Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Windsor West.
This debate occurs at a critical time in our country. We have a serious third wave of COVID-19 raging across our nation. We are seeing transmission rates higher than at any time since the pandemic began. We have variants of concern that are now the dominant virus in many areas with greater contagion capacity and virulence. From Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, B.C. and the north, no area of the country is untouched. This is clearly not a purely provincial problem, it is a national one, and Canadians are exhausted. They are anxious, they are isolated and they are hurt physically, emotionally and financially.
It is time to state the obvious. Things are not going as well as they could and should. We must do better. Canadians do not want excuses, they do not want spin, they do not want finger pointing and they do not want partisan politics trumping Canadians' health. They do want action, effective, science-based and coordinated. We must have an understanding of why we are in this predicament to help determine the best path forward because there is nothing to say that we will not face a fourth wave if we do not effectively analyze how we got here and improve our responses wherever possible.
The causes of the third wave are multi-faceted. They include the following. There was poor PHAC preparation. The Auditor General released a report a few weeks ago that is a disturbing and objective indictment of a federal government that was unprepared for an emergency. There were repeated warnings to get ready for an emergency that were ignored for years. There were long-standing problems that remained unaddressed. We have decades of poor pharmaceutical policy by both Liberal and Conservative governments that have left Canadians vulnerable to multinational drug companies and foreign governments. The Prime Minister admitted as much when he was forced to acknowledge that countries that produce vaccines would give preferential access to their own citizens. That is the reality today.
We have an inadequate vaccine supply. PHAC confirmed yesterday that we are only able to utilize half of our provincial capacity to administer vaccines because of a lack of supply. That is 1.8 million doses per week versus a capacity to administer 3.1 million doses per week. The truth is that this has caused governments at all levels to be forced to ration vaccine doses and even violate the label instructions of vaccines against the explicit instructions of the manufacturers.
We have seen weak and incremental border controls by the federal government. This cannot but have helped introduce and spread the variants of concern. We were late to close borders. In fact, the current health minister said that doing so would be harmful. The border was then closed to certain countries, but left open to the U.S., which was raging with COVID at the time. Most SARS-CoV-2 viruses in British Columbia came from Washington state, not India. Perversely, Liberals designed a hotel quarantine policy that applies only to travellers arriving by air, not by land. As we speak, there are travellers using this loophole by flying to the U.S. border and then coming across by vehicle or on foot. To this day, we are still allowing international flights from hot spots.
A federal government that has relegated most duties onto the provinces, saying all it is responsible for is procuring vaccines and dispensing advice, is not good enough. It is refusing to use tools it has and is content to watch as provinces struggle instead of jumping in and helping with supplementary resources like other national leaders of federated states are doing, including U.S. President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
We have federal and certain provincial governments that are too slow to take decisive action, that put short-term economic interests above prudent public health measures, regularly communicate confusing messages and choose secrecy and self-interest over transparency and accountability, which are vital to maintain public confidence in an age of rumour and inaccurate information.
We must learn these lessons, but we also must apply positive proposals about what we can and need to do. Here are some.
First, we need to put public health first and adopt a zero COVID policy. If this means a hard and sharp shutdown of the economy to get us to sustained recovery, let us do it.
Second, we need to get control of our borders. Evidence is now crystal clear that countries and jurisdictions that did so drove transmission rates down and reduced the introduction of variants of concern.
Third, we immediately must get started on building our domestic vaccine manufacturing with a wartime approach through a Crown corporation. That is the only way we can truly ensure that Canadians will have access to essential medicines in a time of global shortage. The U.K. did it and we can, too.
Fourth, it is time to invoke the Emergencies Act. This is the exact legislation that was drafted precisely for a situation like we are seeing today. I am going to spend the remainder of my time on this vital component.
Frankly, I am shocked at the misunderstanding and confusion around this legislation, often spread by the current government. It is not the War Measures Act; in fact, it replaced the War Measures Act in 1988. The War Measures Act has not existed in the country for 33 years. It does not even contain the word “war”.
The Emergencies Act was drafted with two very different goals. It replaced the scope of the act from war and insurrection to a much different one, including, strangely enough, the outbreak of disease in humans. It was drafted to cure the abuse of civil liberties that was the hallmark of the War Measures Act. It is Canada's central legislation intended to be invoked in a time of national emergency.
Let me read the definition of “national emergency” in the act and then members should ask themselves whether this is not the exact situation we find ourselves in today. It states:
...a national emergency is an urgent and critical situation of a temporary nature that...seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians and is of such proportions or nature as to exceed the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it....
Specifically, this act also defines a public welfare emergency. I will read this as well. It means that it is:
...an emergency that is caused by a real or imminent...disease in human beings...and that results or may result in a danger to life or property, social disruption or a breakdown in the flow of essential goods, services or resources...
This act gives the federal government specific powers that are limited to 90 days, targeted to a specific province or region and that have to be laid before both houses of Parliament for scrutiny and approval. It explicitly says that powers shall be exercised, “in a manner that will not unduly impair the ability of any province.” There is no constitutional clash here and the permission of the provinces is not required.
It gives the federal government specific powers that are desperately needed. Here are three: The first is the regulation or prohibition of travel to or from any specified area. This could help control interprovincial transmission, just like the Atlantic provinces so successfully did. It provides for the authorization or payment of emergency payments. This could provide for paid sick days. It allows for the establishment of emergency shelters and hospitals.
Up to now, we had to send in the armed forces to two provinces to help them with long-term care homes that were overwhelmed. Look at the province of Ontario today, where doctors are warning of overwhelmed ICUs, health care workers are exhausted, patients are being taken off ventilators if they do not have at least a 70% chance of survival, poor areas are not getting enough vaccines and workers are still being forced to go to work sick because they have no paid sick time. I think most Ontarians would agree that this pandemic has overwhelmed the capacity of the Doug Ford government to deal with it.
The Prime Minister today once again dismissed the Emergencies Act, this time by derisively referring to Tommy Douglas voting against the War Measures Act in 1970. The Minister of Health today said that it was not needed and that everything was under control. With respect, these answers are absurd. Tommy Douglas voted against a very different bill that was used to suspend people's civil liberties. We are calling for the use of a modern act to help save the lives of Canadians.
My question for Canadians this. Do things look like they are under control and that nothing more is needed by the national government? To ask these questions is to answer them.
The Prime Minister has said we need a team Canada approach. Team Canada needs a captain, and a good captain gets everyone working together, not just his own line mates. Therefore, let us now join and truly come together to implement the measures that I believe the vast majority of Canadians know we need and desperately want.