Madam Speaker, one of the reasons this pandemic has struck Canada in such a way is the failure of the government to plan effectively in advance. Less than 20 years ago, we had another coronavirus pandemic in terms of SARS. It did not reach the same proportions, but it was in response to that pandemic that the government of the day created the Public Health Agency, which was supposed to prepare us for events like this. However, the government was not prepared. It destroyed aspects of our mask stockpile and that put us in a situation where the government was procuring very large amounts of PPE from China.
I want to specifically ask about this procurement. Many concerns have been raised about how Uighur Muslims in China. They face horrific repression and the largest mass detention of a minority since the Holocaust, according to many experts. They are being forced to participate in slave labour, including the production of PPE.
When we asked the government what safeguards are in place to ensure that slave labour is not part of the supply chain for our government-procured PPE, we were told by the minister that there is a process by which companies self-certify. In other words, those companies tell us everything is fine and we believe them.
Is the member concerned about the involvement, or the possible involvement, of slave labour in the supply chain for government-procured PPE? Is the member prepared to support new legislation to ensure that does not happen going forward? It is similar to, for instance, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which was passed with overwhelming support in U.S. Congress.