Debates of March 24th, 2022

Natural Resources

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources and to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Mr. Speaker, in fact, the 10-point plan is under discussion right now with the Minister of Natural Resources in Paris. In the face of the emerging global energy crisis created by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the 10-point plan to cut oil use proposes actions that can be used to reduce demand with immediate impact. As discussed in the plan, the IEA and its members are committed to reducing emissions and creating a more sustainable path for the longer term. From using public transit and biking to working from home, those are all actions we can take, as per the IEA, to reduce our carbon footprint and collectively reduce our emissions. We are working in partnership here at home and abroad to reduce emissions and increase the use of renewable energy.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on an exchange that took place during question period with the Minister of Health, in which he promised to table documents in the House. I invite him to table all the documents that have anything to do with all the numbers he mentioned, including 8,000, 25,000, 700,000, 735,000, 300,000 and 400,000, and especially the 10% to 30% of patients he told us will suffer from long COVID.

I would also invite the Minister of Health to table the documents that justify the federal vaccine mandate.

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

I believe that is a matter of debate, but at the same time, it is good to have the numbers.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I just now observed my good friend and colleague from Saanich—Gulf Islands trying to get through a question in this House and the amount of heckling that came from this side is completely unacceptable.

We have had huge challenges in attracting women, not just to run for politics but to actually stay in politics. I want to remind men in this House of the important role they play when it comes to their conduct in any violence against women and attacks on women in this place. What I just heard happen is unacceptable.

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

I thank the member for his intervention.

Business of the House

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, before I get to the Thursday question, today is my youngest son's 18th birthday, and Liane and I would like to wish Mitch a happy birthday.

As you know, Mr. Speaker, it has been a heck of a week around here. I would like to ask the usual Thursday question of the new NDP-Liberal government House leader. What will the business of the House be over the next week?

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I wish a very happy birthday to Mitch. I hope he has the time to celebrate with his family over the weekend.

Tomorrow we will call Bill C-8, the economic and fiscal update, for the third day of debate at report stage, and we will continue on Monday, if that is necessary. Tuesday we will resume debate at second reading of Bill C-11, the online streaming act. Wednesday we will continue with debate on Bill C-5, which is mandatory minimum legislation, at second reading.

I would also inform the House that Thursday, March 31, will be an allotted day and next Friday, a week tomorrow, it is our intention to begin consideration of the second reading of Bill C-13, the official languages bill.

Status of Opposition Party

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am rising on a point of order. I am rising to add to my point of order of Tuesday afternoon and further to the intervention by the member for La Prairie yesterday concerning the coalition agreement between the Liberal and New Democratic parties.

Firstly, a timely ruling is essential and today is the last day of the supply period, which means that a new one starts tomorrow. That means we need to know how the eight opposition days this spring will be distributed. Of course, we have question period every day where ministers now receive eight lob questions from two government parties, instead of the typical three lob questions daily. Then there is the matter of the Liberals' coalition partner being stationed in the opposition lobby behind me right in between the Conservative and Bloc sections. This all needs to be addressed, and I say that respectfully.

The Speaker is recovering from surgery and I did hear from him today. It sounds like he is doing well and we are all thankful for that.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

I know the House is unanimous in wishing him a complete and speedy recovery, but we cannot wait for his return for a ruling, nor would we wish to stress or tax him with these matters.

Subsection 43(1) of the Parliament of Canada Act vests you, Mr. Speaker, with full and adequate authority to address this matter. It states:

Whenever the House of Commons is informed of the unavoidable absence of the Speaker thereof by the Clerk at the table, the Chairman of Committees, if present, shall take the chair and perform the duties and exercise the authority of Speaker in relation to all the proceedings of the House, as Deputy Speaker

Secondly, there is the matter of full disclosure of this agreement. My counterpart from the Bloc Québécois put it bluntly yesterday, saying, “The news releases bore the same titles and were identical.”

