Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Calgary Midnapore.
As I enter into the emergency debate related to the crisis that is taking place here in Alberta, I want to acknowledge that there are a number of friends of mine currently in the hospital. It appears that they are going to pull through, but it has been a challenging time for many Albertans and many, many Canadians. Certainly it drives home the seriousness of what we are discussing in this place. I also want to acknowledge the 24,000 or so Canadians who have passed away because of COVID and COVID-related complications. I was reading an article earlier today about the so-called “COVID long-haulers” and the challenges they have.
On the other side of that issue are the millions of Canadians who are facing significant impacts, as well as businesses. As I was getting groceries earlier today, a business owner came up to me asking if there was anything I could do to help him get support as his business fell through all the cracks, in terms of qualifying for support. It did not quite meet the income threshold on the months that were prescribed, but had zero income in certain other months. It speaks to the significant challenges that all Canadians have faced in the last year and a half.
When I learned that this debate would be taking place, I thought of a couple of main subjects that I want to touch on: one, the challenges that many Canadians are facing as this third wave has gripped Alberta and gripped our country, and to ensure that there is some context provided with some of the challenges that certainly my constituents are facing in Battle River—Crowfoot, and then to talk about some of the other challenges and the reason why we are here.
I found it very interesting listening to some of the Liberal members. The Prime Minister was asked a number of weeks ago whether there was anything he regretted. There have been a number of analogies used in this debate this evening, so I will use another one: When a sports team, be it someone's favourite hockey team or favourite football team, makes some mistakes, the people who take responsibility are the captain of the team and the coaches. They take responsibility for their mistakes and they commit to do better.
I heard for the first time a number of Liberal members admit their failures, because the captain of their team, the leader of this country, refuses to admit mistakes. Unfortunately, it is not surprising. I have been a long-time political observer and a member of Parliament for a year and a half. Seeing the Prime Minister's personality, it is unfortunately not surprising that he refuses to take responsibility for some of these clear failures.
Then we see the members opposite trying to pivot the blame. They say that Conservatives spread the misinformation. I have dozens of pages of clear examples, numerous examples of inconsistent messaging and changing direction. The fact is that even the member for Kingston and the Islands said very clearly that had we gotten more vaccines, we would not be having this debate. A number of the Liberal members opposite have said things like “Well, we only want to talk about vaccines.” Well, it seems like the Liberals only wanted to stop talking about vaccines when their failures on the procurement of those vaccines became widespread. Then, all of a sudden, Canadians were seeing the consequences of that, and we see that now. This truly is the Prime Minister's third wave.
I think back to the beginning of the pandemic, when I, among many other Conservatives, started asking questions about securing our borders. They were valid questions about what was happening with this virus, which we did not know very much about, and we started asking about measures being taken. I remember the public safety minister stood up and said that the government had put in enhanced border measures, yet I would talk to constituents who had just returned home who said that they did not see any border measures. I talked to some constituents who saw those border measures, and literally, and I wish this was a joke, the enhanced border measure was a check mark on the immigration form. As the old saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure”, and I think that is the reality we are facing, with tens of thousands of lives lost and other significant challenges that we face.
I say often that the government is all style and very little substance. Unfortunately, that has been the case throughout this pandemic, and I would suggest the last five and a half or so years as well, as has been highlighted through the many other failures and tragedies of what this Liberal government has done.
I was speaking to somebody who closely follows the National Research Council, and even some of the regulatory changes that the Liberals brought in right after they were elected actually put Canada further back in terms of being set up to succeed in the case of needing to see rapid investment in emerging health technologies, like vaccines. This was a number of years before the word “COVID-19” was even known to the world, and that really comes back to the issue of good governance.
The Liberals will say, “Well, it is easy to be an armchair quarterback and speak from hindsight.” This is what the Liberals like to talk about to try to pivot away from their failures. However, we see time and again with the current government that truly it has been a failure of good governance. We see things like ministerial responsibility, which, in some cases, appears to have been abandoned. The Liberals simply use it as a way to cover up their scandals but then do not provide the oversight. I have filed hundreds of ATIPs since getting elected, and some of the things I see and do not see are astounding.
I have a couple of minutes left here to talk about some of the things that my constituents have brought up over the last number of months, such as the border issue that the government brought in. Conservatives were critical of the border hotels, especially when the minister himself said that there was no evidence that would work. There could have been other measures that were more effective.
On mental health, we have seen the government support a Conservative motion for a 988 number, yet it has done virtually nothing since. It has made some announcements in terms of dollars in its yearly budget, which was released a couple of weeks ago. Again, it is promising dollars but no action.
A great example is the Service Canada office that is located down the street from my constituency office, where I am currently giving this speech. A sign was put on the door saying that it was closed, and there was a website on it. Hundreds of people sought help from my office, because constituents could not be served by the government. Again, on good governance there was a lack of responsibility.
As I have mentioned, we see businesses falling through the cracks. We see mixed messaging on vaccines. This has been a big challenge. I have had phone calls this week, and people are asking what to believe and who to believe.
There is certainly much more I could say, but it has been good to participate in this debate. Hopefully I highlighted some of the issues that my constituents have brought forward to me over the last number of weeks and months, and in the last year.