Debates of Dec. 1st, 2020

Opposition Motion—Support for Health Care Workers

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Madam Speaker, the member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie just gave us a huge sales pitch. I remind him that health transfers used to increase by 6% every year. Stephen Harper's Conservatives slashed that increase to less than 3%, taking $36 billion from the provinces over a period of about 10 years, and the Liberal government has picked up where the Conservatives left off.

When the member talks about scraping together bits and pieces from different programs, he is avoiding the fundamental question, as health care costs increase by 5.4% a year. How can the provinces absorb these costs when the federal government increases transfers by just 3%?

My colleague is familiar with the concept of sustainable development, so I would like to hear his thoughts on a sustainable health care system.

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie for his question. I am very happy for the opportunity to talk about the environment, since the science clearly shows that pollution costs our health care system a lot of money.

For that reason, since 2015, our government has been taking a never-before-seen approach to tackling this issue. The more we can reduce pollution in Canada, whether it be air pollution, water pollution, or pollution associated with climate change, the healthier our country, planet and people will be. On top of that, if we reduce pollution, there will be fewer demands and pressures on our public health care system across the country.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague from British Columbia, the member for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo.

I would have liked to ask the Liberal minister a question. We are in the midst of a pandemic, and it is true that the environment we live in is disrupted. I would like to show that the government can do more than transfer funds. It can also take action to help the provinces. It could have done that.

Today, we are here to debate a motion moved by the Bloc Québécois. The first three points highlight the work of health care workers and the courage and sacrifices required from them.

As a parliamentarian, I can only add my voice to those of all parliamentarians. I am sure I speak for us all when I say that we are proud of the work that is being done in our hospitals. I visited the Lévis Hôtel-Dieu hospital over the weekend. I was also able to see the security staff who come into contact with the virus on a daily basis but still continue to do their job. That presents significant human challenges.

I am thinking about my financial advisor, whose wife works with the Sisters of Charity of Quebec, where there is another outbreak in Quebec City. She herself was affected and is therefore in quarantine. I am also thinking about the people working in seniors' residences like the Résidence le Royal, in Saint-Anselme.

It is demanding enough to work in an environment where a lot of basic care is provided without the added challenge of constraints. I commend all these people. We have a great deal of admiration for them. We hope that Christmas will give them a bit of a break even though that is also a busy time for them.

From the outset, I would like to say to my colleagues in the Bloc and those watching us that I am proud to have been part of a government that improved health transfers even during an economic recession.

Let's be clear. We think that the federal government has a major role to play to support the provinces in their efforts to maintain their health care system. That is why we are in favour of the motion moved by the Bloc Québécois. The federal government needs to continue to provide the provinces with significant, long-term health transfers.

We appreciate what is being done, but as I mentioned at the top of my speech, these are strange times. What is most important now is for the government to say when Canadians will have access to the vaccines, and this is something we ask the government about every chance we get.

It is important. We are still in the second wave. There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the holiday season. This is important for Canadians and for businesses. For example, our restaurants are shut down. The tourism sector needs a glimmer of hope and a timeline. Right now, we are totally in the dark.

The government will not give us any hints. All we know is that it has reserved a very large number of vaccines. There are enough doses to vaccinate almost every body part. The problem is that we do not know when that will happen. This is what we are humbly asking the government on behalf of Canadians.

Can the government tell us when we can expect vaccines to be distributed in Canada?

It would be important to know because people are waiting for life to get back to normal. Meanwhile, there are the much talked about rapid tests. The faster people know if they are carriers, the better it is for everyone. Right now, people do not know whether or not they have the virus, whether a family member has it, whether they have been in contact with it or whether they are carriers. They want to know. In this case as well, we have seen a lot of delays in deploying rapid testing.

We have pointed out that in some countries, rapid testing has been available for ages. As for the vaccine, as we know, some countries, like Mexico, already have access to it. We are happy for our Mexican partners, with whom we have trade agreements. However, we would also like to have access to the vaccine, like the Americans and many European countries, along with hundreds of millions of people around the world. We believe that Canadians deserve access to the vaccine.

It is clear that the Liberals need to make a special effort with regard to rapid tests and PPE.

Unfortunately, the government did the opposite. It threw out supplies or sent them abroad at the beginning of the pandemic. We find that deplorable.

What is more, I represent Bellechasse, and I am thinking about the hospital that was located in the municipality of Armagh. When the Liberals wanted to balance the budget, they made cuts to health transfers. I would like to remind members that we, the Conservatives, increased health transfers and that we balanced the budget during the economic recession.