Was it pure fluke and coincidence that both parties each managed to issue identical-looking press releases at the same time of day? We both know the answer to that, Mr. Speaker. It is obvious that there were a lot of emails, text messages and the like flying around about this agreement to coordinate that much. It would not shock me to hear that there may even be some emails or memos that demonstrate how both sides interpret and understand the terms of their backroom deal.

Would you be able to indicate whether it would be helpful for you in approaching your ruling, Mr. Speaker, to know whether there are any signed versions of this agreement or additional side deals? I expect that you would and I expect that to be so.

This was a government that claimed to believe in the principle of “open by default”. If ever there was a time to show that it means it, it is when it has entered into a unprecedented power grab arrangement to govern Canada. Transparency and openness used to be watchwords for the NDP. I hope that they still are.

Therefore, in the interests of transparency and openness, I am calling upon the government to make full disclosure to the House and to all Canadians by tabling all relevant documents concerning the negotiation of this unprecedented agreement and, in the meantime and in closing, I would ask for unanimous consent to table, in both official languages, copies of the press releases issued Tuesday morning by the Prime Minister's Office and the New Democratic Party, so that you formally have before you, Mr. Speaker, the versions those parties have chosen to let Canadians see.

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

All those opposed to the hon. member's moving the motion, please say nay.

[Some hon. members]

Nay.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise on that point of order. It is surprising to me that the House leader of the official opposition is doubling down on something that he knows is fundamentally incorrect. For him to come into the House and pretend that this is a coalition government when, as a new member of Parliament, he received the information that clearly identifies what a coalition government is and what things like “confidence and supply” mean.

As we know, earlier today we outlined the many cases in Canada and worldwide where confidence and supply agreements have been put into place. At no point have we had parties actually trying to punish other parties for doing the right thing, and this is indeed what the House leader of the official opposition is attempting to do. He should be thanking us, as 30,000 people in Barrie—Innisfil will have access to dental care because of this agreement.

The reality is that what we are doing is in the interests of his constituents as well. He does not need to thank the NDP, but what he does need to do is acknowledge the fact that this is a confidence and supply agreement that has no impact at all on the Standing Orders and the regular processes under which we operate.

He has asked for information on the agreement. It is freely available online, as we know. I offered, earlier today, to send him a copy. He has not asked me for that. This is a frivolous and really vexatious attempt to take away time from the House of Commons. I think it is very clear that this holds no water whatsoever.

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

We will of course consider that information and try to get back to the House as soon as we possibly can.

The House resumed consideration of the motion.

Opposition Motion—Federal Vaccine Mandates

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to continue my important speech on vaccination and the work that our government has been able to do.

I want to start again by thanking Canadians. Canadians have been doing what they have to do to ensure that the health and security of others are top priorities. I want to thank Nova Scotians as well, because we were the envy of the world for a long time because we had no numbers. Again, this was because of the high number of vaccinations. It was also because of—

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

I am sorry to interrupt the hon. parliamentary secretary, but there is a point of order because there is no interpretation.

The problem has been resolved.

The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs has the floor.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Mr. Speaker, thank you. I will speak in French, so there is no need for interpretation.

I was saying that I wanted to take a moment to thank Canadians for their efforts and the work they have done to help us ensure the health and safety of all Canadians. It is extremely important to point that out. I also want to thank our frontline health care workers, the people who had to go out during the pandemic when it was extremely dangerous.

As I said in my speech earlier, eight dollars out of $10 spent by governments was spent by the federal government to support Canadians right across the country. We saw this in vaccination and PPE investments, and we saw Canadian companies come forward as well to provide supports. Let us not forget that we invested $72 billion in health care and education to support the provinces and territories. Another $45 billion will be coming forward in the next few days through the health accord, which is also essential.

Throughout the pandemic, we have also seen some of the challenges with the health care system and hospitals. Our government, in our platform, indicated clearly that we would invest more in doctors, nurses and assistants to help the provinces with health care and in any other way we could. Long-term care was another area.

