but need more federal funding, with which I agree. In some of those provincial jurisdictions, looking at long-term care, we found out there were atrocious conditions. This was not caused by COVID-19, it was exposed by COVID-19.

Does my friend feel that more money should come with more federal standards, to make sure that our seniors have the proper health care and the dignity they should have and not just privatization, where money goes into the pockets of privatized people? Should all this go with public health care?

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question.

We do not need more federal standards in our long-term care facilities. People keep saying that it is resources and funding that we need. Standards are in place. The report of the Canadian Armed Forces, which lent us a hand in the long-term care facilities in the spring, came to the same conclusion. There are enough standards. I have not heard one nurse, or anyone on the front line say that this was going so badly because of a lack of Canada-wide standards, which would solve everything. That is rhetoric from the Minister of Health and other MPs in the House.

The Constitution is clear: Health is the exclusive jurisdiction of Quebec and the provinces, except when it comes to the health of indigenous peoples, military hospitals, drug approval, and quarantine. Ottawa's role is to fund health and leave the rest to the provinces, which have the expertise to take action, including in long-term care facilities.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

We have time for a quick question and a brief response.

The hon. member for Laurentides—Labelle.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I will be brief.

What does my colleague think I should say to my constituents when I return to my riding of Laurentides—Labelle? All the provinces have called for an increase in these health transfers.

What will it take for the government to understand that not only is this is urgent, but also that it has to be done now?

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Speaker, before the throne speech, the provinces stood together to ask that Ottawa cover one-third of their health spending, since it pays for barely over 20%. However, none of this was mentioned in the throne speech.

We expected to see something in the fall economic statement, but, once again, there was no mention of it. I would suggest to my esteemed colleague from Laurentides—Labelle that she tell her constituents to wait until December 10, when the provincial premiers and our premier, François Legault, meet with the Prime Minister.

Will Ottawa rectify the mistakes of the last 25 years and improve health funding? We shall see. We will be here to pressure the government to do so and to respond to people's concerns.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I felt proud when our motion was presented, because it is all about kindness and appreciation. This morning, I wondered who, among us in the House, could be against that.

I said that this motion is about kindness and appreciation because it acknowledges the extraordinary work of everyone working in our health care facilities. The motion calls on the House to recognize the courage and sacrifices required from these workers; highlight the work of Quebec and the provinces in responding to the health crisis; and note the direct impact on their respective budgets. The wording is important here. Kindness and gratitude are not about pointing fingers or talking about how they poorly managed the crisis. Quite the opposite, in fact.

The fourth point of the motion calls on the House to recognize once and for all that Quebec and the provinces have exclusive jurisdiction over delivering and coordinating health care and services. This means that the government must significantly and sustainably increase health transfers based on real needs. These are four recommendations for what should be done.

We have to recognize health care workers, who are predominantly women. They are nurses, practical nurses, orderlies, doctors, paramedics, medical technicians—those who analyze test results everywhere—the support staff who keep our medical facilities up and running, food services staff and health care professionals like psychologists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, social workers and others.

All these people take care of patients every day. They are on the front lines despite the fact that the burden of care rests entirely on their shoulders. They know how essential their work is and how much good it does, but at the same time, they are suffering. They often fear for their lives and that of their loved ones. They are exhausted, and statistics clearly show it. They might not even have any time off during the holidays. Nevertheless, health care workers step up to the plate time and time again.

I am a nurse by training. I worked as a nurse for about a decade in the field now known as critical care. During that time, I took care of people and was proud to do it. I was also a union leader. I represented health care workers. It was all about recognizing their work and expertise, which goes beyond calling them guardian angels, even if that is nice. It was all about recognizing their contribution and expertise.

In Quebec, 80% of health care spending is dedicated to human resources, to the people who provide services. More than anything, it is because of these people that we have quality health care services. They deserve more than our respect. We should admire them even more knowing that they are still on their feet even though they are exhausted and that they go to the front lines to demand better working conditions. They should be commended for that. They will keep soldiering on.

Starving the provinces and reducing their capacity to provide quality health care puts them at the mercy of the federal government's spending power, a power that is too often exerted with no consideration for the needs of provinces.

If the government had kept its part of the original deal requiring it to cover 50% of health expenditures, it would not have to explain today that it spent $19 billion here and $600 million there, that it distributed face masks, and so on. The people who wear masks, face shields and gowns need only adequate funding to be able to provide quality health care. They do not need reams of figures. Let me remind you that these men and women are your constituents. Like us, they expect to receive quality health care. It is a federal responsibility.

You forgot to mention that in your economic statement yesterday. All provinces are unanimous in asking the federal government for sustainable and predictable funding they can count on. I do not see why anybody here would disagree with that. They do not want to be guessing every time what the government will do. They do not want to feel compelled to beg for money. It is our tax money, and the government owes it to us.