Unfortunately, the Liberals seem to have a lot of work to do on their financial plan before they will be able to balance the budget without once again dumping the problems on the provinces, as they did in the area of health care by cutting transfers. We are still living with the consequences of those cuts today. Armagh no longer has a hospital because of the Liberal cuts.

What is the consequence of that? Yesterday, the Liberals presented their economic update and, this morning, the newspapers published very large deficit numbers. That deficit will need to be repaid when the orgy of spending is finally over.

In the past, we have seen the Liberals cut provincial health transfers, and yesterday, we got confirmation of a tax hike. The government is going to start taxing digital services. The government has spent so much that it is wondering how it is going to balance the budget. Considering that it provided no fiscal anchors, no plan to fight the pandemic, and no plan to manage public finances, it does not seem all that worried.

The government came up with plans for sustainable development and the environment. There are two sides to the sustainable development coin, however: the economy and the environment. Both need to be managed sustainably. Right now, the government seems to be driving us straight into a wall, and that is alarming. Even if the government votes in favour of the motion we are debating today, it is unlikely to be able to honour any kind of commitment because of the perilous financial path it is on.

It is important to remember that Canada currently has the highest unemployment rate in the G7 and is the only country that does not have an economic recovery plan. That is important because in order to support our health care system and social transfers, we need to get our economy back on track, something we have no sign of at this time. Why are we in this situation? This question is troubling because, basically, the Liberals could have taken action to alleviate the pressure on the health care system. The best investment that one can make is the money one does not spend.

One of the responsibilities of the federal government is to protect the border. At the beginning of the year, the Conservatives started telling the government that there was a problem in China. Unfortunately, the government allowed 50,000 people from China to enter Canada, and we know what happened: The virus spread. On top of that, the government did not communicate properly with customs officials, which meant that people were allowed to leave the country in the spring and come back later, with the impact this had, especially on the Quebec health care system. While all this mismanagement might not relate to health directly, it all has an impact on health.

As I mentioned earlier, 16 tonnes of essential equipment was sent to China at the beginning of the pandemic. A few months later, we were scrambling to find masks. Now we all wear masks, and there are even some beautifully designed ones available. We have plenty of masks now, but it would have been helpful to have them from day one since we know they are effective.

In closing, we will support the motion. However, since this is an emergency situation, we are asking the government to tell us today when we will have the vaccines. We are also asking the government to help the provinces provide rapid testing and, in particular, to help our provinces manage long-term care facilities. We are asking the government to play its federal role and support the health care system, which means setting fiscal anchors. On that, we look forward to seeing the Liberal government set the record straight.

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

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech.

My colleague across the way says he is in favour of a significant, long-term increase. According to him, with the $42-billion health transfer and the $200 billion over the next five years, which is $10 billion more than the Conservative Party provided in the last year of its term, crisis management is part of the expenses. To us, we are managing the crisis for the people of Canada and Quebec.

Is it normal that the Conservatives are simultaneously concerned about balancing the budget and increasing health transfers, which are inadequate according to them?

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague. I see that he paid close attention to my speech, and I want to say to him that the Conservatives supported measures to help people during the pandemic.

However, the government put measures in place without consulting Parliament when it prorogued the House, and for that reason they were not productive.

I am certain that my colleague has in his riding, as I do, restaurants who had a hard time finding staff this summer because the government put in place poorly targeted measures that created an artificial labour shortage. Programs such as Canada summer jobs could have been enhanced to give young people the opportunity to work this summer. Unfortunately, the government did not put more money in this envelope.

I want to tell my colleague that the Liberal government has a responsibility. The money that was invested previously does not count; what counts is what happens from now on and how we look forward. There is money being injected into the health system, but there are also steps that could be taken to reduce the pressure on the system, and that requires a vaccine and rapid testing.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for his comments.

I apologize for speaking in English.

I will learn.

My question is around the supports for our essential workers. We know how much they have done during this pandemic and how important they have been. However, one of the problems we are having in Alberta is that our provincial government will not actually take the money that the federal government has allocated to top up wages for essential workers.

Knowing that there are provinces that are not willing to even take the funds, I think we are the only province, I am wondering if the member would speak about the impacts of provinces not working well with the federal government in this way.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Madam Speaker, one vision that we have as Conservatives is that we do not like the approach of “Ottawa knows best”.

