Debates of Dec. 2nd, 2020

Health

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I want to remind hon. members of the way it works. When a member is named, he or she asks the questions, not while the person is answering. That just does not work in the chamber, and it is causing a lot of distractions. I wanted to point that out for those who have forgotten the rules.

The hon. Leader of the Opposition.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, between April and June, France is going to vaccinate its entire population. In the United States, the entire population will be vaccinated by June. In Canada, our Liberal government is saying that only a few Canadians will be vaccinated by September.

How are Canadians going to feel when the U.S. economy reopens and we have to remain in lockdown? Why the delay?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, Health Canada is currently fast-tracking its study of four different vaccines, and we have obtained tens of millions of doses of all those vaccines for Canadians.

We want to ensure safety. Our priority will be to assure Canadians that these vaccines are safe, but, at the same time, we have been able to guarantee that Canadians will get their doses. We will get through this pandemic together. We will make it to the other side thanks to everything we are doing together.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, this week, the Deputy Prime Minister tabled an economic update, but the truth is that it is just words.

Without a plan for rapid tests and vaccines, there will be no economic recovery—none. The Liberal government did not have the guts to make sure that Canadians were at the front of the line for vaccines.

Quebeckers are worried and Christmas is coming. It is time to give them hope.

When will the government come up with a plan to give hope to the nation?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, if the Conservatives want to talk about a plan, let us talk.

We are protecting the health of Canadians with this economic statement. We are ensuring that all Canadians have access to an effective, safe and free vaccine. The plan will help our economy to come roaring back with a wage subsidy of 75% for businesses and measures for the hardest hit sectors.

This plan will help us turn things around for the better for all Canadians. We all remember the damage caused by the Conservatives when they pushed austerity too quickly after 2008‑09. We will be there for Canadians.

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's Constitution establishes beyond a doubt that health is the exclusive jurisdiction of the provinces, including Quebec.

The federal share of funding for the health system, which was 50%, began to drop in 1977, and that trend has continued to this day.

This is my question: Given that the provinces and Quebec need predictability to manage the crisis and hopefully emerge from it—although the Prime Minister is unable to give us a timeline for that—can we ask him if he is going to defy his own Constitution and let funding for the provinces continue to drop?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are proud of their health care system and expect us to work together to improve it.

We gave the provinces and territories $19 billion to help them restart their economies safely while dealing with the pandemic. We are investing $11 million to help the provinces and territories improve access to home care, community care and mental health services.

We will provide more than $200 billion for health care systems over the next five years to the provinces and territories for the health system, and we will always work together to protect the health and safety of all Canadians.

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I find it fascinating that pre-written answers are supplied to questions that have not yet been asked.

I am all ears if he wants to open up the Constitution because he cannot hold up his end of the deal. I have a couple of ideas for him.

How can the Prime Minister claim that everything is fine when he just got a kick in the teeth from the Quebec National Assembly, which unanimously adopted a motion calling on the government to hand over the money and mind its own business with respect to long-term care homes?

Will the Prime Minister continue to disregard his obligations to Quebec and the provinces?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we have been working closely with the provinces and territories to support Canadians throughout pandemic.

We got money directly to Quebeckers and Canadians through CERB, assistance for small businesses and the Canada emergency wage subsidy.

We have continued to transfer additional money to help the provinces and territories shoulder the additional costs of the health care system and the school system.

We recognize that we need to work together and respect provincial jurisdictions. We will continue to work together to help Canadians and build a better future.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Australia has published its COVID‑19 vaccination plan on its website. The United Kingdom just approved a vaccine and will be administering it next week. Canada, in contrast, does not yet have a comprehensive COVID‑19 vaccination plan. People deserve to know what the plan is.

When will we get a vaccine, and who will get it? What is the COVID‑19 vaccination plan?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, since the spring, we have been working with the provinces and territories to distribute vaccines across the country.

We worked with the Canadian Armed Forces and immunization experts to establish priority lists and ensure that we have the capacity to deliver the vaccines.

We have worked and will continue to work with the provinces and territories to distribute these vaccines, just like Canada distributes 19 million flu vaccines to Canadians across the country every year. It is a huge challenge, but we can and will keep our promises.

Indigenous Affairs

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government has just acknowledged that it will break a commitment to the indigenous people for clean drinking water.

I want the Prime Minister to hear what this means from a nine-year-old girl named Bee Moonias from the Neskantaga nation who will not be able to go home. She says, “Sometimes, I feel like we don't exist. Like, nobody knows that we have no clean water. Like, we're just ghosts and we're just put in a drawer, in a box.”

Could the Prime Minister look Bee Moonias in her eyes and tell her why this country has not provided clean drinking water?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, my thoughts—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I will stop the right hon. Prime Minister. Someone has their microphone on at home. I want to make sure that everyone has their microphones on mute.

The right hon. Prime Minister.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we have been working closely with communities right across the country, including Neskantaga and its citizens, to ensure that we are giving them all the support they need through this pandemic.

