House of Commons Hansard #45 of the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was travel.

Topics

Foreign AffairsOral Questions

2:55 p.m.

Bloc

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC

Mr. Speaker, the government's refusal to airlift people out is problematic in two ways.

On the European side, millions of refugees are stuck in camps because there is no room for them on planes or because they simply cannot afford flights. On our side, in Montreal alone, 40 tonnes of humanitarian aid is sitting in warehouses because we cannot send it to Ukraine.

At the moment, the only thing we can move between Canada and eastern Europe is the Prime Minister. When will the government start chartering flights?

Foreign AffairsOral Questions

2:55 p.m.

Orléans Ontario

Liberal

Marie-France Lalonde LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration

Mr. Speaker, I really want to thank my colleague for his question.

As he mentioned, the government is certainly looking hard, and as aggressively as possible, at how to get as many people as possible here as quickly as we can. This is what we have been doing from the beginning. More than 10,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Canada. We will continue to work with our partners.

I would also like to point out to the House that the province of Quebec has not only guaranteed to help us, but has already stepped up by providing asylum, health care and child care.

HealthOral Questions

2:55 p.m.

Conservative

Frank Caputo Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC

Mr. Speaker, the health minister has been asked about 15 questions today, but he has not answered a single one, so I hope he can answer this one from a young woman named Nancy from my riding. Nancy is an indigenous single mother. She works for the federal government, 100% from home. She is vaccine hesitant for personal reasons. Like members of our armed forces, she is now being told that she cannot go to work and is essentially being fired for her beliefs.

Nancy and others are running out of options. Will the minister show some compassion and end the mandate for people such as Nancy so they can work from home?

HealthOral Questions

3 p.m.

Québec Québec

Liberal

Jean-Yves Duclos LiberalMinister of Health

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to receive this question because it enables me to add one more piece of information, this time from the United States. One million is the number of deaths that were avoided because of Americans were vaccinated. It was mentioned earlier that they could have avoided many more deaths with more vaccinations, as we did in Canada.

When we speak to people who may be either concerned or sometimes not just informed about the benefits of vaccination, it is important to talk to them, reassure them, care for them and just encourage them in a very benevolent manner so that everyone, in the end, is protected, including those who perhaps had initially had misgivings around vaccination.

HealthOral Questions

3 p.m.

Conservative

Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB

Mr. Speaker, in Canada and around the world, governments have ended their vaccine mandates and restrictions. Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nova Scotia have all ended their vaccine passport systems. However this government is doubling down and spending $30 million for domestic travel vaccine passports in the next two years.

Since the provinces have already dropped these passports, will the Minister of Health return this $30 million to the taxpayers?

HealthOral Questions

3 p.m.

Québec Québec

Liberal

Jean-Yves Duclos LiberalMinister of Health

Mr. Speaker, I mentioned earlier the amount of $4 billion. That is a lot of money, which the federal government and other governments have saved because of high vaccination rates, in part due to vaccination mandates, but most importantly, that is a lot of household income, family income, income to look after children, to care for seniors, to look after those who may not often find it easy to make ends meet. That is a lot of dollars.

This is not only about dollars, obviously. It is about lives, but dollars are also impacted by the fact that we have high vaccination rates and that in Ontario we have more people being vaccinated everyday.

HealthOral Questions

3 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Ferreri Conservative Peterborough—Kawartha, ON

Mr. Speaker, there have been a lot of replies today and not very many answers.

Since the pandemic started, only 1% of all cases of COVID-19 in Canada have been related to travel, yet it has been portrayed and perceived as an unsafe thing to do. To put this into perspective, 2021 was supposed to be a year of recovery, but we have reached only 13% of the total number of international visitors compared to 2019, and 2021 was worse than 2020.

When will the health minister tell his colleagues to fully open the border and remove federal vaccine mandates?

HealthOral Questions

3 p.m.

