Debates of April 20th, 2020

COVID-19 Pandemic

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Madam Chair, yes, during the course of the outbreak, as it began, the HESA committee did compel what turned out to be well over a thousand documents. Our officials also appeared in front of the committee a number of times, and I also appeared in front of the committee.

We have spared no effort to try to ensure that the HESA committee has access to the professionals that it is compelling from the Government of Canada, as well as political leaders such as myself. As well, we were providing documentation even as those officials were working day and night to try to ensure that our response was strong and robust to protect Canadians' lives.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Madam Chair, they were not so busy that they could not busy themselves with redacting the documents, a task that in the committee's motion was to be left specifically to parliamentary counsel.

I ask again: Will the government submit the same documents unredacted so that parliamentary counsel can make those decisions, as is appropriate under the privileges of the House?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Madam Chair, we will always comply with the health committee's request for appearances of officials, of ministers and of documentation that is required for them to complete their studies.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Madam Chair, part of the request was that all such redactions “be made by the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel of the House of Commons.”

Will the minister and her government respond and respect that request?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Madam Chair, since the beginning of the outbreak, I and my department have appeared in front of HESA numerous times to answer questions to our fullest to provide technical briefings to the committee to ensure that they have the information they need to study Canada's response and Canada's next steps.

We continue to provide documentation that is requested. We completely value the work of HESA in examining the response of Canada, but also in looking for the next steps ahead.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Madam Chair, one gets the impression the answer to that is no. The minister is certainly reluctant to say so.

It is worth noting that in the special order that was adopted by the House on April 11, the health committee is set up to proceed, but only to receive evidence. It is not permitted to pass motions. If it could do so, it would of course pass a motion demanding that these documents be submitted and perhaps chastising the minister for her actions.

Why has the ability of this committee to pass motions and to make reports been taken away from it?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Chair, the health committee has met, I think, five times. The finance committee has met around five or six times also. Other committees are meeting. I know people in the House are working really hard. The people in the committees are working really hard. We have to find ways to make those committees work, and they are working: Members of the committee can ask questions, invite people and get answers. That is what they are doing.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Madam Chair, the health committee and all the other committees, including the indigenous affairs committee, do not have the ability to make reports or to pass motions, and there is no reason in the world that they should not be able to do so. I note that on the April 11 motion, the procedure and House affairs committee was specifically mandated to adopt motions and reports.

Why is this ability being withheld from the health committee and the other committees that are sitting right now?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Madam Chair, the committees are working on the basis of what has been approved by all parties in different motions. Everybody is working extremely hard to be able to answer the questions of parliamentarians, and that is what the committees are doing now.

[Claude DeBellefeuille, Bloc, Salaberry—Suroît, QC]

Madam Chair, in my riding, a businessman opened a restaurant a year ago. To take some of the pressure off of his business' finances, he decided to cash in his RRSPs for the first year of operations of his restaurant.

For a month now we have been asking the Minister of Finance the same question week after week: is this person, who cashed in his RRSPs for a year to avoid paying himself a salary and to take pressure off his new restaurant, entitled to the CERB?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Minister of Small Business]

Madam Chair, that business, like so many of our businesses across the country, is absolutely so important to our communities. That is why we have been listening so intently to business owners' concerns and have made available the many measures to help them keep their employees, help them with the cash flow that is needed during this difficult period and help them keep their costs low by deferring the GST and HST and customs duties. All of these measures are to help our Canadian small businesses.

[Claude DeBellefeuille, Bloc, Salaberry—Suroît, QC]

Madam Chair, we all know that the crisis has highlighted the fact that high-speed Internet service is now considered to be an essential service, as was the case for electricity in the last century.

In my riding, several areas do not have access to high-speed Internet. For example, the city of Rivière-Beaudette and the Domaine Drolet have no cell service or high-speed Internet service. Despite the efforts of the mayor of Rivière-Beaudette and the reeve of the Vaudreuil-Soulange RCM, nothing has been done to give these people access to high-speed Internet. We know that the government has promised to ensure that rural areas have access to high-speed Internet by 2028.

In light of today's crisis, does the minister realize that he must move up the deadline for providing high-speed Internet to all people living in rural areas in my riding, such as Rivière-Beaudette, Sainte-Justine-de-Newton, and Hinchinbrooke, who unfortunately have not been able to telework satisfactorily because the network is inadequate?

I would like to hear what the minister has to say about possibly moving up the deadline for ensuring that municipalities and everyone who needs it have high-speed Internet access.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

Madam Chair, I thank the member for her question.

Even before the coronavirus crisis, we understood the importance of having high-speed Internet, especially for rural communities. I think that everyone, the members here in particular, is aware that the coronavirus has and will continue to completely change the economy.

As the member pointed out, one of those changes will be the increased importance of telework. For that reason, I completely agree that access to high-speed Internet for all Canadians, including those in rural communities, must be a top priority for our government when we begin to relaunch the economy after the crisis. Obviously, it is too soon to start that work right now because of the measures we have taken to protect public health, but I absolutely agree that this must be a priority.

[Claude DeBellefeuille, Bloc, Salaberry—Suroît, QC]

Madam Chair, there are projects and requests on the minister's desk right now, for example, those of Coop-CSUR, a small business, a small distributor in my riding. Four projects were submitted that involve getting 400 to 500 people in the riding connected. This company is waiting for federal funding. There are also other obstacles related to the major network owner.

