Debates of Nov. 14th, 2022

Health

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, Canadian children are in pain and there is no medication available. Mark Parrish, the president of a drug distribution association that represents 19 countries, says that Canada is the only country that has a shortage of essential drugs. Parents are even having to go to the United States to buy these drugs, because although we do not have them here in Canada, they are abundant south of the border.

Why is it that children in other countries have these drugs, but Canadian children do not?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I think we can thank our colleague for asking that question and addressing the stress that families and children are under.

There are two pieces of good news. The first is that Canadian production of these drugs has increased substantially in the last few weeks. The second is that just a few hours ago, we were able to announce an agreement with a company to provide Canadians with several months' worth of additional pain medication for children.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, it does not answer the question.

I will quote from the Wall Street Journal, which had an article about Canada's shortage of children's medication. Mark Parrish, president of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers, a trade association with members from 19 countries, says that no other country is experiencing similar shortages as Canada is.

That forces our parents to drive south of the border and buy the medications in the United States, where they are abundant and in supply, and bring them back here. Many people are actually hawking them with a profit back in our country.

Again, why are these medications available abroad but not here at home?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to repeat the answer in English this time.

The question is right. The stress that families and children are going through is real. That is why we were pleased with the collaboration with other producers and partners in the last few weeks to see a substantial increase in production, home production, of analgesics for children. More important, just a few hours ago, we announced an important importation of a few months additional supply of analgesics for children, which will make a big difference in the ability for children to be cared for in Canada.

The Economy

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Governor of the Bank of Canada has said that inflation here is domestically generated, not imported from the rest of the world. He agrees with our friend and the future leader of the Liberal Party, Mark Carney, who says that inflation is coming from Canada. However, interestingly, the governor says that the solution is to cap wages and cut jobs. He says that the only way to stop inflation is to drive up unemployment.

Does the government agree that it needs to kill jobs to fight the inflation that it has caused?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, what our government believes in is an economic approach that is both compassionate and fiscally responsible. In fact, here is what the Globe and Mail, which as a rule does not agree with our government's policies, had to say about the fall economic statement. It said, “It is, broadly speaking, the right approach” and that Canada has “the slimmest government shortfall in the G7. In inflation-fighting terms, that has Liberal fiscal policy looking pretty good, especially graded on a curve.”

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, what is not looking pretty good is the cost of diesel. In New Brunswick, it is over three dollars a litre. Diesel is not a luxury; it is a necessity when one lives in the country and drives a big truck. It is a necessity for the truckers to bring us our goods to our grocery stores. No wonder we have 11% food price inflation. and home heating bills are not looking any better. They are going to double this winter and families in oil-heated communities will have to spend thousands of dollars. Cutting their subscription to Disney will save them $13, which is not enough to pay the bill, but what would help is that Liberals cancelled the plan to triple the tax. Will they?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, every single member of Parliament who sits in the House is privileged. We all earn good salaries and we have hard-working staffers who support us well.

I absolutely recognize how privileged my family and I are, and that is why in the fall economic statement tabled earlier this month, we focused our government's finite resources on helping the Canadians who need it the most. We did that by doubling the GST credit, providing a $500 top-up to Canadians struggling to pay the rent and providing dental care for Canadian kids.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, if she really wanted to empathize with low-income people who are struggling, then she and her NDP coalition partners would cancel their plan to triple the carbon tax. They want to do it at a time when home heating bills are expected to double, costing thousands of dollars for families in oil-heated communities, and when the diesel price is over $3 a litre.

Canadians cannot afford it, nor can they afford to spend $6,000 on the Prime Minister's hotel rooms, nor do they need lectures about cancelling Disney+. Will they cancel the carbon tax instead?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, I come from a region of the country that has recently seen the most severe weather event over the course of my entire life, but what really upsets me is that we know there is more to come. We know that, since the time I was born until the turn of the century, the average insured losses in this country were between $250 million and $450 million a year for severe weather. Now it is almost $2 billion annually. A few years—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I would like everybody to please pay attention to their whips.

The hon. Minister of Immigration.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I have a better solution than people listening to their whips. Turn the microphones on in the background so we can hear members on that side denying that climate change is a real threat to Canadian communities.

The reality is that the cost of inaction is too great to ignore. We are dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars, probably billions of dollars, of losses from events that have torn down silos, destroyed wharves and caused untold damage to property, including in my community. The plan to put a price on pollution is actually going to give more money back to families who live in our communities.

If the opposition, for the third time in a row, wants to camp out on a commitment to take money from families, they can triple down on a strategy that will keep them in opposition for a long time.

Health

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it seems as though health care funding is futile. That is what the Minister of Health said.

