Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Vancouver Kingsway.
I want to begin by talking about the impact of COVID-19 in Canada. To this point, over 19,000 Canadians have lost their lives. Families are grieving their loved ones. We have seen losses on the front lines among front-line health care workers. We have seen loved ones lose their lives.
Seniors have been the most impacted, though. Long-term care centres, which have already been in crisis, have been devastated by COVID-19. What is happening in long-term care right now is being described by over 200 doctors in Ontario as a humanitarian crisis. To be clear, the crisis in long-term care existed before COVID-19, but COVID-19 has laid bare the crisis in a devastating way.
To compound this crisis, we have even worse news: delays in receiving vaccines, which are a part of the solution to protect those who are most vulnerable, including our seniors in long-term care. We see surging numbers around the country and variants that are even more likely to spread and even more contagious. Every day the vaccine is delayed, every day the rollout is delayed, more Canadians die. One physician, Dr. Dosani, noted there is one senior dying every hour in Canada. That is a staggering number.
Given how serious this is, it is clear the Liberal government's plan for procurement and rollout has been inadequate to meet the severity of the crisis. The rollout has been too slow and has not procured enough doses, and people are hurting as a result.
We know additional measures need to be taken in addition to procuring and delivering the vaccine, but I should make very clear that it is not enough to just procure the vaccine. Seniors who are vulnerable are safer only if they are actually vaccinated. We need to get the vaccines into people's arms.
In addition to the problems around procuring and delivering the vaccine, which is one major part of the solution, we also have to identify some of the key problems. One of the biggest problems right now in the COVID-19 pandemic, and the reason we need vaccines so badly, is the crisis in long-term care, specifically the crisis in for-profit long-term care. A recent report indicates that for-profit long-term care residences in Ontario have 78% more COVID-19 deaths than non-profit residences. The evidence is overwhelmingly clear that for-profit long-term care means more infection and more deaths among residents.
One of the points we laid out at the beginning, months ago, is that Canada lacked a clear plan, the Liberal government lacked a clear plan, and the outcome would be that we would not meet our goals. When we contrast that with other countries, we see there was a very clear plan in Australia, in the United Kingdom and even in America. They had a clear plan for procurement and delivery, and they are doing better than we are.
The Liberal government has certainly failed in having a plan that gets us to our goal. It is not enough to say there is a goal to vaccinate a certain number of people by a certain date unless there is a plan, a road map, to achieve that result.
What do we need right now? We need a clear plan with deadlines, timelines and specific details about vaccine procurement and delivery. We want the Liberal government to be clear and transparent with Canadians about when we will receive vaccines, who will get vaccinated and how quickly that will happen. We need details month by month. We need to know the plan for the next 100 days, and we specifically need to know the plan for the most vulnerable Canadians.
Today we are talking about vaccination and vaccines in general. This is an emergency debate because we are in a state of emergency. To date, COVID-19 has taken 19,000 lives in Canada. That is not just a number. Those 19,000 people were our loved ones, our seniors, our front-line workers. Families are mourning the loss of their loved ones.
Over 200 doctors and health experts in Ontario have called the long-term care situation a humanitarian crisis. Canadians are extremely concerned about the impact of the Pfizer vaccine delays on Canada's vaccination schedule. This interruption will further delay the vaccination of Canada's highest-risk populations even as the incidence of COVID-19 is rising and very contagious variants of the vaccine are spreading across the country.
Each day's delay in rolling out the COVID-19 vaccination plan will result in avoidable infections and deaths. When the Liberals announced that Canada would finally be getting the vaccine, people were relieved that this horror story would be coming to an end. Unfortunately, the Liberals are not deploying the vaccine fast enough. Canada seems to have fallen well behind other countries. As Canadians are being forced to wait, people are dying.
The number of cases in long-term care homes is rising, and families are losing their loved ones. A recent report revealed 79% more COVID-19 deaths at for-profit long-term care homes in Ontario than at not-for-profit homes. People are making huge sacrifices to keep their communities safe because they know that every day counts during this pandemic.
Other countries have implemented clear and concrete plans, and Canada's lack of such a plan has created this crisis and this situation. We call on the government to present a clear and detailed plan. When are we going to get the vaccine? Who will be vaccinated? What are the details for planning purposes? What is Canada's plan for the next 100 days?
This is essential. We know there are problems. We must act now. We can save lives, but we need a concrete plan to do so.