Next week, on December 10, provinces will speak with one voice. They will ask for the money and the capacity they need to act. We should be able to count on that.

Quebec called the last agreement on federal health transfers to provinces a partial victory, and with good reason. It was one of the first times bilateral agreements were favoured. The "divide and conquer" principle was applied. Everybody is on the losing side in that agreement. All provinces are now severely underfunded on health care.

Nature abhors a vacuum. Provinces will possibly exclude some options. We hear a lot about the privatization of health care. We should speak out against that, as provinces do. Such an option should not be considered. Cuts had to be made because of the funding shortfall and due diligence, not to mention that governments lacked the political will to honour their commitments. That suits them fine.

Here is our message to the government. Before the end of 2020, let us put an end to these cheap tactics. If the health and safety of our fellow citizens really matter, then provinces must be given the capacity they need, not piecemeal but in a sustainable way.

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Seniors]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for the second part of the Bloc Québécois speech.

According to her, the health transfers would fix all the problems related to this pandemic. This pandemic hit us very abruptly. No previous event in Canada's history gave us insights on how to deal with it.

My colleague seems to be trivializing the transfers. She only spoke about masks, even though the federal government did more than simply ship masks. She did not mention the respirators and all the equipment provided to medical teams. There was also the contribution of the army and the Red Cross.

Does she really believe that a health transfer would have supported our seniors in long-term care? We provided support by sending in the army and providing equipment such as respirators and so on. The Red Cross also pitched in, for example.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question, especially regarding the long-term care facilities.

I hear talk about the army, but this is not about federal jurisdiction. If we needed the help of the army, we might need to ask some serious questions. Quebec and Ontario asked for this help. Funding usually goes first to where it is most needed. Perhaps that is because those needs were not there before the pandemic.

As for the staff shortages and lack of equipment, if the provinces had received sustainable funding, that might have helped. I think that is the bone of contention.

The government is laying it on thick saying that the provinces needed help and that it responded by spending $600 million on this and $19 billion on that. When I spoke of masks, I was not talking about the coverings themselves, but about the people behind the masks and visors, those who wear the gloves and gowns so they can take care of people. If we had looked at this idea of ongoing, sustainable funding 20 or 25 years ago instead of playing games with the provinces' needs in their areas of jurisdiction, we would not be talking about all these amounts of money that the government pays out piecemeal.

[Leona Alleslev, Conservative, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his speech.

Yes, fighting the pandemic is hard, and the provinces are doing great work. However, the federal government has not shared a COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan. That is problematic for the provinces because it means they cannot plan how they are going to fight the pandemic going forward.

Can my hon. colleague tell the House what she thinks of the federal government's missing COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan?

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it is deeply disappointing, but it comes as no surprise. From the start, we have been lamenting this government's lack of vision and lack of a plan. From the start, it has reacted instead of taking action. It has tried to cure rather than prevent. The House was prorogued and suspended for two months while we awaited the throne speech, which ultimately had no new information. We might have expected a vision. What is happening now is deplorable.

[Jenica Atwin, Green, Fredericton, NB]

Mr. Speaker, I simply wanted to say that I fully support increasing federal health transfers. The Atlantic provinces face unique challenges, and their aging population requires and deserves additional support. That was already the case before the pandemic. We need to support our provinces and territories in their recovery. I thank my colleague and I agree with her.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for her comments.

I want to take this opportunity to add something I forgot to mention. The Canada health transfers to the provinces fail to take into account one aspect of the funding. It is on a per capita basis, but it does not take into account the aging of the population. In Quebec and Ontario in particular, the rate of aging is higher than the Canadian average. That should also be taken into account. This is one way to look after the most vulnerable.

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Seniors]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to inform you that I will be splitting my time with my hon. colleague from Châteauguay—Lacolle.

I thank everyone for raising this important issue in the House of Commons and giving it national attention. This matter is very personal for me as the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Seniors. We have been very hard at work throughout this pandemic.

The pandemic is extremely hard on everyone, but even more so on those fighting every day on the front lines to help people and save lives. Without hesitation, health care workers went to the front lines with a single goal in mind: protecting Canadians. They pay a very high price for their dedication. Some even made the ultimate sacrifice.

Without their hard work right from the beginning of the pandemic, even more people would have lost their lives. Words cannot express how thankful I am. We owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude that we can never repay.

From the outset of the pandemic, the government provided support to Canadians and worked with provinces. We introduced the Canada emergency response benefit to help people who had lost their job. We invested $500 million through partnerships to help seniors and others get essential supplies and services such as grocery delivery. In July, we sent a one-time tax-free payment of $300 to seniors eligible for old age security and an additional $200 to the most vulnerable seniors, in other words, those eligible for the guaranteed income supplement.