Actually, we believe that the expertise is in the provinces, just as it is in Quebec and Ontario or elsewhere in the country. We feel that provinces are best placed, since they have a Constitutional responsibility for taking care of health, and that they are there to support the system and they are facing many challenges. We believe that provinces need to be strongly supported by the federal government in order to be there for the first responders.

[Marc Dalton, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his comments.

He spoke a lot about how far behind the Liberal government and Canada are when it comes to vaccination. This is very worrisome.

My question is the following. Could my colleague tell us more about how the delay in vaccination will affect seniors' homes, Canadians and the economy?

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from British Columbia for his question. We are both members of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, and it is a pleasure to have a francophile like him on the committee who is working to sustain the vitality of linguistic communities across the country.

His question is very simple. We are in the second half of a tunnel. The longer we go without a vaccine, the longer the tunnel becomes. The earlier that Canada has access to the vaccine, like all other countries in the world, the faster we will be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel and come out the other side. That is why we are calling on the government to give us a plan and tell us when we will get the vaccine in Canada.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues from the Bloc for this very important motion today, and it is really quite fitting that it is December 1. Many are heading into the holiday season and we are heading into some extraordinary challenges, so hopefully this measure of support from all parliamentarians will mean something and will matter. More important would be the action of getting rapid testing in place and getting vaccines in a quick and timely way so the end of the tunnel would be closer.

This motion is in three parts and so I will talk a bit about each part of the motion. The first part is acknowledging the extraordinary work of the health care workers. It talks about the nurses, the doctors and the orderlies. I want to note there are many more who keep our health care system going, so our appreciation is also extended to the folks doing the laundry and the cleaning and those who are playing so many critical roles like working in the laboratories in order to keep our system going. They are also doing extraordinary work during extraordinary challenges.

The motion also talks about seniors and the general public. We know there are many challenges in the long-term care homes as well as some tragic outcomes from the first wave. Unfortunately, we did not learn from the first wave in terms of being as prepared as we should be for the second wave in our homes and with the general public. Public health care workers are now overwhelmed with the testing and contact tracing that has to be done, and in some provinces, they are actually not able to do what they originally were needing to do.

This is not like a marathon, where one knows how far one needs to go. Health care workers are having to put in these extraordinary efforts and they do not know when the end point is. It is certainly starting to take a toll on them. Again we need to note the extraordinary work they are doing.

We are also getting to a stage where many difficult decisions need to be made. At the beginning, it was around how we keep our PPE, which we had limited resources of. Canada likes to think it is doing very well compared to our neighbours in the U.S., but there was some recent work done by a health care institute out of Washington that thinks that by mid-December Canada's per capita numbers are actually going to be worse than the United States. I am not sure we can be proud as we think of how we have responded to this crisis when we compare ourselves to the U.S. and its numbers, because now we are not looking nearly as good.

People see the oxygen coming from the wall in hospitals and they believe it is unlimited, but yesterday in Alberta a memo went out about having to start being very conscientious about how oxygen is used because it is a limited resource. Originally we had a lot of conversations about ventilators, but I do not think there was much in terms of the oxygen that is available. As we hit these extraordinary numbers in December, ICU capacity in some hospitals in some provinces might face very challenging issues.

The second part of the motion recognizes the courage and sacrifice of the front-line workers and their families. I am a former nurse, and I have mentioned that before in this House, and I have friends and colleagues and family members who are still involved in the health care profession.

I will give one personal example of some of the challenges health care workers are facing. I have a son who works up north who is a nurse and does medical evacuations. He just headed up north today, and he has to stay in isolation for the next five weeks unless he is involved in an emergency. He is up north where it is dark all day and is not allowed to leave the house because of course they need to protect the communities he goes into.

He goes into communities, but when he is not working on call, he will spend five weeks sitting in a house waiting for calls and we all know that the Internet is not even a resource that is easily available up north. His girlfriend will be working through the Christmas holidays dealing with the extraordinary challenges of working in an emergency department and an ICU in a small community and having friends and family come in.

Up in 100 Mile House workers want to protect their families, so they have been staying in hotels. They do not have rapid testing in a way that meets their needs, so not wanting to expose their grandparents, parents and children, they spend many nights in hotels. Of course, who has not read or seen the stories of nurses using FaceTime so family members can say goodbye, doctors phoning loved ones or family members saying goodbye while fully masked and gowned and holding loved ones' hands? It is extremely challenging.

Canadians are asked to stay home and wear masks and that is what we need to do. We need to wear masks. Even if it only protects a little, it is not a big deal to put on a mask when going into stores or public areas. Quite frankly, when we look at what health care workers have to deal with and wear, asking Canadians to wear masks, to me, is certainly not too big a deal.

