Christine Moore

[Gender Equality Week Act, November 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, gender equality is an extremely important issue for me. It should be one of our primary concerns, and we should take practical measures to do more in this area. I will therefore support this bill because it deals with an issue that is dear to me.

Then again, this bill, like other similar bills that talk about awareness, will not result in any real action. It is all well and good to dedicate days, weeks, or months to certain causes, but the fact remains that on every International Women's Day there are women who are sexually assaulted or beaten and on every International Day of the Girl there are girls somewhere in the world who are forced to marry men who are three or four times their age.

Talking about these issues is important, but so is taking action. Action is what allows us to forge ahead. Unfortunately, the government has missed opportunities to take meaningful action. My colleague from British Columbia introduced a bill to increase the number of female MPs by imposing financial penalties on parties that did not run enough female candidates. That would have been a practical way to get more women in Parliament.

However, the government chose not to support that bill and, worse still, did not even let it go to committee. It voted against a bill on an important issue that would have helped us achieve gender equality, which is shameful enough, but it did not even give the bill a chance to go to committee, where experts could have spoken to its value and suggested improvements that would have made it acceptable to everyone. By doing that, the government sent the message that it was not even worth the trouble of trying to come up with something that works for everyone. That is the saddest part.

For a member of the governing party to remain silent rather than tell his colleagues that the bill is worth looking at in committee is deplorable. Maybe he just does not have enough clout in his caucus. Either way, it is a little sad.

The Prime Minister talked about his balanced cabinet. However, among the six senior ministers, which include foreign affairs, national defence, finance, treasury board, and justice, although I am missing one, there is only one woman, the Minister of Justice. He could have appointed three women and three men to lead those key departments, but he did not ensure that balance from the beginning.

In addition, in a cabinet made up of 30 ministers, the five minister of state positions, which involve tasks of a lesser magnitude and no budget to manage, are all filled by women. Seats could have been a little more evenly distributed, but they were not. There is still work to be done.

Gender equality is not only about having the same number of men and women in one place. If there are 30 employees at a company, and there are 15 women and 15 men, that does not automatically mean equality. If the 15 men are executives and the 15 women sweep the floor, that is not equality. We have to go beyond the numbers. When it comes to gender, we must always choose measures that increase equality.

Year after year, women continue to be the ones to perform the majority of household chores. Now they often work, too, but still take care of the house and the children and manage everyone's schedules. They basically have two full-time jobs. This causes a great deal of stress, and yet they get very little support.

For example, we still do not have an accessible child care program for women. Sometimes friends help us find child care at a reasonable cost that meets our needs. Other times, however, that is not the case at all. Just today on the bus, I was talking about the daycare that I found for my daughter. I was saying that I was fortunate because, in my situation, I cannot use public child care and I had managed to find a private facility that charges $25 a day. A woman on the bus approached me and asked where this day care was located because she pays twice as much for her child. What this actually means is that women sometimes earn less than minimum wage when we calculate all the expenses they must incur, especially for their children, such as child care. Thus, there really is a lot to do.

Let us talk about access to contraception. Canada does not have universal pharmacare. In Quebec, we are fortunate to have a drug plan that covers those without private insurance. Unfortunately, people are sometimes forced to take the private insurance offered by their employer, which is very expensive, even more so than government insurance. I will not go into the details. As I was saying, in Quebec, most people have the benefit of some type of prescription drug coverage, or at least they have that option. That is not the case in other provinces.

When it comes to contraception, each woman should choose what is most appropriate for her. Quite often, contraception is the sole responsibility of the woman. We are supposed to have an egalitarian society; however, in terms of the couple, this is more often than not the responsibility of the woman. The exception is Quebec, where vasectomies are most popular. Elsewhere, women bear the responsibility for contraception.

Some devices might be clinically more appropriate for certain women, but they simply cannot afford them. A hormonal IUD costs roughly $300. Many women do not have an extra $300. The IUD lasts five years, but there is still no payment plan available for making monthly payments for an IUD. For many women who cannot afford anything else, the only option ends up being contraception that is contraindicated for them.

