Debates of March 24th, 2022

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, today marks 30 days of the war in Ukraine, and President Zelenskyy has asked the world to reflect on what that means. When he spoke here in the House of Commons, he asked us to imagine what the war means and what it would mean to Canadians, and he asked for help.

One of the most important ways that we can help, and are helping, is by welcoming people from Ukraine, but recent reports are showing that people who come here from Ukraine are not getting the help that they need. What is the government going to do to ensure that Ukrainians fleeing a humanitarian crisis get refuge in Canada and the support and help that they need?

[Marie-France Lalonde, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, certainly, Canada will provide a safe haven for those fleeing Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since January, Canada has welcomed more than 10,000 Ukrainians. Last week, as members know, we launched our new Canada-Ukraine emergency travel authorization, which will make it easier, faster and safer for Ukrainians to come to Canada.

We are working with our partners, including provinces and territories, the business community, the Ukrainian Canadian community and settlement organizations on how best to support people arriving from Ukraine. We will continue—

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

The hon. member for Burnaby South.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, we have spoken with people. There are reports that Ukrainians coming to Canada are not getting the support they need. We are asking the government to recognize that this is the 30th day of war. Ukrainians still need help, and one important way we can help them is to welcome them here and make sure they are supported.

What does the government plan to do to ensure that Ukrainians who come to Canada get the help and support they need to have a good life here in Canada?

[Marie-France Lalonde, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration]

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

We completely agree that we need to help. That is why we launched the new Canada-Ukraine authorization for emergency travel last week, which will allow Ukrainians to come in.

We are working with our partners, including the provinces and territories, the business community, the Ukrainian Canadian community and settlement agencies, on how best to support those arriving from Ukraine.

We continue to closely monitor travel volumes and needs, and we will take appropriate action.

Health

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

Mr. Speaker, all 10 provinces and most G7 countries around the world are lifting the mandates. Despite this, federal mandates around vaccines for employment and travel persist. At the health committee, we already heard the Minister of Health talk specifically about the plan to end federal mandates, but he did not quite make it. He talked about this complicated science and did not elaborate further.

We, on this side of the House, would like to know. What is this complicated science the NDP-Liberal government is not sharing and when will the minister make it available to all Canadians?

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

Mr. Speaker, let me try again to make it very simple. I will use one number this time, instead of two, which is 135,000. That is the number of Americans whose deaths were avoidable. If the U.S. had been vaccinated to the extent we have in Canada, in part due to vaccination mandates, they would not have died. Those lives had a value. How much it is in dollars very few people would know I suppose, but they had personal, health, human, social and family values.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for his non-answer reply to that question.

We know there are countless federal employees who are off work who sadly perhaps have not been immunized. What about Douglas, who is a federal scientist? He has a unique story. He has had COVID twice and is also in an antibody study at the Ottawa Health Research Institute. Interestingly enough, and shockingly, he works from home and is still not allowed to go to work. How can this happen?

When will the current federal government stop politicizing this and discriminating against hard-working Canadians and provide a date they can go back to work?

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

Mr. Speaker, we spoke about being responsible and being kind to each other. I will try to make it even more simple. Instead of 135,000, I will use three, which is a simple number. Three times is how many more deaths we would have had in Canada if we had followed the example of the United States when it came to public health measures and vaccination rates. Three times more people dying would be 60,000 more people in Canada who would have died.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, many Canadians cannot travel. They cannot leave this country. Many have been terminated and have been othered by the current government for long enough. Its top doctor stated that vaccine mandates are not effective anymore, yet the health minister will not discuss any timelines, benchmarks or plans for ending them. He is not taking hints from provinces. He is not taking cues from our international allies. He is not listening to his own experts.

On what day, in what year, will the health minister end the federal mandates that nobody is telling him to keep?

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

Mr. Speaker, we would all like to be able to declare the date when COVID‑19 will disappear from the earth. That would be marvellous. I would certainly be the happiest man on earth, and in this Parliament, to be able to tell the House on what day COVID‑19 will disappear. Unfortunately, I do not know.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, things would be better if the minister cared about workers even half as much as he does about optics. Employers in air transportation are experiencing worker shortages. They are terminating experienced workers because of the federal mandates. The very workers who were mandated to work through the pandemic are the same workers who are now on the verge of losing their livelihoods for good. The transportation minister can end the interim order on mandates before he strips workers of their pensions, their benefits and their years of service. That is before April 16.

