Madam Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I join the debate on behalf of my constituents in Regina—Lewvan. The topic of the debate, however, is not something that I am happy we have to be talking about once again. The government has continued to fail Canadians month after month when it comes to procuring the vaccines we need to get back to our normal lives.
I am going to give a few examples in this presentation of what the people of Regina—Lewvan have been saying and what they are requesting not only of our office but of the federal government. I will go through the motion because I know my friend, the member for Kingston and the Islands, will be watching this speech very closely to make sure I stay on topic and talk to the motion during this 10-minute presentation. Then I will tell some stories about why we need to have the vaccination rollout go more smoothly and efficiently, because it is very much affecting people in their day-to-day lives. This is something we need to get right, not only for ourselves, but for our kids and for our grandparents so that we can get back to the lives that we know and love pre-pandemic.
The reason I am happy to speak on behalf of the constituents of Regina—Lewvan is quite factual: 2.7% of Canadians are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but that is simply not good enough. The federal government did not deliver an adequate vaccine supply in January and February of this year. Once again, based on the evidence we see and what we have put forward is the Liberals have failed to secure those vaccines in the early part of the pandemic. They made a deal with CanSino that fell through, so it put us on our back step when trying to make deals with other vaccine manufacturing companies. There is no debate about that. That is exactly what happened and why we are in the situation that we are in today.
The government extended the recommended interval for the second vaccine dose to four months against the recommendation of vaccine manufacturers. Once again, and I will be happy to have the debate, this has happened. We have extended the interval and the second dose of vaccines are going to be delivered to Canadians against manufacturers' directions. I know it is because they are trying to get more vaccines in the arms of Canadians, but it goes back to point 2, in needing to extend this recommendation for the second dose by months because we failed to secure enough vaccines in the early part of this pandemic.
Canadians are facing increased restrictions and lockdowns in multiple provinces from British Columbia to Nova Scotia. Once again, in my home province of Saskatchewan, we are seeing more lockdown restrictions in Regina and across the province. This is true. We are facing more lockdowns and we are facing these lockdowns because the Liberals failed Canadians and failed to make good deals to make sure we had enough vaccines in the early part of this pandemic.
The crux of the argument why the member for Kingston and the Islands and the member for Winnipeg North are doing backflips trying to turn themselves into pretzels trying to make the point of the argument is: “the House call on the government to ensure that every Canadian adult has access to a vaccine by the May long weekend.” This is something that has been changing by the hour. I do not know if people are aware, but the Government of Ontario has said that every Ontarian, age 18-plus, should be eligible for the vaccine by the end of May, a week off the target here in the opposition day motion, but hey, reasonable. It is incumbent on us to show leadership and set targets.
Also, we have looked at the Government of Quebec and it says eligible 18- to 24-year-olds should be able to receive vaccines by May 14. Once again, that is a little ahead of our schedule. Two of the largest provinces in Confederation have set targets where age 18-plus Canadians, Ontarians and Quebeckers, should be eligible to get their vaccine before the month of May is over. That is a reasonable time frame and it actually goes to the opposition day motion.
The members from the Liberal side can try to twist themselves in pretzels and say this is not a realistic goal, but this afternoon the provincial governments have looked at these targets and tried to make sure that we can reach these targets. I am excited to say that is an excellent show of leadership from the provincial governments. There is a lack of leadership from the federal government and from the Liberal backbenches.
This vaccine rollout comes down to allowing people to get back to their normal lives. I will talk about some of the things my constituents have been going through. Members on the Liberal side have said this is all about politics. It is not. It is about the lives of the people we represent.
This is about the wife who has a critical doctor's appointment about her cancer treatments and the hospital saying her husband cannot go with her. That is what this is causing. People are going through life-changing events and they have to go on their own. These are my constituents' lives. It is about a friend's neighbour having chronic back issues who needs a CT scan to see what is going on, there is no appointment available for him to get the CT scan and is told the best that can be done is to give him morphine. In Canada, in this day and age, that answer is not good enough. These delays in the health care system are being caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which have been exacerbated by the Liberals' failure to have an efficient vaccine rollout.
I read an interesting article that talked about the way some of my constituents are feeling and it really hit home. It is an article by Samantha Pope in the National Post on April 23, 2021. The title is “Not depressed, but not flourishing: How 'languishing' became the dominant feeling of 2021”. It explains so well how many constituents in Regina—Lewvan are feeling. It states:
“Though we may not feel burnt out or hopeless, we sure don’t feel like we’re flourishing,” said Dr. Corey Keyes, the sociologist who coined the term “languishing” in 2002. “It’s the middle ground between being mentally healthy and mentally ill,” he told the National Post. “It’s not depression, but it’s the absence and insufficiency of feeling good and functioning well.”
That sums up so much of how people in Saskatchewan and Canada are feeling. It is the middle ground between being mentally ill and mentally healthy and not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It has been going on now for 14 months. Our families, friends and neighbours are not sure what is going to happen next. They are not sure if they will have a normal summer or if their kids will be able to play soccer. Summer is the most beautiful time of year in Saskatchewan and is the best place in the world to go on camping trips with friends and family or to send kids to summer camp where they have not seen their friends for two years. That is what really we are talking about.
Conservatives are not playing politics or talking about how we trumped the Liberals by saying that in this motion we have set forward a plan for recovery. We are asking for a recognition that there have been mistakes made. The Prime Minister said he would not have done anything different. Quite frankly, that is unacceptable to Canadians. There have been mistakes made and a failure in the rollout of the vaccines in Canada.
People sent me pictures of 15,000 people in a stadium for a UFC fight in Jacksonville, Florida last weekend. People were watching the Blue Jays home opener in Texas with 40,000 people in the stadium. They said there were 15,000 people in a stadium in Florida and 40,000 people in a stadium in Texas, but they cannot have their parents over for supper in some parts of Canada. I do not think that is good enough for Canadians. They deserve better. They deserve an opportunity to succeed and right now many feel they do not have the opportunity to succeed.
Many business owners in Regina and Saskatchewan feel the same way. They feel that because of what is going on now with the vaccine rollout, they do not have an opportunity to succeed. They would rather see clients and customers coming through their doors than government cheques in their mailboxes. That is what I am hearing.
I will support and am proud to support this motion.