Mississauga Centre Ontario

Liberal

Omar Alghabra LiberalMinister of Transport

Mr. Speaker, COVID-19 has undoubtedly had a devastating impact on the industry. I want to stand here to thank all those who work in the aviation sector, and all those who work in the tourism sector, who stepped up, cared for each other and did the right thing, which was to get vaccinated and follow public health advice.

Everybody knows that COVID-19 has been unpredictable. We are working together with our scientists to do the right thing, protect Canadians and protect those who work in the aviation sector.

Domestic ViolenceOral Questions

March 24th, 2022 / 3 p.m.

Liberal

Emmanuel Dubourg Liberal Bourassa, QC

Mr. Speaker, intimate partner violence needs to end, and it needs to end now. This matters to everyone because intimate partner violence destroys families and causes serious harm in our society.

I salute community organizations for the important work they do to help women and children fleeing violence perpetrated by violent partners.

I announced a $4.5-million investment to help an organization called Nouvelle-Étape create new spaces.

Could the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion tell us more about the reason for these investments?

Domestic ViolenceOral Questions

3 p.m.

York South—Weston Ontario

Liberal

Ahmed Hussen LiberalMinister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.

During the pandemic, the most vulnerable members of our community were in greater need of housing. We know we need to act fast.

Our government created nine new affordable housing units in the member's riding for women and children fleeing violence.

We will not stop working until every Canadian has a safe, affordable place to live.

HealthOral Questions

3:05 p.m.

Conservative

Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC

Mr. Speaker, from the beginning of this question period I have wanted to ask the Minister of Health some questions I had previously prepared. Unfortunately, I am going to change them a bit.

I would like the Minister of Health to look me in the eye and tell me truthfully right now that it was the federal vaccine mandate that saved so many lives and prevented so many hospitalizations in Canada from the start of the pandemic; that this was not due to the vaccine passports of the various provinces; and that the provinces that are lifting these vaccine passports have data that is rather more credible than his to justify doing so.

When will the federal government lift federal mandates?

When will the federal minister listen to the science across Canada and not just the political science?

HealthOral Questions

3:05 p.m.

Québec Québec

Liberal

Jean-Yves Duclos LiberalMinister of Health

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to see and hear my colleague speak about science.

If he would like to see the studies I mentioned, I can have people from my department brief him. They would be very happy to show him the statistics, methods, data, the various techniques used, the standard deviations, the confidence intervals and everything that goes with this type of study.

The 1,600 deaths were prevented as a result of the combination of various vaccine requirements. Nevertheless, the Canadian government's vaccine mandate also played a role.

The Conservatives opposed vaccination at the time. This means that their policy would have been responsible for hundreds, if not thousands, of additional deaths.

HealthOral Questions

3:05 p.m.

Conservative

Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives were the first in the House to put pressure on the government to procure and supply vaccines for all Canadians.

We were the first, while they were slow to act. I do not need any lectures from the government's chief health lecture-giver. All he gave us today was a bunch of numbers, such as 8,000; 25,000; 700,000; 135,000; 3; 400,000; 10; 30%; 100; 1.1 million; and 4 billion. That is a lot of numbers, but he did not answer the question at all.

When will he join the provinces and announce that the federal government is lifting the health measures?

It is a simple question and we want an answer.

HealthOral Questions

3:05 p.m.

Québec Québec

Liberal

Jean-Yves Duclos LiberalMinister of Health

Mr. Speaker, I apologize if I disrespected my colleague. That was not my intention.

I respectfully offer the assistance and support he needs and deserves as a member of Parliament. He has a very important role in the House.

I think he is entitled to ask for all of the information whenever he wants if he is to continue doing his job properly, as he is already doing within the Conservative caucus.

HealthOral Questions

3:05 p.m.

Conservative

Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC

Mr. Speaker, I would like him to table that here in the House. He offered to. I would like him to table every study showing that scientific experts called for federal vaccine mandates.

