Debates of Feb. 8th, 2022

COVID-19 Protest

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this morning, the chair of the Quebec Liberal caucus proved us right. For months now, we have been asking for greater clarity, for science-based decisions and, most of all, for a unifying rather than a divisive approach.

Unfortunately, the Prime Minister has been doing the opposite for the past two years by demonizing everyone who disagrees with him. Will he finally admit that he is playing petty politics and just making things worse?

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Quebec City. He knows my colleague from Louis-Hébert, and he knows how much respect we have for his work in his riding and in and around Quebec City.

The member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles talked about unity. That is a great word, because Canadians are united in fighting this pandemic. If there is one thing that unites us, it is vaccination. That is why we have to keep it up. It works, and 99% of public servants are vaccinated, which means they are protecting themselves and their colleagues.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this morning, the member for Louis-Hébert and chair of the Quebec Liberal caucus made himself very clear. He asked his government to provide a roadmap, a game plan for where we are going with all this.

That is what we have been asking of the Prime Minister for the past two years, but there has been no response from him. The Prime Minister chose to politicize the pandemic that is dividing Canadians. He had no intention of listening to advice from opposition members or even his own MPs, as far as we can tell. Many Canadians agree with us on that.

Will he get the message at last? He needs to stop dividing us. As the member for Louis-Hébert said, he needs to show us a plan, a roadmap.

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

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Charlesbourg—Haute‑Saint‑Charles is right that we have had a plan for two years, since the start of the pandemic, and our plan is working to prevent deaths. With the measures we have put in place by listening to science, we have prevented nearly 50,000 deaths in Canada compared to what we have seen south of the border.

We have also saved a big part of our economy. With all due respect, if we had listened to the economic advice of the official opposition, we would be in an economic crisis right now, and unfortunately, it would be impossible to get the economy going again.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Hope, BC]

Mr. Speaker, a year ago, the Prime Minister rejected vaccine mandates, calling them “extreme measures that could have real divisive impacts on [our] community and country”. Since then, no one has created more division than the Prime Minister, pitting Canadian against Canadian and using vaccine status as a dangerous political weapon. In the words of a senior Liberal today, “Now that we have one of the most vaccinated populations in the world, we’ve never been so divided.”

When will the Prime Minister stop dividing Canadians and end his punitive vaccine mandates?

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

Mr. Speaker, I particularly appreciate the emphasis on vaccination status. When I get vaccinated, I am doing it for myself, but also for my parents. When I visit my parents after getting vaccinated, I know I am protecting them. When my son gets vaccinated, I know that he is protected, and I am glad he is, but I also know that he will be protecting all the seniors he might run into.

Not only is it a very important personal decision that we make when we have the right vaccination status, but it is also a kindness to the people around us that we love.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Hope, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is double-vaccinated, had his booster and just contracted COVID-19, so using mandates to discriminate against Canadians based on their vaccine status is absolutely punitive and discriminatory. A senior Liberal called on the Prime Minister to stop dividing Canadians on the issue of vaccine status.

When will the Prime Minister start listening to science, start listening to public health officials, start listening to his own members of Parliament and end his campaign of discrimination and division against Canadians?

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

Mr. Speaker, I wish to speak with respect, but also with honesty. I am a bit troubled by what I hear, which is the belief that vaccination does not work. Vaccination does work. About a year ago, science gave us the gift of vaccination. We had waited for that for an entire year. Since then, millions of Canadians have chosen to do the right thing, which is to get vaccinated. I am very troubled by the fact that on the opposite side of the House, there are still people who do not believe in vaccination.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Order. If I could have the House's attention, I want to remind everyone that we are in question period and we want to hear the questions and answers.

The hon. member for Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia.

COVID-19 Protests

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Mr. Speaker, downtown Ottawa has been under siege for the past 12 days, and this mess will not go away on its own.

As we heard again yesterday in his speech, the Prime Minister's plan for getting out of this crisis was to tell the protesters to go and get vaccinated. I have a news flash for him. At this point, they are not likely to go for that.

What is the government actually doing, aside from antagonizing the protesters? What action will the Prime Minister take? What kind of deadline will he give the protesters? When will he finally realize that magical thinking will not clear the streets of Ottawa?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, from the beginning, the federal government has been there to support the City of Ottawa and the Ottawa Police Service by providing 275 RCMP officers. The RCMP remains ready to provide additional assistance to the Ottawa Police Service in the form of additional personnel as requested by Mayor Jim Watson.

