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.