Madam Speaker, my friend across the way should read some of the things that his fellow members are actually saying, instead of trying to give the impression that the Conservatives have not been pushing for a date. They have been pushing a great deal for a date.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing to have. One my colleagues made reference to hindsight in a story. The government has been consistent from day one. We were not going to make political decisions, but would rely on experts and on the science. Those are the individuals who are going to put our country in a good position going forward, as they have in the past.
Opposition members say that we were late on recommending masks and ask why we did not recommend masks earlier. The simple answer to that is that we were following the advice provided by health experts. When the health experts said that we should have people wear masks for x, y and z reasons, that is exactly what we said.
At the very beginning masks were not emphasized. Today, they are emphasized. It is not because of politics. It is because of what health experts were saying at the time.
Going back to hindsight, now that we say masks are important, the Conservatives are saying, “Those darn Liberals, they did not say we should have been wearing masks, and we should have been.” At the end of the day, we are listening to the science. It is not just Canada.
There is a community around the world that supports fighting the coronavirus, and Canada plays a very important role in that, whether it is the World Health Organization or Health Canada. They provided the necessary information. The departments of health and procurement continue to work together, as does the defence department, the Prime Minister's Office and other departments. All are concerned and all are playing an important role in combatting the coronavirus.
Members have talked about the impact of the coronavirus. We all know the impacts. The previous speaker was talking about the impact on weddings and funerals. I just lost a very close personal friend, Lito Taruc, host on CKJS, who was well-loved in the Filipino community and outside that community in Winnipeg. I suspect hundreds, if not thousands, would have showed up to pay their final respects to the family. It was a very difficult time. Lito was only a few years older than myself.
We all understand the impacts. Back in June, we did not have graduation ceremonies. I am used to going to Sisler High School and Maples Collegiate and participating either directly or indirectly, as well as with the Children of the Earth High School, St. John's High School and R. B. Russell Vocational High School.
We had hundreds of graduates, back in June, who did not get the same sort of treatment that they would have received, in terms of those ceremonies, without the coronavirus.
We all know about the weddings that have been put off, cancelled or in some cases that went ahead with much smaller numbers.
It is not just the economy and the money, there is a strong social component to this. All of us, I believe, understand that. We are all anxious to see the defeat of the coronavirus, and the vaccine plays a critical role in that. The government benches understand the importance of getting it out there as quickly as we can, and that is one of the reasons we did not limit our options to one or two suppliers. We secured seven suppliers, with tens of millions of doses, more than enough, cumulatively, to cover our entire population.
We do not know for fact, but we have a good idea today and we will have a better idea tomorrow, which ones are going to get approved and how soon they will actually be able to come to Canada. All that will happen. What is important is that, when it starts to happen, we have something in place that is going to ensure its distribution. We have announced relatively recently, but everyone knows, that members of the Canadian Forces have been participating in fighting the coronavirus for many months. No one is surprised that we would once again turn to our forces to ensure that we have a distribution that is going to be effective for Canadians.
I listen to many of the discussions today, and I do not know to what degree members seem to want to be focused on being critical of Ottawa and the federal government. That is fine. That is fair. They are in opposition, but they also need to realize that it is more than the federal government that ultimately sees the injection into the arm of our constituents. We need provinces, territories and indigenous leaders to also be at the table and a part of the discussions. They are, and they have been there for months.
The opposition parties say they want to know who is going to get it and when, and which ones are going to be the priorities. Those are very good questions, and provinces have that responsibility. Ottawa continues to work with provinces to ensure that there is some dialogue on the issue. We all have our personal opinions in terms of who should receive it first, but Ottawa will continue to work with provinces and recognize the provinces. There is reason to be optimistic. Members should take a look at the flu vaccine; 16 million doses, during the pandemic, were administered through provinces.
We have good reason to be optimistic that we are going to be able to get the job done and get it done well.