I will be speaking with him, along with the entire team on this side of the House, and we will continue to work closely with the city to provide all the necessary resources.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this is day 12 of the occupation of Ottawa, and the federal government is still not stepping up its efforts to resolve the crisis.

Yesterday, the Minister of Public Safety said, “I am proud that our government has done everything it could from the start to enforce the law”. He said that after pointing out that the government has made 275 RCMP officers available to the City of Ottawa. The city is calling for 1,800 officers. That represents 15% of the city's demand.

Is that all the government can do after 12 days of being under siege?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, yes, I am very proud of the government during the pandemic and I am very proud of the RCMP's contribution on the ground to provide more officers and help to the Ottawa Police Service, which is doing good work right now. There has been a lot of progress in the past two days.

We now need to put an end to this convoy, and the government and the City of Ottawa will work together to achieve that goal.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it is not surprising that the siege is dragging on.

On the one hand, we have a Minister of Public Safety who waited 11 days before creating a crisis task force and who refuses to fully deploy the RCMP. On the other hand, we have a Prime Minister who still believes that the occupiers will listen to him, decide that he is right and go home to get vaccinated. That is the Liberal Party's idea of crisis management.

At this point, what is surprising is not that the member for Louis-Hébert is speaking out against his own party, but that he is the only one to do so.

When will the Liberals wake up?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, perhaps my colleague has not been watching the news.

From the start, we deployed many resources. We added officers to help the police of jurisdiction. We will continue to work closely with the City of Ottawa, the Government of Ontario and everyone to resolve the convoy situation.

Health

[Stephen Ellis, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I remember clearly in March 2020 making a pandemic plan for my regional hospital. At that time and ever since, the government has been too little, too late or not at the right time.

Canadians need hope for their futures. When is the Liberal government going to show leadership and give Canadians a much-needed plan to learn to live with COVID-19?

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for raising that important question.

We have been working together since March 2020 to fight the biggest health crisis in 100 years in Canada. We have gone through this crisis successfully, certainly with respect to many other countries in the world, and it is because we have worked together and helped each other, the provinces and territories and the federal government. We have invested eight dollars out of every $10 in total economic support, with $63 billion on health and safety investments, in addition to all the other investments we have been making for many years.

[Stephen Ellis, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Mr. Speaker, most provincial medical officers of health have begun to speak of living with COVID, and even Health Canada's own Dr. Tam has said that the virus will be endemic. Nova Scotia's Dr. Strang has spoken of initial steps needed to move forward.

When will the government rely on science, not the spin doctors, and the advice of its own experts and remove lockdowns, restrictions and mandates? Give Canadians the date.

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

Mr. Speaker, a very key signal to be against vaccination is to be in favour of lockdowns. The only way to fight lockdowns is to be in favour of vaccination. That is why I will again invite all opposition members, including the new Conservative leader, to exert new leadership and ask all members of the Conservative Party to be vaccinated. That is the only way to avoid lockdowns.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, a senior Liberal has shared his concerns that the government mandates are divisive and harmful to the Canadian people. The Prime Minister and his government need to stop politicizing the pandemic, because it is fracturing our society and dividing Canadians.

Will the Prime Minister listen to the voices within his own party and present Parliament and the rest of Canada with something, anything, to end the mandates, end the restrictions and allow us to start living with COVID?

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

Mr. Speaker, I will say something that my hon. colleague already knows, most likely: The lockdown measures to which she refers are provincial decisions made by the provinces and territories. I believe no one in the House is confused between federal and provincial responsibilities. The federal responsibility has been and will be to support the provinces and territories moving forward.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, somebody needs to tell the minister that it is 2022. The redundant PCR testing for asymptomatic, fully vaccinated travellers does not make any sense. Permanent travel restrictions are not the answer, because the current ones are ineffective. The government's duplicative arrival testing regime is out of step with the world. It takes up to a week for the results. That means forced quarantines and high costs for families.

When will the government join our allies and drop these ineffective travel restrictions?

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

Mr. Speaker, working with our allies is exactly what we had to do and what we did. We have obviously worked with the United States, which is our closest ally, very successfully over the last few months. The mandate to which she refers, the border mandate in particular regarding vaccination, is entirely symmetrical and in line with what the United States is doing. We will continue to work with our allies.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!