Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Montcalm.
As I rise to speak to this motion, which calls for national standards and the nationalization of long-term care homes, or CHSLDs, as we know them, I feel a sense of exasperation. As everyone might expect, we vehemently oppose the motion because it proposes outright interference in an area under the jurisdiction of Quebec and the provinces, which want nothing to do with federal standards.
It is up to Quebeckers to choose the care model they want, be that public or private. The COVID-19 pandemic did expose the weaknesses in our long-term care homes, but Quebec is perfectly capable of improving its own system without handing over the reins.
A public investigation by the coroner's office and an investigation by the ombudsperson are under way. Quebec does not need federal standards to improve the situation, nor does it need Ottawa to tell it how to solve its problems.
I will focus on three points. I will explain our position as it aligns with that of Quebec and a number of seniors' organizations in Quebec.
At the beginning of the pandemic, it is true that Quebec made the decision to transfer patients to long-term care facilities, or CHSLDs, to free up hospital beds, believing that the entire hospital system would be overwhelmed by the pandemic. We also recognize that COVID-19 mainly affects seniors. This, combined with ongoing deficiencies in our CHSLD system, including a lack of staff, poor administration, and the movement of staff between care centres, has led to the devastation that we are seeing today, with just under half of the 10,087 COVID-19-related deaths in Quebec having occurred in long-term care homes.
Let us not forget that last May, negotiations between Premier Legault and the Liberal government were particularly tense because the federal government refused to extend the military assistance in Quebec. The federal government then used Quebec's need for military assistance to announce its intention to impose Canadian standards in CHSLDs in the throne speech. This was a way for the federal government to impose its requirements when faced with the provinces joining forces and calling for a 35% increase in health care transfers.
Since then, the federal government brought up this idea again in last fall's economic update and at the 20th first ministers' conference, with the support of the NDP, of course. In all likelihood, the federal standards will be based on the guidelines for long-term care facilities that were issued by Health Canada in April 2020 and updated on February 26, 2021. This document sets out the procedures to be followed in long-term care facilities to combat COVID-19.
I want to point out that Quebec is already debating the nationalization of its long-term care facilities, with the debate being led by Premier Legault and his minister responsible for seniors and caregivers, Marguerite Blais. Let us allow them to discuss and debate that.
The Bloc Québécois wants to reiterate that health falls under the exclusive jurisdiction of Quebec and the provinces. Sections 91 and 92 of the Constitution Act, 1867, set out how jurisdictions are shared between the federal government and Quebec and the provinces. It is clear.
Health is the exclusive jurisdiction of Quebec, except when it comes to the health of indigenous peoples, military hospitals, Health Canada drug certification and quarantine. The federal government has failed when it comes to indigenous health, vaccine nationalism and quarantines.
The Liberal Party of Canada and the NDP are always trying to interfere in the jurisdictions of Quebec and the provinces, especially in the area of health care, because it is close to the people and therefore seems like the right thing to do. However, federalism, which they champion, requires each level of government to respect its exclusive jurisdictions. Both parties are giving in to the temptation to get out of this crisis any way they can, including centralization and austerity through cuts, and this is obviously a direct affront to Quebec and the provinces. I will have a bit more to say on that later, when I talk about health transfers.
Federalists sometimes argue that health transfers must have conditions attached; otherwise, provinces take advantage of them to lower taxes rather than provide better services to their people.
Our response to that argument is that it is not the federal government's job to lecture the provincial and Quebec governments. This paternalism must stop. In a democracy, it is up to voters to sanction their government. A unanimous motion adopted by the Quebec National Assembly condemned the pan-Canadian standards for long-term care and demanded an increase in transfers.
On December 2, Marguerite Blais, the minister responsible for seniors and informal caregivers, moved a motion to condemn the Liberals' desire to impose these Canadian standards:
That the National Assembly reject the Government of Canada's desire to impose Canadian standards in Québec CHSLDs and long-term care facilities for the elderly, as this falls under exclusive Québec jurisdiction;
That it express its disappointment that the federal government did not include an increase in health transfer payments in its last economic update, while the provinces must cover significant health spending costs in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic;
That it call on the federal government to commit to not imposing Canadian standards in Québec CHSLDs and long-term care facilities for the elderly and to increasing health transfer payments to the tune of 35% of healthcare network costs.