The motion talks about the work of the provinces, which are of course responsible for health care. They need sustainable funding and long-term resources. There is one thing I want to note from the economic fiscal update yesterday that is a concern. The $1 billion for long-term care, I am sure, is going to be welcomed by many of the provinces, but it would have been much more appropriate to use that money between the first and second waves. The government could have made some capital investments to improve infection control measures. Though $1 billion is important and will be welcomed, is it not a little late? The government is typically behind the eight ball and the $1 billion should have been used between the first and second waves.

As for vaccines, instead of the partnership with China, which has not been a reliable partner for many years, the government could have looked outside China. We know of the failure of that particular partnership and now know that Canada is going to be behind many other countries in getting the vaccine.

Rapid testing is not a perfect answer, but it is a tool in the tool box. Why can health care workers not have rapid tests and then have policies reflect the results of the tests. It is not perfect, but it would certainly help to make their lives more livable right now.

Hopefully all members in Parliament are going to support this motion and recognize the extraordinary work and courage of health care workers. More importantly, we have a job to do, which is to get the vaccine and be prepared. To be frank, the government's approach has failed Canadians in many ways, whether it was the health surveillance system, telling Canadians COVID was low risk for too long, refusing to close the border, being slow with rapid testing, not considering home testing until recently or vaccine deployment.

Our numbers are starting to look very challenging and we need to move forward for the sake of our health care workers and Canadians.

[Denis Trudel, Bloc, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Madam Speaker, what the Liberals have been telling us since the start of today's sitting is rather absurd.

Health falls under provincial jurisdiction. The federal government does not manage any hospitals or pay any doctors. We are calling for health transfers.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have been asking the federal government for two fairly simple things: to close the borders and to secure a vaccine when one became available. The government did not come through on either of those requests.

We are calling for health transfers, which is simple. All of the provincial premiers agree that the federal government should send money to the provinces to help them get through the pandemic.

My question is quite simple. Health transfers have declined from 50% to 22%. That did not happen in three days, a week or even a month. This has been going on for 30 years.

If there was an election tomorrow morning and the Conservative Party were elected, would my colleague agree to meet the demands of the provincial premiers and increase federal funding from 22% to 35%?

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Madam Speaker, our party has always believed in sustainable long-term funding to the provinces and not interfering in provincial jurisdiction. Whether with respect to the needs of Quebec versus Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland or British Columbia, we believe the provinces, both constitutionally and in practice, are best set to deliver health care. If we look at the current federal government's record of committing to plant two billion trees and not managing to plant any, it getting into the jurisdiction of provinces would certainly end up a disaster.

[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 disagree with a number of the comments the member has put on the record.

With respect to vaccinations, I believe the government has done an excellent job working with and listening to experts and the immunization advisory committee, as well as working with the provinces and other stakeholders to ensure the interests of Canadians will be taken care of when the time is right and we receive the vaccines.

The question I have for my friend is this. I believe there is widespread support, I can assure her there is in Winnipeg North, for a federal government that understands the importance of the Canada Health Act and that it has a role to play. If we look at the monies we have invested even recently, whether in mental health, home care services and so much more, does the member not recognize that many of her constituents would want to see a presence in health care that goes beyond just handing over a bunch of cash?

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Madam Speaker, I want to first start with the preamble to that question. The Liberals talk about vaccines. It is true they put their eggs in the basket of China. Procuring multiple doses per Canadian is important, Health Canada approval is important, but what is most important is when we will see those vaccines put into the arms of people. I need to compare that to Australia, where we can look at a plan that is clear and transparent. Last night, I looked at the plans for Canada and Australia. There is no plan for Canada. Australia's was simple and easy. All Canadians are asking for is a transparent view of how we are going to get to the end of the—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

We have time for one last question.

The hon. member for South Okanagan—West Kootenay.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Madam Speaker, I believe my colleague from Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo rightly highlighted some of the tragedy that has unfolded in our long-term care homes. Just quickly, I would like to ask her, through you, whether she would support the NDP's proposal to bring long-term care into the Canada Health Act so the provinces would have a proper funding source to maintain those homes to care for our seniors in a proper way, because although there are standards, they do not have the funding to meet those standards of care.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Madam Speaker, the biggest tragedy is the billion dollars that is to be used later as opposed to between the first and second waves. That money could have been well used by the provinces in preparing for the second wave, training their staff, infection control measures, capital improvements and—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

Resuming debate, the hon. member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie.