A lot of work remains to be done when it comes to violence. Tangible measures can be taken, including in the justice system, to make the process easier for victims, to give them the courage to report, all in the hopes of creating a more egalitarian society. We keep taking baby steps when it comes to the status of women. We are treading water.

Unfortunately, although I intend to support my colleague's bill, gender equality week is not a tangible measure that is going to fix these problems. Maybe we will talk about them, but I think we have already done that. In the absence of other, complementary measures, this bill will not really get us anywhere.

[Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, November 17th, 2016]

I am pleased to rise, Mr. Speaker, especially after the two hon. members who spoke before me.

In my question to the Conservative member who is the sponsor of the bill, I raised some of the concerns I have with this bill. However, I will support it since the change to the regulations allows Health Canada to require drugs to be resistant to tampering and abuse. This is not mandatory, but Health Canada can opt for this requirement. It is not mandatory if the effectiveness of the drug is not proven or if there is a concern that it will drive up the cost too much. However, this bill gives Health Canada the option and that is why I will support it.

The bill introduced by my colleague seeks to respond to the problem of substance abuse, mainly fentanyl, a very powerful substance compared to other drugs in the same family. Other opioid analgesics have been on the market for a long time and are generally used more than fentanyl.

As many of my colleagues know, I was a nurse. In the vast majority of cases, when doctors prescribe drugs to people at home, they prescribe Dilaudid, which is hydromorphone, or morphine, which has been in use for a long time. Fentanyl is rarely prescribed to people living at home. It is mainly used right in the hospital and is rarely prescribed elsewhere. It is typically administered by injection in a hospital setting or by skin patch for patients with cancer or terminal illness.

Other opioids are used too. One of these is Demerol, or meperidine, which has been around for a long time, but is not used much because of its serious side effects. Another is oxycodone, which has also been associated with overdose and addiction, and codeine, a medium-strength opioid typically used to treat more moderate pain that is not severe enough for morphine.

Most of the people who are prescribed a drug go home with hydromorphone or morphine, generic versions of which are available for the reasonable price of about 40¢ to 50¢ per pill.

Long-acting tablets, on the other hand, can be much more expensive. For instance, tamper-resistant medication can easily cost between $10 and $20 per tablet. Forcing people to use these products could have a serious impact, given that they are much more costly. In addition, these products are often under patent protection, because the fact is, pharmaceutical companies work very hard to develop these drugs.

The most common form of tampering is crushing the drug in order to snort it or inject it. In most cases, patients with a legal prescription are not the ones doing these things, but rather people who steal the drug from patients they know. For instance, some people might raid their grandmother's medicine cabinet to see what they can get. Sadly, these people will steal from their friends and family.

Some measures could be introduced in terms of prescription practices, for instance, and the services offered by pharmacists. It could be a question of giving patients smaller amounts of medication. Perhaps they could be given a week's worth at a time, rather than a month. We need to find ways to ensure that smaller quantities of drugs are found in peoples' homes. This would also mean that patients would be less likely to be robbed.

We also need to educate patients about this phenomenon. They could be told not to keep their medication in plain view, for example, on the kitchen table where everyone can see it. We could try these kinds of measures.

As for skin patches, I have heard stories of people using syringes to pull out the liquid from inside fentanyl patches. It is extremely dangerous. With these kinds of practices, an overdose is almost guaranteed. That is another serious danger.

It is entirely appropriate to want drugs with tamper-resistant properties. My only fear is the higher cost for patients, especially when we are talking about terminally ill cancer patients. They should not find themselves in situations where they can no longer pay for their medications.

We could also work on doctors' prescribing habits. People could be prescribed drugs that are less likely to be stolen. For example, I believe that oxycodone should be used as a last resort when prescribing opioids. The use of this drug should be limited.

