Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be able to speak to this motion, which is so important for the regions of Quebec and for the entire country. I would like to thank my colleague for her impressive speech on the importance of supporting airline industry workers and, especially, of making sure that travellers can finally get their money back.
The question we need to ask, and the question that all Canadians are asking, is the following: What are the government and companies doing for us?
This is our first pandemic. Most of us had never lived through something like this before. Our main concern, first and foremost, is our health and that of of our loved ones. Then, our priority is to ensure the safety of our loved ones and our ability to live our lives safely.
We are also concerned about how our families will be able to survive and keep bread on the table. We need a paycheque. It is very important that all Canadians be sure that they have the means to support their family.
It is also important that we be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel when we ask the government for help. We hope that the government will make the right decisions so that, after all this, we do not end up in a worse position than the one we are in now. What people are asking for is transparency on the part of the government and informed decisions to help protect as many people as possible with what we have, without going to extremes.
What Canadians are hoping, once we have dealt with the health and safety issues, is that we can focus on the economic recovery. After living in a difficult situation for so long, Canadians are wondering how they will get by in circumstances where, for many of us, the government has replaced income normally generated by entrepreneurship, work, self-employment, community assistance and fundraising. In short, what Canadians want is to get their lives back and not depend on the Canadian government for every decision.
Although the government set up numerous assistance programs, with the support of the opposition parties, because we could not let Canadians down at such a difficult time, some people still fell through the cracks. Perhaps it did not happen at the beginning of the pandemic, because they had some savings or because companies with more cash and fewer expenses managed to get by, but now we are entering an extremely trying period.
I have heard from hundreds of businesses in my riding that have managed to get this far but are now wondering how they will get through the next few months. Many businesses, sectors and Canadians are going to have a hard time weathering the coming months.
The Conservatives introduced a motion today to show that it is important to think about these workers and to include measures in the next federal budget to help the workers and families who will have the hardest time in the coming months. Some are already in trouble.
Incidentally, we learned this week that the Liberal government has unfortunately decided to postpone its budget. According to media reports, it will not be tabled in March or at the beginning of April. We will have been without a budget for two years.
That means that the measures we are asking to be implemented as soon as possible will be delayed, and unfortunately, there will be more victims. More businesses will suffer. Workers will lose their jobs because the government did not act in time to help them.
This is a huge problem, and it reflects how this government managed vaccine procurement for Canadians. As the Prime Minister keeps repeating, we have a massive portfolio of vaccines. However, we are at the back of the pack when it comes to vaccine administration and vaccination rates.
If the government had planned ahead, if it had anticipated what was coming, as many people did, and if it had not dismantled Canada's small pandemic alert unit, which was the envy of all other countries, it would have seen the pandemic coming and could have planned for vaccines.
Unfortunately, the government was not on the ball in terms of vaccine procurement.
Few contracts have been made public, but we know that the government failed to ensure an early supply of vaccines. That would have allowed Canadians to keep their jobs and Canadian businesses to reopen as soon as possible, so that Canadians who need a paycheque could get one.
Instead, the government decided to postpone the budget for purely political reasons, and to “open windows”, as we say in politics, in order to make Canadians as happy as possible and keep buying votes by handing out money. It is not by scattering cash willy-nilly that we will succeed, but by investing money in the right places, where it is needed. That is what the official opposition has been saying since the beginning of the pandemic.
Our motion focuses in particular on tourism, hospitality and charitable organizations. As I mentioned, in regions like mine, tourism involves hotels and tourist attractions, but also events such as festivals, celebrations, public markets and activities in every town. The entire sector has been overlooked by the various assistance programs.
Unfortunately, if these events do not survive the pandemic, the tourism industry in our regions will suffer for years to come. These organizations are holding on by their fingernails thanks to volunteers. It is important to keep the charitable organizations that organize dinners, activities and brunches to fund their activities in operation. These are not recreational activities, but activities that help other Canadians who are in even more dire straits.
Unfortunately, these organizations are having to close their doors because they simply do not have enough money to pay their employees and are no longer able to hold activities because of the health measures in place. It is a tragedy for Canadian society when charitable organizations can no longer operate because there are no assistance programs to help them get through difficult times.
I would now like to talk about paragraph b) of the opposition's motion concerning repayable loans for airlines. I received several letters from people in my riding who bought airline tickets before the pandemic and who were offered travel credits. Unfortunately, they cannot travel, and they should not be travelling, but they would like to see their money back. Their money is still in the hands of the airlines, because the government is unable to reach an agreement with them about how it can help. What we are saying is that the next budget must include repayable loans for airlines provided they reimburse Canadians who bought travel tickets and were unfortunately unable to travel. Today, the airline is still holding vast amounts of money which, for most Canadians, represent a year's worth of savings.
Lastly, it is important to have a rapid response solution. Small and medium-sized businesses need access to quick loans. We cannot let all of the small businesses that suffered all year and were excluded from the various assistance programs close their doors. Most workers in these companies are women. They work in restaurants, stores, small local retail businesses and other small businesses. It is important that we think about them. We must put in place simple and quick means of providing assistance.
For all of these reasons, I invite all members of parliament who care about the economic development of our regions to support the Conservative Party's motion.