The Bloc Québécois obviously supports the unanimous opinion of the Quebec National Assembly and denounces the centralizing vision espoused by the NDP and the Liberals.
Quebec already has standards. Long-term care homes are regulated by Quebec's Act Respecting Health Services and Social Services. Furthermore, I remind members that the majority of long-term care homes in Quebec, 86% of them, are publicly run, while the Canadian average is 46%.
Let me be clear: The provinces and Quebec have the expertise and experience to manage long-term care homes. The federal government does not. The provinces and Quebec are also the ones paying for the vast majority of these services. In 2014, the Canadian Institute for Health Information estimated that 73% of long-term care home costs in Canada were covered by provincial, territorial and municipal plans and agencies, whereas 23% of costs were covered by residents or through their private insurance.
All long-term care homes must meet certain safety and quality of care standards to receive a permit to operate. They need to renew that permit every four or five years, depending on what category they belong to, by once again demonstrating that they meet the minimum standards. The government even conducts occasional site visits to verify the quality of the services provided. Every long-term care home also needs to set up a users' committee that is responsible for informing residents of their rights, defending their interests and trying to improve the quality of services. I saw this myself when I was managing a project to increase awareness of elder abuse.
Given the situation, the Government of Quebec has already announced that it wants to standardize the regulations governing long-term care homes and staff working conditions. This is clearly not a federal responsibility, since the federal government has neither the experience nor the expertise required to set standards for long-term care facilities in the place of the provinces and Quebec. Instead, the federal government should focus on doing what is expected of it properly and live up to its responsibilities. My colleague from Salaberry—Suroît, who was a manager in the health care system, could also talk about that. The Premier of Quebec even said that it was a mistake for the Liberal government to propose centralizing measures in an area of provincial jurisdiction like health.
Last spring's report from the Canadian Armed Forces on their experience in Quebec long-term care homes was clear: There are already plenty of standards and rules governing PPE usage and infection control and prevention. Those rules were not enough to stop the virus, though, because long-term care homes had a hard time complying with the standards and rules. The reason for that was clearly a staff shortage. According to the report, long-term care homes are in dire need of medically trained staff.
If the federal government really wants to help the provinces and Quebec get through the pandemic and provide better care to our seniors, it should stop being so paternalistic. It should forget about imposing national standards that are not a good fit for a range of social and institutional contexts. Instead, it should increase health transfers, which would enable Quebec and the provinces to attract and retain more health care workers.
For my third point, let us look at where other seniors' organizations in Quebec stand on this. Representatives from the FADOQ network, the Quebec seniors' federation, reiterated to the Standing Committee on the Status of Women what they have long been saying in their pre-budget briefs to the finance committee: Quebec does not need standards, it needs financial resources to be able to take care of people.
It all boils down to health care funding. Health transfers have been slashed by successive Liberal and Conservative governments since the 1990s. Countless other organizations in Quebec agree, including the Association féminine d'éducation et d'action sociale, which advocates for women's rights and recognizes that underfunding has a direct impact on health care. Even Daniel Béland, the director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, felt that the idea of imposing national standards was just a way to make the Prime Minister look good. Some people might see it as a good idea.
However, the provinces and Quebec should really be in charge of this, and they need more money. The solution is simple: increase federal health transfers. The government's refusal to provide ongoing funding for health care is not unrelated to the difficulties that the provinces and Quebec are having in providing proper care for their residents.
It is inconceivable that health care professionals have had to prop up our health care system over the past year as we have combatted this pandemic. In the meantime, the federal government has stubbornly continued to tell us that it will wait until after the crisis to increase funding, even though increasing funding is the most obvious way to permanently overcome this crisis and to predict, plan for and respond to the next one.
The Canadian government needs to realize that Quebec and the provinces are not making a frivolous request. This funding is required immediately so that Canadians and Quebeckers can receive the care they deserve and so that seniors can be treated with the respect they are owed for their contributions to our society.
Madam—