Clearly, there needs to be some soul searching if injectable drugs are being used at home, unless they are required for home palliative care, which usually does not last very long. We should perhaps limit as much as possible the use of pills at home. We could ensure that pharmacies only dispense small quantities to avoid having large quantities in people's homes and to prevent others from being tempted to take the medications after the patient's death.

We could also be more proactive when a patient dies. The pharmacy could request that the medication be returned so that it is not left in the home. That could prevent someone from searching and finding these drugs. There are several modest measures that we could put in place.

There are drugs, in pill form, that are available for a reasonable price and that limit problems. For example, there is long-acting morphine. Inside those capsules are tiny beads that are almost impossible to crush. Therefore, people cannot snort or try to inject them. This type of pill is sold at a fairly reasonable price compared to the tamper-resistant forms that can be used.

We can put several measures in place. I think that it would be worthwhile to move more and more toward tamper-resistant forms, particularly for molecules that are especially likely to be used by addicts and in cases where the molecules are already patented in their other form so to speak.

However, we must also not make it harder for patients to access medication. I think that my colleague's bill is balanced because it allows Health Canada to take action, but does not require it to do so. Health Canada would therefore have the freedom to determine whether the risks outweigh the benefits. It will have the flexibility to proceed if necessary. I believe that this approach is well balanced because it is cautious enough to provide some flexibility, which will ensure that patients are not deprived of treatment.

We must also give ourselves the means to act in the event that the benefits outweigh the risks.

I thank the House. I was pleased to be able to speak to this issue.

[Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, November 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, there are molecules in the extended opioid family that we have known about for a fairly long time. They are available in generic form and are therefore relatively inexpensive. They are often used to treat cancer patients.

If the measure proposed by the bill is implemented and we require these medications to be available only in a tamper-resistant form, there could be consequences. For example, the fact that drug companies can obtain new patents for drugs that are modified to make them tamper resistant may drive up the cost of the new form of the drug.

Does my colleague have any suggestions to prevent a situation where the same basic molecule becomes much more expensive because a drug company got a new patent for a product that has been around for decades?

[Canada Pension Plan, November 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, when time allocation motions are used outside of exceptional circumstances, such as war, it shows an inability to work with the other parties in order to reach an agreement.

Given that the government promised to work with the other parties, why is it unable to do so, and why is it resorting to the use of parliamentary tools that it often criticized?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2016, No. 2, November 15th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, in his speech, the member spoke about the Canada child benefit.

On that topic, the bill did not provide for the indexing of that benefit, which represents a loss for Canadian families.

Did the government fail to index this benefit because of a lack of attention or a lack of planning?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2016, No. 2, November 14th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague is talking about the tax cut for the middle class. However, more than 50% of the people in my riding are not even part of the middle class and are not entitled to any tax reduction whatsoever.

Let us look at my situation, for example. My husband is not entitled to anything because he does not make the $40,000 required to belong to the middle class. However, I do not make more than $200,00 and therefore I can get the full tax reduction without any problem. The Liberals missed the boat.

We had suggested that they not apply the tax reduction to the second tax bracket, but to the first, so that everyone, including the poorest in our society, would get a tax reduction. They refused to do it. They do not realize that many people are still earning less than the $45,000 that would make them eligible for a tax reduction.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2016, No. 2, November 14th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleague to venture outside his riding and travel a little. He would realize that sometimes there are 30, 40, or 50 kilometres between some small towns. These people cannot join forces to build a water filtration plant. The cost of the pipes alone would be more than the cost of building the other plant. What he is saying does not make sense.

Yes, sometimes municipalities can work together to obtain certain services, such as snowplowing. However, for other things, towns cannot work together. What the Liberal government is doing will not help these people in the least. It seems that he really does not understand what it is like for these small municipalities.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2016, No. 2, November 14th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to Bill C-29 and some of the budget provisions. I would like to put some things on the record and frame them in the context of what is happening in my riding.

Under Bill C-29 the child benefit will not be indexed. It is estimated that low-income families will lose roughly $5,500 by 2020. If we consider the rising cost of living, low-income families will lose roughly $500 in four years. It is sad that no one thought about the fact that the cost of living will continue to rise for families and that the child benefit was not indexed accordingly.