Let us talk about how many lives were saved, which is very important to note. In the United States, some studies are showing that 1.1 million people were saved because of vaccinations. That is a very high number and it is a good indicator for us. In Canada, the numbers from some studies indicate that over 400,000 Canadians were saved. The minister talked today about 1,600 being saved in the last few months alone, which is another very important number. In Europe, over 500,000 people over 60 were saved because of taking the vaccine. The answers are pretty clear on that front.

On easing the restrictions, I know the opposition has been talking about that, but let us look at what has been done. We have already said that as of April 1, which is in a few days, a test will not be required before boarding a plane to Canada. People coming by air or water will not need one either. We also talked about cruise ships. People only need an antigen test one day prior, and when people get off a ship, they will not need a test.

Let us also talk about quarantine. Today there is no quarantine needed while waiting for results. Last February, I was here for three weeks and then I went to Nova Scotia. I had to quarantine for 14 days. We are easing restrictions. We are moving in the right direction. The Speaker is indicating he had to sit out 14 days twice or three times, and he was in his trailer. He knows as well I know that we have been easing restrictions, and we will continue to do so as the information we get indicates we can.

[Warren Steinley, Conservative, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my animated colleague's stories when he gets up and speaks in the House. He talked about how many American lives he was saving. The Canadian government should be giving us Canadian statistics, so I am wondering if he can talk about how many Canadians were fired because of the mandates. That is a really important number too. I also really want to know how many Canadians who used to work in health care were fired. Before there were vaccines they were heroes, and now under the Liberals they are zeros.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Mr. Speaker, those health care workers do not work for us; they work for the provincial governments. The restrictions were placed by the provincial governments.

Let us talk about numbers, as the member said, in Canada. The minister just indicated today that over 1,600 lives were saved in the last few months. Families can celebrate with other individuals. Over 400,000 have been saved since COVID started. Those are Canadian numbers. They are not my numbers; they are numbers from studies.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we are talking about possibly lifting a number of health measures. We are all hoping for just that, and we agree it needs to be done. However, we do not feel that there is a clear path forward. What probably upsets people the most is not having any predictability or a plan with benchmarks. This would give us some hope that health measures will be lifted if a certain result or number of hospitalizations is achieved.

Would it not help to depoliticize the issue if we had a little more predictability from the government?

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question. I always like having the opportunity to answer questions, especially in French.

As the Minister of Health explained today, we have no control over what is happening. We can only make decisions based on the results we are receiving. There is no doubt that this situation is complicated, but we are already seeing that the government is in the process of lifting restrictions.

The situation is progressing and will continue to do so as we become comfortable with the numbers. However, let us not forget that hospital capacity also leads to more difficult situations in the provinces.

This is complex, but our government has repeatedly shown, through straightforward processes, that it is lifting restrictions. It will continue to do so.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I served on the veterans affairs committee with this colleague. I respect him and thank him.

The government always talks about science and evidence-based decision-making, but that also has to come with transparency. Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. Tam, has indicated that the government is currently engaged in a broad interdepartmental approach to reviewing all vaccine mandates under federal jurisdiction.

Does my colleague not agree that the government needs to provide Canadians with a timeline for this review and needs to do it soon, and that there needs to be transparency in its decision-making?

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the work my colleague has done on veterans affairs is very much appreciated.

As he indicated, people need to know that we were set up from the beginning to review decisions every six months depending on what was happening. That review is taking place as we speak. As Dr. Tam said, we will continue to take advice based on science, but we are moving forward on a review as we speak, so we should get some results very soon on that.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I think this is the first time I have gotten in on today's opposition day debate on mask mandates, so I will ask my hon colleague from Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook a question.

He and I are from coastal ridings with a lot of tourism, which we love, and I have heard a number of members opposite say that mask mandates in the federal civil service are blocking tourism. I wonder if the hon. member would agree with me that it would have been much more fruitful today to spend a whole day talking about what the tourism sector really needs. It needs financial support now. It needs to know that as we move out of the COVID restrictions, we will give help to businesses that are going under. I do not think a mask mandate debate for an entire day is what the tourism sector would have wanted.