Madam Speaker, to be candid, these are very challenging times for all Canadians. Almost every province, including my own, is currently undergoing various types of lockdowns and trying to implement various types of interprovincial travel restrictions. We see more “for lease” signs going up in our downtown cores as many small businesses can no longer hang on. People are frustrated. They are upset. People are not united. We have some calling for total lockdowns and others protesting openly in defiance.
I am sure we all receive a diverse range of comments from our own constituents. If there is any one thing that we can all agree upon, it is that unless we can get more Canadians vaccinated, the situation will only get worse, not better.
We have heard many premiers tell us that they are losing the battle against the variants, that they simply do not have enough vaccine to go around. At the other end of the spectrum, we have a Prime Minister telling us all what an awesome job he has done to respond to this pandemic. Just ask him. We have a public safety minister trying to downplay his failure to properly secure our borders as contaminated flights continue to land at our airports. We have a health minister who actually tried to tell us at the beginning of this pandemic that travel restrictions would cause more harm than good. I mean seriously, we all know she said that to Canadians.
Now the greatest threat that faces Canadians right now is the variants of this virus, variants that came here because we did not have travel restrictions that actually worked because our public safety minister did not do his job to secure our airports. That is how these variants got here, by the inaction of ministers of the Crown from the Liberal government. People are dying today because of this incompetence.
To be clear, that is not the fault of the government caucus. There are good and capable people on the government's side of the House. The problem remains that they continue to sit on the backbench, while the underachievers continue to sit at the cabinet table. Why this particular Prime Minister is so rewarding of those who have failed to deliver the results that Canadians need and deserve is a question that remains unanswered, but here we are, in desperate need of more vaccines. This is the Prime Minister who decided that his first response to this vaccine crisis would be to hammer out a deal with CanSino Biologics out of China. We all know how that turned out. When that deal fell apart, let us not forget that the Prime Minister hid that from Canadians for almost three months. We are literally three months behind today.
The notion that Canadians might have to give up a summer because of the Prime Minister's incompetence and negligence is not acceptable to me. It should not be acceptable to any member of this place. This is a prime minister who told us that better was always possible. That is what this motion is about today. It is to say enough is enough. It is time for the Prime Minister to deliver.
I just want to interrupt the proceeding for one second to let the House know that I will be followed by a much better MP. The MP for Edmonton Centre will, I am sure, act as the chaser.
Earlier this week, Blacklock’s Reporter reported that 8.8 million pieces of PPE were thrown away by the Liberal government before the pandemic began and were not replaced. What is worse is that for a year this information was withheld. Canadians did not know that the Liberal government had done that because it had hidden it under national security. Unbelievable; national security. That is unacceptable. The list of failures is a long one.
We are now in a situation where we are only giving a single dose of vaccine and not a second dose of vaccine within the manufacturers' scientifically proven time frame because we lack supply. Literally, it is the lack of vaccine supply driving our response.
We have no idea how dragging out the second dose will impact the overall effectiveness of these vaccines, but because the Prime Minister failed to secure enough supply, we are forced into this situation. It is unacceptable. The Prime Minister likes to say that everyone who wants a shot will have a shot by the end of September, but that is just not acceptable.
The Prime Minister is the one who promised better is always possible. Ultimately, that is what this motion is all about. We are telling the Prime Minister that he does need to do better. Canadians' mental health, our economic health and our physical health all depend on the Prime Minister delivering more vaccines and every day of delay means more Canadians will die of COVID-19. It means more ICUs can be overwhelmed. It means more stress and demands on our health care professionals and hospitals.
I have said a number of times today that B.C. has more people in hospital due to COVID-19 today than it has throughout this crisis. Why? It is because the Prime Minister and the budget were totally silent on health care transfers at a time when our hospitals, health care system and frontline workers need the most support. Why is that? It is because there were no photo ops. At a time of our greatest need during a pandemic, the Prime Minister thinks the status quo for health care funding will do. It just will not. We are in a time when we need leadership from our Prime Minister like never before. We need “better is always possible” to become a reality and not just another broken promise. That is all this motion is asking the Prime Minister to do.
For those who say there is nothing more the Prime Minister can do, I disagree. Many Canadians right now hold dual citizenship. They can cross the border into the United States where they can immediately receive a vaccine. This not only helps them, but it means there are more vaccines to go around for Canadians who are not dual citizens. However, the problem, of course, is they cannot easily get back into Canada because there is no easy way for them to get back home. They have to wait around in the United States for a few days waiting for test results. That creates prohibitive costs for them and exposes them to more situations. Where there could be a common-sense solution, there is none.
Two provinces have made arrangements so that their truckers can get vaccinated in the United States. There is no federal leadership on that idea. We have situations where many border states have excess capacity, but again the Prime Minister has been silent on it. We also know there is a situation where Canadians have received both shots while in the United States. They are wondering when the Prime Minister will give them an easier path in coming home. Once again, the Prime Minister is silent on that. Virtually every question that arises on how we move forward is ignored by the Prime Minister. There is no plan whatsoever. Again, this is not good enough. We see the United States and the European Union figuring out plans going forward. Once again, there is silence from the Prime Minister.
This is why I first pointed out in my speech that Canadians are growing increasingly frustrated. The bottom line is Canadians deserve to see better from their Prime Minister. They deserve better. This motion asks that we do our part, as Canadians' democratically elected representatives, to send a message to the Prime Minister that he needs to deliver for Canadians, that he needs to up his game and that he needs to provide leadership that produces real results.
I will be voting in favour of this motion and ask that other members do so as well. As Canadians, we must always believe that better is truly possible. Let us vote for this motion and work to make it so.