In terms of drinking water, decades of neglect led to the unacceptable reality of first nations on reserve not having access to safe, clean and reliable drinking water. We remain aggressively committed to lifting all long-term advisories and ensuring first nations can have clean water now and into the future. The feds provided an additional $1.5 billion to accelerate this commitment. We will continue to work in partnership with first nations to get it done.

Health

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, there will be three ways of vaccinating people: hospitals, vaccination centres and in the community with GPs and pharmacists. Around 50 hospitals are on standby and vaccination centres in venues such as conference centres or sports stadiums are being set up now. This is with regard to a COVID vaccine that is being released to the public tomorrow.

I wish we could say that here in Canada. Instead, we have to congratulate our friends in the United Kingdom for getting their act together.

The question is this: When will the Prime Minister give that exact same information to Canadians?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, every step of the way we have relied on experts and scientists to give us recommendations on how to move forward on a rollout of vaccines right across the country. We have worked closely with the provinces and territories and we will continue to. We put the Canadian Armed Forces' Major-General Dany Fortin in charge of the logistics of rolling it out and coordinating with the provinces and territories on vaccines.

Right now, as we speak, Health Canada is looking at four different vaccine candidates, candidates that are leading around the world and that we have signed up for tens of millions of doses. Canadians will be covered on vaccines.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, just moments ago, on CJOB in Manitoba, Manitoba's chief public health officer, Dr. Roussin, came out and said that Manitoba's vaccine supply will be very limited in the early months of next year. That is in direct contradiction to what the Prime Minister just said. Meanwhile, they are hearing that New York state is going to have 170,000 doses for deployment on December 15.

Does the Prime Minister realize that he is going to have to update his talking points binder and give Canadians some information on when they are getting that vaccine and where, as opposed to just spouting nonsense about his failure to plan?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, allow me to begin by again telling the people of Manitoba and their public health officer that as a federal government we will continue to be there to support them while they go through this difficult time. We are there to support Manitoba, like we are there to support premiers right across the country who are facing a rise in cases.

Part of that is making sure that we are able to deliver on the tens of millions of vaccine doses that we have secured because we have access to the largest range of vaccines of just about any country in the world. We did the work early on in securing doses for Canadians so that we can all get through this pandemic together.

Foreign Affairs

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it was reported today that CanSinoBIO's Canadian-educated scientists were also working for Chinese Communist Party information collection networks.

What is worse, CanSinoBIO's co-founders are participating in the program, which aims to transfer knowledge and research results from Canada to China. We now know that CanSinoBIO never intended to honour the deal. Worse still, our Canadian intellectual property is now in the hands of the Chinese government. Why did the Prime Minister sign that deal with CanSinoBIO knowing these facts?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, several years ago, the partnership with CanSinoBIO resulted in the distribution of a vaccine for the Ebola virus in West Africa, a collaboration that had a significant and positive impact around the world.

That is why we considered CanSinoBIO among all the other vaccine candidates we studied. We followed up and had negotiations and discussions with many companies that produce different vaccines. As a result, we now have the best portfolio of potential vaccines in the world, and more potential doses per Canadian than any other country in the world.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, that is nonsense.

We are currently talking about CanSinoBIO, a company whose CEO and executive director were identified as members of China's Thousand Talents Plan to act as informants for the Chinese Communist Party.

This is not the first time that the Liberal government is letting Canada's information and intellectual property flow to China. These are serious security risks for Canada. Why does the Prime Minister keep working with the Chinese communist regime?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, my responsibility as Prime Minister is to ensure the health and safety of Canadians. That is what I did and what I will always do. I will work with anyone who can help ensure the safety of Canadians.

The Conservatives are saying that they would not have worked with China. That is their choice, but we are busy ensuring that we have access to more vaccines per person than any other country. Indeed, we sought to partner with all kinds of people to ensure the safety of Canadians.

While they cling to politics and ideology, we will work for Canadians.

Health

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians trust our Canadian Armed Forces to get the job done, but nobody trusts the Liberal government. Instead of hiding its vaccine plan behind a veil of secrecy, perhaps the Prime Minister could answer some very basic questions. Canadians deserve to know exactly how our military is going to be used.

How many troops have been placed on high readiness? How many military aircraft will be deployed to deliver vaccines? When will vaccines be delivered by our troops to communities in remote and northern areas? Can the Prime Minister simply give us some dates, numbers, timelines, anything?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, from the beginning, Canadians have had a simple question: When is this pandemic going to be over; when do we get back to our lives; when do we get through this?

The answer is we will get through this with vaccines and we are working to do it as quickly as possible. That is why we secured access to more vaccines per person than just about any other country in the world from a large range of potential vaccine-makers. We did not have a vaccine against COVID-19 because there was not one until very recently. We are going to ensure that we have vaccines for Canadians and we are counting on the Armed Forces to help.