There are some things people fail to mention about the child benefit. For example, people keep saying the child benefit will help lift children out of poverty, but no one ever says that to be entitled to it we have to have an up-to-date tax file, as do our former spouse and our new spouse. If not, benefits will not be provided until the situation is rectified.

Some services are available only during tax season, which means that people can get help with their returns for the current year, but no help is available to them if they have not done their taxes for four years. Help is not available.

Every week, people come to my office to tell me that they have not received child benefit payments for months or years because they cannot get their Canada Revenue Agency file in order. They may be asked to produce documents proving that their child lives with them. In shared custody or access rights situations, among others, that can be extremely complicated. A parent with a two-year-old or a three-year-old who does not go to day care may have a hard time proving that the child actually lives with him or her. A friend has to declare that he or she knows the parent well and that the child lives with that parent.

Also, information provided by both parents has to match up. Is a former partner who does not receive the child benefit because he or she has access rights but not custody likely to get in touch with the Canada Revenue Agency in a hurry to sort things out? Sometimes the answer is no, and that can create very complex situations that result in some people being denied the child benefit for long periods of time.

My riding office has helped fix the situation for some people who have not been receiving any child benefits for years. They were sometimes owed $20,000 in unpaid benefits from the federal government alone. That money could have helped them when they needed it. However, this is difficult to do because the appropriate services are not in place. People do not always think to contact their MP.

In the past, there was a Canada Revenue Agency service counter in Rouyn-Noranda, in my riding, but it is now closed. The government no longer provides direct services to people. The counter is still there and the office is still open because there are still investigators who work there, but people can no longer go to the CRA office to get help. People are being left with no resources. Often it is those most in need and with a lower level of education who are unable to resolve their situation and get access to the money they are entitled to.

This bill does nothing about the tax system, which most people find extremely complicated. How many people are owed tax refunds each year but do not get them because they do not realize they are entitled to them? These people do not have the money to pay someone to file their tax return for them. They do their best to do it themselves.

Every year, some of the money that is earmarked to help poor people remains in the government coffers because people do not know that they are entitled to it. However, the government is not doing anything to fix that situation.

Child benefits can in fact help lift people out of poverty, but for that to happen, parents need to have access to those benefits and be able to receive that money. If CRA does not offer services that enable people to access their money, we go around in circles, because people are not getting help.

Consider the example of a family of four children where the eldest has a different father than the other three. More information will be needed on that child, because the statements from the two former spouses will not match. The child benefits will be frozen not only for the child in question, but for all four children, even though there is no problem with the other three children's benefits. We want to make sure that people can get their money if there is a problem regarding the amounts.

Also, the new calculation is done in July. This means that if any clarifications are needed, if there is a problem with the file, it will be frozen in July, right before kids go back to school, which is when parents need to spend a bunch of money on school supplies and clothes to make sure that their kids are ready for school. However, that is right when the family benefits would be frozen.

Often services are not accessible. A person tries calling and it may take three or four tries and three or four hours of waiting before they manage to get someone on the phone. People get discouraged. It takes months to correct the situation. For many people, the family allowance represents more than half their income.

I want to move on to something equally important and that is the infamous infrastructure bank, which is actually a privatization bank. The $15 billion that was earmarked for government-funded, public infrastructure projects is being put in a bank, and foreign investors are being sought to fund the infrastructure projects. Obviously, if we are getting foreign funding from private investors, they are going to want a return on their investment. What these private investors want is to get money back in exchange for their investment.

In other words, how do they get a return on their investment when we are talking about roads, bridges, and other infrastructure such as water systems? By charging surcharges, tolls, and user fees. The Liberals never mentioned during the election campaign that they were considering using these fees and privatizing our public infrastructure network to help rebuild what we need built.

What is more, these projects and programs are designed for big cities. What are the chances that I will be able to attract a foreign investor who is willing to invest in a bridge in a small town in northern Abitibi—Témiscamingue? They are very slim.

