Madam Speaker, I would like to begin my speech on the Bloc Québécois motion by reminding the House of what Émilie Ricard said in January 2018, 10 months before the 2019 election. She made a heartfelt plea when she said, “I am broken by my profession. I’m ashamed of the poor care that I do my best to provide. My health care system is sick and dying.”
The government did not hear that heartfelt plea. It turned a deaf ear before the election, during the election and after the election. Still today, after nine months of pandemic that added even more work to already overburdened health care workers, what did the Liberal government have to say yesterday? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Fortunately, the House of Commons, this assembly of representatives of the people, is not the government. We are the elected House of Commons and we can adopt the Bloc Québécois's motion that pays tribute to people like Émilie Ricard. That motion reads:
That the House:
a) acknowledge the extraordinary work of health care workers (including doctors, nurses and orderlies) during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly with seniors but also with the general public;
(b) recognize the courage and sacrifices required from them and their families in order to be on the front lines;
(c) highlight the work of Quebec and the provinces in responding to the health crisis and note the direct impact on their respective budgets; and
(d) call on the government to significantly and sustainably increase Canada health transfers before the end of 2020 in order to support the efforts of the governments of Quebec and the provinces, health care workers and the public.
Through this motion, the Bloc Québécois and all elected members of the House, on both sides, or at least we hope, and especially those working in Quebec, stand together, united, in acknowledging that we all have a duty to send a great big thank you to workers across all of our health care networks.
I am very proud to be here this afternoon because I think this motion gets to the crux of what the government has been claiming for months: that it is collaborating with Quebec and the territories and provinces. Collaboration requires tangible actions, not just words and rhetoric that, sadly, are sometimes empty.
All of the experts who testified before the Standing Committee on Health during its study of the first wave told us that chronic underfunding of the health care system had weakened the networks and made it difficult to properly combat a pandemic of this scope. That is quite clear. Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees.
They told us that chronic underfunding had weakened the health networks, which were therefore unable to properly deal with a pandemic of this magnitude. It has been the biggest and deadliest health crisis of the past 100 years.
The Leader of the Government in the House of Commons says we are just looking to pick a fight and we are not the only members representing Quebec. That is fine. Quebec is represented in this place by members from all parties. However when all parties in the National Assembly of the people of Quebec adopt a motion asking for a significant increase in health expenditures, and we hear members across the aisle call it a constitutional dispute—I will come back to that later—it seems that they are not actively listening. There is more to it than empty words and indefinitely delayed commitments.
Here is what the National Assembly said as recently as the month of June, once again with the agreement of all parties:
THAT the National Assembly of Quebec regrets that the share of health expenditures covered by the Canadian health transfers has dropped by more than one half since their introduction, from 50% to 23%.
THAT the Assembly asks the federal government to quickly review the funding of the Canadian health transfers to increase them significantly for this year and subsequent years, so that the increase reaches at least 6%, without any condition;
THAT the Assembly reiterates the importance of respecting Quebec's jurisdiction over health.
It seems to me that it is incumbent upon a party comprised exclusively of members from Quebec, namely the Bloc Québécois, to be the voice in this Parliament of all parties and all of the people's representatives in the National Assembly of Quebec. If we were not doing it today, who would?
I implore the members from Quebec to distance themselves a little bit from their obsessive desire to be controlled by the executive power. I would like them to play their true role as legislators, which is to defend the interests of Quebeckers in the House. I implore them to vote with their conscience in favour of our motion.
When I came here, I felt pride in asking who could vote against that motion. We wanted to bring people together.
This government is telling us that, in the Prime Minister's own words, the dignity and lives of seniors “are not a jurisdictional matter”. That phrase is as hollow as his statement that values are universal. However, these words have no meaning out of context. It is as if I said health knows no borders. The organization of health care in the face of specific threats such as pandemics implies that that organization occurs within a territory.
What does the Prime Minister's beloved Constitution say? It says that all health care falls under the exclusive jurisdiction of Quebec, the provinces and territories and that the agreement between the federal government and Quebec and the other provinces simply consists of being sure to transfer us our money, and to keep transferring it, so that we can take care of our people. Twenty-five years of underfunding has an impact on the primary determinant of health, which is prevention.
If the federal government cares about health, it should prepare us for the next pandemic, because there will be more. It should fulfill its role and do its job.
I have barely 20 seconds left, so I urge all parliamentarians not to view the Bloc's motion today as a provocation. I am addressing the Liberal members from Quebec, since they are the ones turning this debate into a constitutional confrontation. We never intended it to get to that level.
All we are saying is that the government needs to do what it needs to do, that it needs to keep its word—