Mr. Speaker, when we talk about seniors, we are talking about the segment of the population that has been hardest hit by the pandemic. Seniors were more likely to get seriously ill from COVID‑19, more likely to die and most affected by isolation.
Canada and Quebec have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, and Quebeckers and Canadians have been among the most compliant with health guidelines. Despite all of that, we are one of the last countries to ease restrictions, in large part because our health care system is so weak.
The Bloc Québécois has long been calling for an increase in health transfers. We saw this coming. The federal government has been underfunding provincial health care systems for years, and now these systems need fixing. If the government had done so a few years ago, we would no doubt already be out of lockdown. We would probably already be freer, and what is going on in Ottawa right now might never have happened.
Does my colleague agree that the government could have better funded provincial health care systems and that it must do so now to prevent other tragedies like what we have been going through recently?