In reality, the small municipalities and rural regions will be the ones that suffer. They will be completely forgotten in the Liberal government's infrastructure plan. That is a surprise because the Liberals never spoke about privatization. Meanwhile, these municipalities will continue to struggle to try to find solutions to keep their heads above water.

In many cases, the needs are great because all the villages in Abitibi—Témiscamingue were settled around the same time. As a result, the infrastructure was all built around the same time and will all need to be replaced at the same time. That time is now. Some municipalities have five or six bridges in their villages that need to be replaced. They do not have the money to do that. It is impossible for them. What will the municipalities tell people? Will they have to buy people's houses from them and tell them to go live elsewhere because they do not have the money to pay for infrastructure and the government is privatizing infrastructure and investing in Canada's big cities? The government has completely forgotten that people live a few kilometres north of the St. Lawrence River.

That is not what we should have to tell people. Canadians who live in rural regions contribute greatly to Canada's economy. They make sure the large corporations in the big cities have the resources they need. If the government does not support Canada's rural regions, it will destroy our country's economy.

I look forward to my colleagues' questions.

[National Defence, November 14th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, far too many victims of assault and sexual harassment in the Canadian Armed Forces have been refused PTSD benefits. After the hell they have gone through, these victims want only two simple things from the government: first, for it to publish online what services are available; and second, for it to screen all members of the Canadian Armed Forces and provide information about the assistance available.

Will the government heed those simple requests?

[Instruction to the Standing Committee on Health, November 14th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, since I will have to deliver my speech in two parts, I will begin by talking about how young men's health is affected by pornography, which has changed a lot over the years. In the second part of my speech, I will come back to how pornography affects how women and girls perceive sexuality and violence.

The overabundance of pornography available to young men has caused many of them to become addicted to it. Clinical exams of these young men reveal the classic signs of addiction. This problem is real and this addiction is such that those who have it truly need to seek help.

Unfortunately, these same people will often tend to also look for increasingly explicit material, which can cause changes in neural connections. Something that normally would not arouse someone sexually manages to do so over time, such as the association with violence, for example. That is one of the primary problems.

It has also been noted that an increasing number of young men are developing erectile dysfunction in real life, in a real sexual relationship. They are unable to get an erection because they are used to getting sexually aroused with other materials. This creates problems in their sexual health. They develop this problem in a normal relationship and then are less likely to try to have real relationships because of erectile dysfunction. They do not want to be asked why they have this problem at age 20, 22, or 25. They will isolate themselves and tend to watch even more pornography.

These are two health problems experienced by young men. These problems have been documented, discussed, and reported on. Those reports are available.

The other problems that exist really have to do with perceptions of sexuality and the effects they can cause. It is important to understand that the content available on the Internet goes a lot further than what was available 30 years ago. It is almost beyond imagination. Pornography also depicts scenes of criminal behaviour, including gang rape for example. There is a legitimate concern when it comes to the violent content that often depicts criminal activities.

When individuals are discovering their sexuality, trying to figure out what normal sexuality is, what is not normal, and what is completely fictitious, it is easy to become confused. This is especially true for adolescents who have probably never asked their friends, family, and teachers these kinds of questions. Unfortunately, many provinces stopped offering sex education as part of their curriculum for a period of time, so those conversations never happened, unlike my own experience, when some form of sex ed actually was offered at school.

As a result, some people never had a chance to ask those questions or discuss these matters in an appropriate setting. The only resource they could turn to for answers when trying to understand sexuality and how to have a healthy sex life was what was available on the Internet. It is fair to say that what is available on the Internet in no way resembles what really happens with the vast majority of couples in their sex lives.

This could lead to a completely distorted view of sexuality, which could in turn trivialize certain behaviours.

Content that provides a completely distorted view of sexuality may cause young people to think that what they are seeing is realistic and to adopt harmful sexual behaviours. What constitutes sexual consent can often be ambiguous. What is more, very few of these films depict safe sex practices, such as the use of condoms.