Why is the Minister of Health saying no?

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, I really want to ask my colleague to remind Canadians that vaccination is not a punishment. Vaccines have saved lives, communities, our economy and jobs.

I understand there are questions about when these mandates will be lifted. We will continue to follow science and advice, and I ask the hon. member to avoid partisanship in the face of vaccination and science.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the health minister talks a lot about numbers.

I am wondering if he can tell us whether mental health, particularly the mental health of Canadians who still today cannot work or travel to see loved ones because of the mandates, is one of the metrics being considered in regard to lifting the mandates.

If so, what specifically are those mental health metrics?

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

Mr. Speaker, it is true the mental health of Canadians has been deeply affected the last two years. We estimate that about one Canadian out of two has seen his or her mental health deteriorate over the last few months. For health care workers, it is about three quarters. Now, health care workers have been at the front lines of this crisis—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

Order, please.

I will let the minister restart.

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I was going to point to health care workers. Obviously, we are deeply thankful to them, but thankfulness is not enough. We need to think of them and we need to act in a way that protects them if we want them to protect us.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

Mr. Speaker, even after the imposition of vaccine mandates, some Canadians chose to remain unvaccinated. Many of them sacrificed jobs and their ability to travel to see loved ones because of their authentic anxiety about COVID vaccines.

The Prime Minister's response was to go on television and proclaim that many of those Canadians were “racists” and “misogynists”.

What does the minister have to say about the mental health impact of a Prime Minister publicly shaming Canadians who experienced genuine anxiety that has undeniably caused them legitimate hardship?

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

Mr. Speaker, hardship is the right word. I was speaking yesterday with the Canadian Pharmacists Association, which represents another group of health care workers who have been at the front line and living very difficult times. Their personal mental stress has been heightened by COVID, as has the stress of their families when they go home after a day at work, the stress of their staff and the stress of the patients they have cared for, now for more than two years. This is an example of the hardship we have gone through. That is why we need to keep caring for each other.

Intergovernmental Relations

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in the agreement with the NDP there is so much encroachment that they are trampling all over Quebec's jurisdictions with full force.

Housing, pharmacare, child care, health care, long-term care: encroachment from coast to coast to coast, to use the Liberals' expression.

There is a much more effective way to help people get services. The government can transfer the money that Quebec and the provinces need and give them a right to opt out with full compensation in any areas that fall under their jurisdictions.

Will the government agree to a right to opt out with full compensation and without conditions, yes or no?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, the Bloc is referring to an agreement that focuses on, for example, fighting climate change, which is good for Quebeckers.

Help for workers is good for Quebeckers. More social housing is good for Quebeckers. Working together on health is good for Quebeckers.

When all of that is good for Quebeckers, it is not good for the Bloc Québécois, and they do not like that.

The Environment

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, let us discuss the fight against climate change.

When we read the Liberal and NDP marriage document, it is very clear that there are no jurisdictions. It is crystal clear.

What is not so clear, however, is the will to stop producing dirty oil. They will be “developing a plan to phase-out public financing of the fossil fuel sector”. There really is no sense of urgency.

Did the Liberal Party or the NDP decide to continue financing oil companies in the midst of the climate crisis?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for the question.

I would like to remind him that we promised to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies two years before our G20 partners did. That is what we are going to do, and we will definitely work with our NDP colleagues, and our Bloc Québécois colleagues if they are interested, to advance this file.

Health

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in their agreement, the great experts in the NDP and the Liberal Party chose to tell Quebec and the provinces what they need, specifically how many nurses and doctors should be hired, where the money should go, and how their networks should be managed.

However, the real experts are not on this side of the House, they are not across the way, nor are they sitting next to us. Quebec and the provinces know what they need. As we are on the verge of a sixth wave, will the government finally increase health transfers to 35% with no conditions?