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Madam Speaker, first I want to let you know that I will be sharing my time with my distinguished colleague from Vancouver Kingsway.

I was delighted to hear the previous Conservative Party colleague talk about what I feel is the issue at the core of this motion. Along the way, that got a little lost among the important debates we have been having. I am talking about health professionals, health care workers. For the past nine months, they have been working incredibly hard to take care of us, they have been trying to save lives and salvage the situation. They get up every morning—or every evening or night, as the case may be—to care for people with COVID-19. These people are making absolutely incredible sacrifices, and they are there for us.

One of the very good questions we need to ask ourselves as parliamentarians is this: Are we there for them? Have successive Conservative and Liberal governments been there for our health professionals, for our health care workers?

I wanted to come back to that because it is a fundamental issue in which the federal government has a role to play. These are frontline workers. They are literally putting their lives and their health on the line. We have seen that people who spend time with those who are sick or infected can catch the virus, get sick or infect people in their family, their spouse for example. That has happened.

I wanted to take a minute to draw our attention to something very specific about these health workers who are our guardian angels. That is how we have referred to them for a while. They are refugees or asylum seekers who voluntarily signed up to work in our long-term care facilities, in our hospitals or in our clinics to try to take care of people. Many of them got sick or even brought the virus home, which led to the death of their spouse. We have heard some heart-rending stories.

We worked very hard to create a program to regularize their status, in other words, give them an opportunity to become permanent residents, considering all their hard work in our health care system. The program was announced in August, but absolutely nothing has been done to date. It appears to be blocked somewhere. Initially, we wanted it to be for all essential workers, that is, people who worked in pharmacies and grocery stores, and also for those who did not necessarily provide direct care but worked in the health care system, for example, kitchen staff and security guards. Even for those who provided direct care, the program has not yet been successfully implemented.

Something very troubling happened yesterday. Without any warning, and on the day of the economic update, the Canada Border Services Agency announced that it was going to resume removals and deportations. Some people were promised or led to believe they would be granted permanent residency, but since the program does not really exist on the ground yet, some risk being deported, even though they came to help us in our long-term care centres and our health care system. I think that is appalling. No one should be deported during a pandemic, but especially not those who came to help us.

I want to get back to health care workers. Have we been there for them?

They have been working in deplorable conditions. Certain types of jobs, especially the lower-paid ones, are just not very attractive because of the working conditions. Just look at the wages paid to orderlies, nurses' work hours, the heavy workload and the mandatory overtime.

In the middle of a crisis and a pandemic, the health care sector is short-staffed. If the provincial and Quebec governments had had the money to treat these people better, we would probably have fewer problems retaining workers and attracting new workers. People are not really encouraged to go to work if the conditions are difficult and they earn $12 or $13 an hour.

The provinces were unable to provide good working conditions and did not have the resources to do so because the federal level has slashed health transfers to the provinces. The Conservatives and Liberals are both to blame here.

Earlier I asked the member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie a question, and he gave us some acrobatics.

There is something completely unrealistic here, and the motion touches on that. After the Stephen Harper government was elected, the increase in health transfers, which had reached 6% a year, was cut to 3% a year. This created a shortfall of around $36 billion for the provinces over a 10-year period.

Unfortunately, despite all of their lofty promises, the Liberals under the current Prime Minister have picked up where the Conservatives left off, increasing transfers by 3% a year, even though health care costs are increasing by 5.4% a year, as my colleague from Vancouver Kingsway pointed out earlier today. There is a shortfall here, and it is neither viable nor sustainable.

We need to start giving the provinces back the ability to properly serve the public. To do that, the federal government needs to carry out its role of increasing health transfers. That is absolutely essential. It cannot be avoided, otherwise, we are not doing justice to our health care workers and we cannot provide them with decent working conditions.

The federal government therefore needs to increase health transfers. The Liberals will say that an increase of 6% per year is not sustainable for the public purse, so then what should we do? The NDP has some unique and worthwhile proposals, such as the completely crazy idea of getting money from those who have it, those who have so much that they do not know what to do with it all.

Our party is the only one saying that we could create a tax on wealth. People who have more than $20 million in property and assets could pay a small surtax of 1% per year. That is not too much. It would bring in hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars. Why not create a tax on wealth? It would not harm the middle class or workers. The wealthy are perfectly capable of paying it.

