Madam Speaker, I am honoured to rise today to speak to Bill C-10, an act respecting certain measures related to COVID-19, and I am particularly delighted to be splitting my time with my hon. colleague for Winnipeg Centre.
This legislation is very straightforward. In fact, in my time in the House of Commons over the last 14 years, I have rarely seen a bill that is shorter. It is two sections long and would, first, authorize the Minister of Health to make payments of up to $2.5 billion out of the consolidated revenue fund for any expenses incurred on or after January 1, 2022, in relation to COVID-19 tests. Second, it would transfer to any province or territory, or to any body or person in Canada, any COVID-19 tests or instruments used in relation to those tests acquired on or after April 1, 2021. In other words, it would authorize, on an emergency basis, the purchase and delivery of rapid tests to Canadians.
New Democrats strongly believe that we must expand access to COVID-19 testing for Canadians as quickly as possible. Therefore, we will be supporting this legislation and we are supporting its rapid passage through the House, unlike my colleagues in the Conservative Party and in the Bloc Québécois. However, I must underline our profound disappointment that Canada is still playing catch-up on COVID-19 testing as we enter the third year of this pandemic.
The Liberal government's refusal to learn from its past mistakes is, with respect, inexcusable. COVID-19 has long underscored the crucial role of testing. I might remind everybody in the House that one of the first things Canadians learned about this pandemic was the profound need for testing and tracing. This, we were told, was one of the core strategies to get us out of this pandemic. It also underscored the need for surveillance in controlling infectious disease outbreaks and guiding sound public health decisions. We cannot manage what we do not measure.
However, notwithstanding this, Canada has suffered from severe limitations on testing capacity through wave after wave of this pandemic due to the federal government's repeated failure to stockpile or procure sufficient supplies or to accelerate domestic production capacity. I will stop and say that, in my view, the federal Liberal government has taken an extraordinarily narrow view of its role in this pandemic. It seems to me that it might be rectified today, but up until now it has really only reserved itself the obligation to procure supplies.
This falls squarely within that. It is the government's job to procure testing, yet here we are in February, 2022, and Canadians in every province and territory across this land cannot get access to the tests they need in a timely manner. Health care workers cannot get access to the tests they need. Educators cannot get access to the tests they need. People have to pay out of pocket exorbitant amounts of money, if they can find tests. That underscores the failure of the Liberal government's prime responsibility to procure the kind of equipment that we need to get through this pandemic.
With the emergence of the highly transmissible omicron variant, an exponential surge of COVID-19 cases has once again overwhelmed Canada's testing capacity while the federal government scrambles to secure supplies in a highly competitive global marketplace. As a result, COVID-19 testing has become inaccessible for many Canadians. Reported case numbers underestimate the true number of infections, and contact tracing efforts have been largely abandoned. This has led to extreme frustration among Canadians who want to do the right thing and protect our loved ones from exposure to the virus.
In response to shortages throughout the omicron surge, many provinces have restricted access to polymerase chain reaction, PCR, testing to individuals who are at higher risk of severe illness and those in settings where the virus could spread quickly. PCR testing, as we know now, is more precise than rapid antigen testing, and positive results from rapid test kits are not reported in official COVID-19 case counts.
However, rapid antigen tests are considered an important screening tool. Research shows that they are instrumental in preventing asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19 because they provide quick and reliable results. Unfortunately, these rapid tests, as I have mentioned, have also been very difficult for Canadians to access, particularly during the recent holiday season. To date, most of the provinces' limited rapid antigen test supplies have been earmarked for schools, businesses, long-term care homes, health care facilities and other high-risk settings.
At the end of 2021, the federal government had only delivered 120 million rapid test in total, or about three per person, to the provinces and territories. To put this in context, Dr. David Juncker, department chair of biomedical engineering at McGill University, estimates that with the highly transmissible omicron variant, Canada could require 600 million to 700 million tests a month and then two tests per person every week once this wave subsides.
In early January 2022, the Liberal health minister confirmed that Canada's PCR testing capacity is “in crisis” and announced that the federal government would distribute 140 million additional rapid tests to the provinces and territories by the end of the month. However, unfortunately, the government failed to deliver millions of the promised tests. By January 28, 2022, the federal government had only delivered an additional 75 million rapid tests to the provinces and territories. Ontario confirmed it only received 17 million of the 54 million tests that were promised. Alberta received fewer than five million of its allocation of 16 million rapid tests. Manitoba was shipped a little less than half of the federal commitment. British Columbia, my province, received a little over six million rapid tests, with 18 million per capita share. Quebec was shortchanged by 5.8 million tests.
The New Democrats believe that accountability and transparency have been essential for maintaining the public's confidence throughout this pandemic. Clear communication is critical for allowing the provinces and territories to make effective plans in their respective jurisdictions. Although the federal government has contracts in place for the procurement of rapid tests totalling some $3.5 billion, details are not publicly available on when suppliers will actually deliver the rapid tests outlined in those agreements. For these reasons, the New Democrats have demanded measures to provide transparency on how the $2.5 billion outlined in this legislation will be present. We believe that Canadians deserve full details with respect to how many tests have been purchased, when and to whom they will be delivered, when they are delivered and how much of the funding has been expended.
I am pleased to state to the House today that our negotiations with the government have resulted in an agreement by the government to produce that information to the House every six months. I want to congratulate my colleagues in the Liberal government for doing that. I think it is a sign of how effective opposition can make legislation stronger and better instead of holding up something that is urgently needed in a time of pandemic in this country, as the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois joined together to do today.
Furthermore, the New Democrats are reiterating our long-standing call for the federal government to expand domestic manufacturing capacity for all essential medical equipment in this country, including COVID-19 tests and other critical COVID-19-related tools, such as personal protective equipment, treatments and vaccines. Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, has been clear that the virus will continue to evolve and that further waves will occur. These surges could be quite severe and we need to be ready for them. COVID-19 testing will allow us to move forward with greater freedom and confidence, but we need to secure a resilient supply. To do so, Canada must break our dependence on fragile global markets. The federal government must take immediate action to mobilize Canadian industry with support for research, accelerated market approvals and manufacturing and supply chain development. We need to bring back domestic manufacturing to this country, especially for essential medicines, vaccines, equipment and supplies.
All Canadians have been horrified to see throughout this pandemic that Canada has faced a shortage of essential equipment like ventilators, personal protective equipment, vaccines, which we are still not producing in this country, and life-saving medicine. That is why the NDP has proposed constructive proposals like establishing a Crown corporation for a better chain for Canadian suppliers and domestic production.
I want to read a quote from Barry Hunt, president of the Canadian Association of Personal Protective Equipment Manufacturers. He said:
The prime minister himself and the federal government made a commitment to our industry to buy products. What we've seen is the exact opposite: buying only from multinationals, buying only commodity products, locking health-care workers out of new and innovative products, and essentially, decimating the new PPE industry.
That is the exact opposite of what we need to do, so today, I call on all parliamentarians to recognize the urgent situation we are in, pass this legislation quickly and get rapid tests into the hands of Canadians to help them get through this pandemic as soon as possible.
