Mr. Speaker, I was saying that a historic year is drawing to a close.
As we know, 2020 was tough and quickly went downhill. Many Quebeckers were worried about it, as was the entire global population.
Let us remember that we were all here in the House in early March when we agreed to change the parliamentary calendar and temporarily suspend the work of Parliament in order to protect our fellow citizens from the spread of what we did not yet realize was a pandemic. Just a few hours after Parliament shut down, we began this historic chapter that will leave its mark on the way we think and the decisions we make for days, months and years to come.
In addition to the sacrifices the public has made and continues to make to avoid compromising the capacity of Quebec's health system, we saw our behind-the-scenes workers take on a huge share of the responsibility for our COVID-19 pandemic response.
Among those heroes who have gone and are still going above and beyond for our fellow citizens are health workers such as our brave nurses, who step up every time we ask them to make sacrifices and put themselves on the front lines. They work countless hours to buoy a health system that is often on the verge of going under. I thank them.
I sincerely thank our registered nursing assistants who face unspeakable and innumerable challenges and always keep smiling when they are with patients, so as not to add to the distress and stress caused by this pandemic. I thank our doctors, many of whom have decided to support patients directly by staying many hours after their shift has ended to help the registered nursing assistants who have never-ending lists of tasks they must perform. Society can never thank our PSWs enough for their efforts. They were at the heart of the red zones of the first wave and are still on the front li, doing everything in their power to avoid the second wave. I am extremely grateful to them.
Our community organizations are on the front lines whenever human, financial or material resources are in short supply. They help the most vulnerable, our seniors and those who are often on the margins of society. This year, their workload is unprecedented and they have faced the situation with intelligence and strength. I must thank them again. I am also thinking of our maintenance staff who work around the clock to ward off the virus and keep it out of our health care facilities. These people are very important and I thank them.
My mother is a nurse and I know full well the sacrifices that health workers can make in normal times to ensure that patients get the care they need. Quebec's health system can count on its workers, who are dedicated to people's well-being and who have chosen to spend their career working for the health and well-being of their community.
Quebec's health system can also count on the steadfast support of the members of the National Assembly of Quebec to support Quebec's essential health system, which, need we remind members, serves as a model around the world. Quebec's health system can obviously count on the Bloc Québécois to remind the federal government that it is not carrying out its responsibilities by systematically refusing to increase health transfers to Quebec and the provinces, as requested by the Premier of Quebec, François Legault, and the provincial premiers.
Quebec's health care system certainly cannot count on the federal government, even during a crisis. Not only is that unacceptable, but it is also disingenuous and inhumane. Now, in the middle of an unprecedented crisis, the Liberal government has presented an economic update without any major investment in health transfers. How can the federal government stand there and tell Quebeckers that health care is a priority for it? How can the federal government interfere in the jurisdiction of Quebec and the provinces by deciding, quite incompetently, to develop a national strategy that no one wants or needs? Quebec has the capacity and the jurisdiction. How can the federal government show Quebeckers that it is on their side?
I have an objective as a member of the Bloc Québécois, and I have always been open about it. This objective is quite clear, but I have to wonder, because sometimes to ask the question is to answer it, as they say.
Is the Prime Minister not proving yet again, by repetition or in some strange way, as if we needed proof, that we have one government too many?
I cannot help but notice that Quebec is better served by itself than by a government that is incapable of telling us when we will have our first doses of the COVID-19 vaccines, while the Government of Quebec clearly said that it would start vaccinating the public as soon as it has vaccines.
We are in the middle of an unprecedented global health crisis. Quebec's health care system is under more pressure than ever, and we need all the financial leverage possible to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. The Government of Canada is not prepared to meet the demands of the provincial premiers and Premier Legault on health transfers.
The Prime Minister has to face the facts: things happen in the field and the field of health is the responsibility of Quebec and the provinces. It is simple. What Quebec wants and what the Bloc Québécois is asking for is for the federal government to meet its financial responsibility and make the necessary health transfers. If the government absolutely needs to feel like the hero in the health transfer saga, it can even put its little flag in the corner of its cheque, provided it allows Quebec and the provinces to handle their own affairs.
I will use my remaining time to say thank you once again to all the people who have put their lives on hold since March to take care of our constituents on the front lines of the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic.
We are used to saying that our health workers are heroes, and there is a reason for that. A hero is a person who shows courage without ever expecting anything in return. If we could spend a day in a hospital to see for ourselves the tireless efforts these men and women make and the miracles they perform every single day for Quebeckers and Canadians, we would realize that what means the most to them are their patients' smiles, not to mention the knowledge that they are safe and healthy.
It is not just their actions that are heroic; their careers and professions are heroic as well. If there is one thing we could do as elected representatives, it should be to give them the means to do what they have to do.
As the member for Manicouagan, a riding along the North Shore of Quebec, I am proud of the health care workers back home who have fought since the start of the pandemic so that our region could be protected from the virus as much as possible.
I would like to thank Dr. Richard Fachehoun, the medical officer of health at the Côte-Nord Integrated Health and Social Services Centre, and his entire team for the efforts they make every day to inform and listen to the people. I would also like to thank Claude Lévesque, the executive director of the centre, Dr. Donald Aubin, the director of public health for the North Shore, as well as the elected and traditional leadership of the Innu and Naskapi who, along with their teams and their people, have managed to keep the virus at bay on the North Shore.
I believe my speech is clear and straightforward. We are asking the government for a permanent increase in health transfers to the level called for by Quebec and the provinces, immediately. A responsible government thinks of its citizens, not its re-election.