There are also companies that have made inordinate profits since the start of this pandemic. Why could we not establish, perhaps on a temporary basis, a special tax on the excessive or inordinate profits of certain companies that lined their pockets? I am obviously referring to the web giants, such as Netflix or Amazon, whose profits literally exploded.

I would like to say a few words about Amazon. Oxfam recently pointed out that if Jeff Bezos were to give a $105,000 bonus right now to each one of its 876,000 employees, he would still be just as rich as he was before the start of the pandemic. This shows the extent to which certain companies profited. The NDP believes that these companies could be made to pay taxes, which has not yet happened.

I have another important matter to address before concluding. I was very disappointed with yesterday's economic update with respect to the web giants. The government told us that it is going to make web giants pay the GST. That is a good thing that we have been asking for, and it is about fairness and justice. That said, charging the GST means that consumers will pay it. Customers are going to pay the GST. It is the right thing to do because it is fair, but at the same time, this costs the web giants nothing, since it will be the consumer who pays.

All of a sudden, the government is telling us that digital giants are going to pay tax not in January, but 13 months from now. They are being given a one-year reprieve before they have to pay tax in Canada. Moreover, we do not know if they will even pay tax because the Minister of Finance says they will pay tax if necessary.

Digital giants have not been paying tax in Canada for years, and that is an absolute scandal. Tax havens still exist, and the Liberal government is doing absolutely nothing.

Let's get serious. Let's get money from those who have it, boost health transfers and pay a reasonable wage to the people who look after our sick.

Once again, I thank them from the bottom of my heart and I salute them. I want them to know we should do better. An NDP government will do better.

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

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech.

My colleague asked himself not once, not twice, but three times whether we, as the government and as parliamentarians, have done right by the people during this crisis.

My colleague knows very well that, in general, Canadians are satisfied with how we have been managing this crisis. We have been responding to this pandemic since March 11.

Would he agree that, since March 11, we have taken the necessary steps to support our workers, our industries, our businesses, our seniors, our youth and everyone going through tough times and help them weather this pandemic? Would he agree that we have done all that without an instruction manual?

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.

Some measures were fairly good, but usually it was because the NDP pushed the government to take action. Without the NDP, there would be no 75% wage subsidy and no $2,000 a month Canada emergency response benefit. Without the NDP, self-employed workers would not have been included so that they can receive an income. Without the NDP, there would have been no benefits for students.

As for what will happen next, we will have to see whether these measures come to an end in June or September and if anything else will be done at that point. We do not know what the health and economic situation will be at that point. The government needs to commit to being there for people and to getting the resources and revenue needed to continue to help them.

[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 wonder if the member could expand on how the New Democratic Party talks a great deal about supporting a national pharmacare program. It talks a great deal about home care services. It talks about the potential federal government involvement.

Could the member provide further thoughts in regard to the importance of the Canada Health Act and what role that plays in society today?

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Madam Speaker, the first time the Liberals promised child care services, I was 20 years old. Now my daughter is 20. The first time they promised a pharmacare program, I was 24 years old. I will not tell you my age, but we have been waiting for quite some time now.

Yes, we are in favour of a universal public pharmacare system, like all of the Quebec labour unions and the Union des consommateurs du Québec have been calling for, because such a system would save us money. The NDP has been fighting tooth and nail for years for this very worthwhile project, which we would want to carry out through a constructive dialogue between the federal and provincial governments. We think that the federal government needs to implement such a program. It needs to stop with the rhetoric and keep its promises. It needs to actually implement this program.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Madam Speaker, my colleague is a strong voice in our caucus. He is a leader in representing the people of Quebec in the House.

I want to ask about long-term care. We have seen critical and devastating conditions across the country with respect to long-term care. We have seen too little action from the Liberal government.

Could he share his thoughts on the NDP platform on long-term care and what we would like to see to ensure our seniors are taken care of and are protected as we head into the second and potentially the third wave of the pandemic?

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Edmonton Strathcona for that very important question.

Yes, I think that, as a whole, we need to set goals for the quality of care available to seniors. That is a big job that needs to be done in partnership with the provinces to deal with this challenge, and transfers are a big part of it. The death toll was horrendous, and we do not want to go through that again.

The NDP is actually the only party that says there should be no private sector involvement in health care, especially when it comes to caring for seniors. We saw the appalling nightmare that took place at the Herron long-term care home in Dorval, a private facility.

In our view, people should not have to use their credit card to access health care. It should be a universal right, and we should work together to achieve the highest standards of care and respect for seniors. They worked so hard their whole lives, and I think that is the least we can do for them.