If this is a priority, why is it taking so long to respond to the projects that small distributors submitted to connect their fellow citizens to high-speed Internet?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Madam Chair, I want to commend the member because people in her region understand that this is a priority for our government. We have already announced an investment of $500 million in this project. The fact that people in the member's region have already submitted an application is a step in the right direction.

I agree that the coronavirus has changed many aspects of our economy and that we need to change how we do things going forward. One thing that will be absolutely crucial will be to further highlight the importance of high-speed Internet access for all Canadians.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Madam Chair, my question for the government is concerning long-term care homes. We have seen deplorable conditions in long-term care homes. These are seniors who are often the most vulnerable in society. They are people who are not able to defend themselves and they are faced with horrible conditions. Right now, long-term care homes are ground zero for the number of deaths. The highest numbers of deaths reported are concentrated in long-term care homes.

Will the federal government commit to implementing national standards around long-term care homes, and then putting those into our Canada Health Act to ensure that there is accountability?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Madam Chair, I share the member's dismay at the treatment of seniors in some long-term care homes across the country, who are clearly paying the price of a decade or more of neglect of a system that is meant to provide people with dignity and safety in their senior years.

I have been working with the Minister of Seniors to ensure that our government provides guidance for provinces and territories on how they ameliorate the situation in this urgent setting. We have a lot of work to do at all levels of government to fix this deplorable situation.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Madam Chair, the New Democrats worked to bring changes to the Canada emergency response benefit to get guarantees for people who were not eligible. The government said it would make the changes. However, I have a simple solution.

Can the government amend the criteria so that people who need the CERB can simply give their name and gain access to resources?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, Minister of Families]

Madam Chair, the key difference between the approach that the hon. member is suggesting and our approach is that we felt that it was important to provide a lot of support to those who need it now in the context of the economic dislocation of COVID-19.

As opposed to sending a small amount of money to everyone, we focused our attention on workers and those who have seen their jobs disappear, those who have been laid off or those who have to be home to take care of kids who are not going to school or day care or to take care of a loved one who is experiencing quarantine or COVID-19. That is the focus we have had, as well as delivering more money under the Canada child benefit and the GST credit and other supports to Canadians.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Madam Chair, that was not at all my question. I am saying that the current program, as it exists, has a whole list of criteria that are limiting people who need help right now. I have not asked to reduce the sum; I am asking if the government will commit to getting rid of its criteria with the existing program so that everyone who needs help can simply apply for that help and get it.

Again, my question is not about reducing that help; it is about reducing the barriers to accessing that help.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Madam Chair, the CERB is there to help workers who have seen their jobs disappear or who have been laid off as a result of COVID-19. The fact is that we are getting help to families through increasing the Canada child benefit. Between them, the CERB and the wage subsidy of up to 75% cover a lot of workers in Canada.

In addition to that, we have listened to feedback from Canadians on those who have been left behind by the CERB, including those who have seen their EI run out in January, as well as those Canadians who are working now who are making less money than they would be under the CERB. We have heard that concern and we have addressed it by expanding eligibility for the CERB to those folks who are making $1,000 or less.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Madam Chair, I now want to touch on indigenous services and communities.

We have heard a lot of concerns from indigenous communities about their lack of basic infrastructure, lack of basic human rights like clean drinking water and housing. On top of that, we are fast approaching the flood season, which means many people in many indigenous communities will have to be evacuated. There does not seem to be a very good plan in place to ensure that communities can be evacuated safely and in a way in which they are not going to be exposed to additional risk of COVID-19.

What is the plan to make sure that communities have the resources and the proper plan in place to protect them?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Minister of Indigenous Services]

Madam Chair, as the member notes, indeed, the historical vulnerabilities of indigenous communities compound the risk and exposure and potential consequences that indigenous communities may face. This is something that my department and the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations's department is seized of. We have invested physical resources into surge capacity to ensure that those communities are not left behind.

When it comes to the flood season or even the fire season, these issues again compound the risk.

Should the member want a full briefing, for example, on the efforts that we are deploying into Kashechewan to address the complexity COVID-19 poses to that community in particular and to other communities that are at risk, I would be glad to brief him and my department would do so readily.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Madam Chair, on April 11, I asked the government in the chamber when a plan would be forthcoming for Canada's decimated international seafood market. The deputy prime minister responded that the minister was working on such a plan.

The minister of fisheries issued a statement on April 17, six days later, saying that she was still working on it and proceeded to go through some of the benefits under the emergency response plan that provide help to out-of-work Canadians. The minister has not yet surfaced. We have not heard details of that plan.

When is that plan forthcoming?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

Madam Chair, I was due to speak with the minister about this today but she is understandably very much engaged in her response to the tragedy in Nova Scotia.

I also want to take this opportunity, and was looking forward to a chance, to answer a question from the member for New Brunswick Southwest because I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight the remarkable thing that a New Brunswick company, LuminUltra, is doing.

LuminUltra in New Brunswick has taken on, at very short notice, the production of reagent. This reagent had been very hard for us to get and LuminUltra is now, one could say, the engine powering coronavirus testing across the country.

On fisheries, I am happy to answer if the member has another question about that.