Dr. Njoo and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization said that a vaccine mandate was not necessary and that voluntary vaccination should be encouraged. Those are the facts and figures.

The Minister of Health keeps telling us there are studies proving his vaccine mandate was justified by science. We want to see those studies now, and we want an answer. When will he end the vaccine mandate?

HealthOral Questions

3:05 p.m.

Québec Québec

Liberal

Jean-Yves Duclos LiberalMinister of Health

Mr. Speaker, the member asked two questions, one I cannot answer and the other I will.

When will the COVID‑19 pandemic end? Unfortunately, I do not think we can answer that today.

However, if my colleague wants access to more information in addition to what I have already provided, I would be happy to provide it in the most appropriate way possible. I tried to be as clear as possible, but maybe I was not clear enough.

International DevelopmentOral Questions

3:05 p.m.

Liberal

Anju Dhillon Liberal Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC

Mr. Speaker, Yemen is undergoing the world's worst humanitarian crisis and its people deserve decisive action, especially women and girls who are disproportionately affected. Canadians are deeply concerned by the raging conflict and the deteriorating food security situation.

What is the Minister of International Development doing to help the people of Yemen?

International DevelopmentOral Questions

3:05 p.m.

Vancouver South B.C.

Liberal

Harjit S. Sajjan LiberalMinister of International Development and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle for this question and for her hard work. The conflict in Yemen continues to impact almost 20 million people who need help, especially women and children. This is why last week I announced an additional $62.5 million in funding to help with urgent humanitarian needs. By providing food assistance, clean water, sanitation, protection and health care, this aid will help the Yemeni people whose lives have been impacted by this.

Fisheries and OceansOral Questions

3:10 p.m.

NDP

Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC

Mr. Speaker, in December, the government announced the reallocation of crab fishing licences in my riding in an effort to reconcile the loss of constitutionally protected indigenous fishing rights. It is absolutely essential to correct historical wrongs in the allocation and management of this fishery. The government has failed to properly consult the impacted fishers or first nations. As a result, many fishers will lose the income their families need.

Will the government do the right thing and fully compensate these crab fishers?

Fisheries and OceansOral Questions

3:10 p.m.

Vancouver Quadra B.C.

Liberal

Joyce Murray LiberalMinister of Fisheries

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for pointing out the importance of including indigenous communities who have a right to fish in the fisheries. We are having those discussions with the crab harvesters who had those licences. This takes some time, but we are doing that. Those discussions have not concluded yet, but we will respect both the prior fish harvesters and the indigenous right to fish.

Natural ResourcesOral Questions

3:10 p.m.

Green

Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC

Mr. Speaker, despite misguided calls for Canada to build pipelines to join a global effort to shut off Russian oil, the international experts at the International Energy Agency have not recommended that. In fact, they have been very clear that it is not boosting production that the world's nations need to do; it is cutting consumption. The International Energy Agency has published a 10-point plan.

Natural ResourcesOral Questions

3:10 p.m.

Some hon. members

Oh, oh!

Natural ResourcesOral Questions

3:10 p.m.

Green

Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC

Mr. Speaker, I am having difficulty finishing my question.

Natural ResourcesOral Questions

3:10 p.m.

Conservative

The Deputy Speaker Conservative Chris d'Entremont

Order. Let us show a little decorum. We are on the last question.

The hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands.

Natural ResourcesOral Questions

3:10 p.m.

Green

Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC

Mr. Speaker, I will not start over, but I will summarize. There have been calls that are misguided and not based on evidence to increase production or take another decade to build more pipelines in Canada.

The experts at the International Energy Agency have published a 10-point plan that they want industrialized countries to pursue and that will cut consumption by 2.7 million barrels of oil a day. The International Energy Agency's 10-point plan calls for such things as cutting speed limits by 10 kilometres an hour in industrialized countries, cutting down traffic in our city centres and boosting public transit. Will Canada join the IEA 10-point plan?