He considers it futile to ask the federal government to increase health transfers because, apparently, Quebec and the provinces are rolling in money. They supposedly have so much money and things are going so well in hospitals that it is futile to ask the federal government to contribute its fair share.

Has the Minister of Health spoken to emergency room doctors in Quebec about their futile situation? Has he told the nurses who are doing mandatory overtime that it is futile to provide adequate funding for health care?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for pointing out the useful battle that we need to be waging, the battle for our health care workers, who are suffering, who are sick and who left the profession in droves in Quebec and other parts of the country. They need our help to be able to take care of those who are seriously ill right now and who did not have the surgeries and diagnoses they should have over the past few months.

Let us talk about that useful battle because that is what is important for workers and patients across the country.

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, that is a futile answer.

The government members like to lecture us, but they cannot even print passports, manage the borders or process immigration files. What is more, La Presse reported on Saturday that they are not even capable of sending seniors their old age pension cheques. I could not make this stuff up. Last year alone, 70,000 new retirees had to wait months to get their pension.

Who would want these sanctimonious people to decide anything to do with health for seniors, or anyone else, when they cannot even figure out how to send them their cheque?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, I find the Bloc Québécois's questions interesting because the Bloc Québécois just came out of its party convention 48 hours ago. They just got together for a party.

The main conclusion of the Bloc Québécois's convention is that they must use every forum and every opportunity to try to convince Quebeckers of the need to form a country. That is their priority.

When the Bloc Québécois tells us that they listen to Quebeckers, it would be nice if they actually did it for once.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, across the country, the number of children in emergency rooms is on the rise. Everywhere we look, hospitals are out of beds for children and winter is not even here yet. Parents are distraught at the idea of their children getting sick and not being able to get any care.

Instead of squabbling, when are the Liberals going to take the situation seriously and take action to protect our children?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, obviously we are very grateful to the member for that question.

Indeed, our children, our seniors and our families are having a difficult time. Respiratory viruses are spreading at a startling rate. COVID-19 is not over yet. Approximately 10% of hospital beds are filled with people who have COVID-19 and, on top of that, there is the respiratory syncytial virus and the flu, which is going to be very severe this year.

We have an obligation and a responsibility to take care of each other, and we do that by getting vaccinated and implementing public health measures.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Mr. Speaker, parents do not want to hear excuses; they want to know their kids will be taken care of when they get sick.

Across Canada there are shortages of children's Tylenol and Advil, and now hospitals are dealing with a lack of pediatric antibiotics. It is a scary time to be a parent, and there are things the government can do now.

Instead of giving vague promises and pointing fingers, the Liberals must ensure our kids get the medicine they need. Parents are desperate for help. Where is the plan to care for our children?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, families and children are indeed living through stressful times, and that is why we were pleased to announce just a few hours ago that there will be a special importation of additional analgesics, the equivalent of several months' of normal supply, in addition to the increased domestic production of these analgesics, so that children and their families can have access to those drugs in a very short time. We will keep working on longer term solutions to these shortages.

Taxation

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Mr. Speaker, temperatures are dropping across Canada, and Canadians are needing to heat their homes. Home heating prices are doubling this winter, and Liberals will add to the pain by increasing the carbon tax. The finance minister's advice to families, though, is to cancel Disney+. That $14.99 a month will not do anything for the one in five Canadians skipping meals. The minister is out of touch, and Canadians are out of money.

Why will the Liberals not give Canadians actual relief and cancel their plans to triple taxes on gas, home heating and groceries?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, let us talk about some really terrible advice that was offered to Canadians in the spring by the Conservative leader. He urged Canadians to invest in crypto as a way to opt out of inflation. Now, Bitcoin has crashed by 21% over the past week and by more than 65% since the Conservative leader first gave Canadians that reckless advice. The Conservatives should apologize today for this reckless policy and admit that investing in crypto would have bankrupted Canadians.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Mr. Speaker, what a delusional response from the minister of Netflix. Maybe, instead of advising Canadians to cancel their $14.99 Disney+ subscriptions, the minister could do the right thing and cancel the government's greed.

Their government told us the whole point of the carbon tax was to lower emissions. They have spent over $100 billion since 2015 on the environment, and despite what the Prime Minister says, emissions are up and Canadians are out of money. Why will the Liberals not give Canadians some relief and cancel their inflation tax?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, what should be cancelled is the reckless advice that the Conservatives offered to Canadians, for which they have never apologized, which was to invest in crypto. If a Canadian had invested $10,000 in crypto when the Conservative leader told them it was a good idea, today they would have less than three and a half thousands dollars. If they had invested in a crypto exchange platform, they would be totally wiped out. What should happen is that the Conservatives should apologize and withdraw that reckless advice.