We worked with the provinces and territories to ensure the safety of residents and staff in long-term care facilities. When the provinces called on us, we were there to help. Members of the Canadian Armed Forces were deployed in more than 50 long-term care facilities in Quebec and Ontario. We also published guidelines for these types of facilities in order to prevent and control COVID-19 infections.

We are investing billions of dollars in the purchase of personal protective equipment for health workers, including the ones who are providing long-term care. Indeed, with the new essential services contingency reserve we will make sure that the men and women who take care of our seniors always have the PPE and other supplies they need.

Under the safe restart agreement, we will provide $740 million for measures to control and prevent infections, including in long-term care facilities, which means among the most vulnerable. We have provided $3 billion to the provinces and territories to increase the wages of low-income essential workers, such as staff at long-term care facilities.

Our government has taken comprehensive measures to improve the quality of life of our seniors. That is on top of the attention that we have paid to seniors since we were elected.

Since 2015, our government has implemented a number of measures to improve the quality of life of seniors across the country. Thanks to our initiatives, many seniors are able to make ends meet, receive the care they need and remain active in their communities. One of these measures includes lowering the age of eligibility for old age security and the guaranteed income supplement from 67 to 65. We did that at the very beginning of our mandate. That is how we put thousands of dollars back into the pockets of new seniors.

We also invested to give seniors greater income security by increasing the guaranteed income supplement and the GIS earned income exemption. We worked with the Government of Quebec to harmonize the Quebec pension plan. We are continuing our efforts to enhance the Canada pension plan, specifically by increasing the maximum annual CPP benefit by 50%.

In the House, the Bloc Québécois is criticizing us for small increases, when its members know very well that these are adjustments to the amounts, not increases. They are playing with words in order to misinform our seniors in Quebec and Canada.

Our government's leadership and collaboration with the provinces prove that it is possible to establish national standards for the benefit of seniors and the public while respecting provincial jurisdictions.

Furthermore, we know how important it is to help seniors live longer in their own homes. That is why we invested an additional $6 billion in home and community care and palliative care services.

Since delivering the throne speech, our government has been committed to continuing to provide the support that seniors and essential workers need. We will work closely with the provinces and territories to establish new national standards for long-term care so that seniors receive the best possible support. We have a good working relationship with the provinces and territories, including Quebec.

We are also committed to fast-tracking measures to bring in a national and universal pharmacare program in collaboration with the provinces and territories. We have also committed to proposing changes to the Criminal Code in order to explicitly penalize those who neglect seniors under their charge, thereby putting our seniors at risk.

Yesterday, our government presented the 2020 fall economic update. We know that Canada is dealing with a second wave of the COVID-19 virus. We are better prepared than we were in the spring. We have learned a few things. We have the PPE that we need to protect nurses, doctors and front-line workers, and our government is procuring even more. That is why we are creating a new $1-billion fund to ensure the safety of long-term care, which will help the provinces and territories protect people in long-term care and support the prevention and control of infections. It is a health transfer.

We are committed to providing $38.5 million, a health transfer, to support training for up to 4,000 personal support care trainees to address the severe shortage of workers in long-term care and home care.

The government is proposing to invest $150 million to help the Canadian Red Cross. This transfer will help our population and our seniors, and will help other organizations to establish and maintain a pool of humanitarian workers who will provide surge capacity in response to outbreaks of COVID-19.

We will invest $6.4 million to expand the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement's LTC+ initiative. Once again, this will help Quebec and all of Canada's provinces.

All Canadians and Quebeckers can rest assured that the government will continue to work closely with the provinces, territories, municipalities and indigenous communities to implement a Canada-wide response to the pandemic. There remains work to do, but our government's ambitious measures are truly making changes in the lives of our seniors. The measures implemented during the pandemic made it possible to help millions of people, and we will always be there for Canadians and Quebeckers.

We have a good relationship with Quebec. Even if the Bloc Québécois would like us to be at odds with Quebec, we will always be there for Canadians and Quebeckers during this pandemic.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I simply want to read an excerpt of a report that states, “According to our observations, the critical need for CHSLDs is an improved level of staff with medical training.”

This was not a report from a separatist body looking for trouble. It comes from a truly independent body known as the Canadian Armed Forces.

I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on that quote.

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. If he read one line of the report, then he surely read the whole thing.

The report found that the Canadian government needs to support our seniors in long-term care homes. The measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic in long-term care homes shed a light on what was going on in these homes, and we will always be there to help seniors.

We do not think that seniors are a provincial, federal or municipal responsibility. They are human beings whom we have a responsibility as a government to support.