House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2025, with 37% of the vote.
Business of Supply November 26th, 2020
Madam Chair, perhaps if the minister is not going to answer the question, she could do it succinctly so I can get more questions in.
Health officials also confirmed that the government failed to negotiate the right to produce vaccines in Canada, as other countries have done. This means Canadians will have to wait for a vaccine and lives are in the balance.
Why did the government fail to negotiate the right to produce vaccines in Canada?
Business of Supply November 26th, 2020
Madam Chair, on August 31, the Prime Minister said the National Research Council would be able to produce hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses starting in November, and millions by the end of this year. Now, of course, not 90 days later, he says Canada has no capacity to produce vaccines at all.
How does the minister explain this blatant reversal on vaccine manufacturing?
Business of Supply November 26th, 2020
Madam Chair, millions of Canadians will have to be vaccinated across Canada if and when a COVID vaccine is approved. Who does the minister anticipate will administer the vaccinations?
Business of Supply November 26th, 2020
Madam Chair, I would appreciate the enforcement of time limits, please.
Once a vaccine has been approved, U.S. authorities plan to begin distribution within 24 hours. Are there plans in place for COVID-19 vaccines to be distributed in Canada within 24 hours of approval?
Business of Supply November 26th, 2020
Madam Chair, I have great respect for the minister and thank her for being here.
However, I must say that a lot of the answers from the government through the COVID-19 crisis have been unnecessarily general. I believe that parliamentarians and Canadians deserve clear and direct answers to responsible questions. Through the questions that I ask, I am hoping the minister will do Canadians the respect of answering the questions directly, if she can.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a vaccine distribution strategy, which set a target date of November 15 for states to be ready for COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
What is Canada's target readiness date for vaccine distribution?
Health November 26th, 2020
Mr. Speaker, on August 31, the Prime Minister said the National Research Council would be able to produce hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses starting in November and millions by the end of this year. Now, not 90 days later, he says Canada has no capacity to produce vaccines at all. Health officials also confirm the government failed to negotiate the right to produce vaccines in Canada as other countries have done. This means Canadians will have to wait for vaccines.
Can the Prime Minister explain his blatant reversal, and why he did not negotiate the right to produce vaccines in Canada?
Employing Persons with Disabilities Act November 25th, 2020
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-255, An Act respecting the development of a national employment strategy for persons with disabilities.
Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise to introduce the employing persons with disabilities act. I would like to thank my colleague, the hon. member for Elmwood—Transcona, for seconding this bill.
This legislation provides for the development of a national employment strategy to increase the economic participation of persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities or diverse needs are facing unique and heightened challenges due to COVID-19. A recent survey found over one-third of respondents with long-term conditions or disabilities has experienced a job loss or reduced hours during the pandemic. Even before this, there were over 400,000 working-age Canadians with disabilities who were not employed, but whose disabilities did not prevent them from working.
People with disabilities have a great deal to contribute to our society. As we look to build back better, we must do more to promote the participation of people with disabilities in the workforce. I call upon all parliamentarians to support this vital initiative because when people with diverse abilities succeed, we all succeed.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Broadcasting Act November 19th, 2020
Mr. Speaker, the Canadian cultural sector is a key driver of sovereignty and the development of a strong multicultural Canadian identity. The film and television industry in British Columbia is incredibly important to the economy of Vancouver, B.C. and, in fact, all of Canada. CBC and Radio-Canada are treasured public voices that bind our nation in ways that commercial broadcasters do not.
How does my hon. colleague see Bill C-10 contributing to these institutions and industries? What is the main value of this bill in his view?
Canada Pharmacare Act November 18th, 2020
Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I speak to Bill C-213, the Canada pharmacare act.
I would like to recognize my colleague for New Westminster—Burnaby for his tireless advocacy in support of universal public drug coverage and thank him for introducing this historic legislation.
We introduce this bill in a unique moment in time. One hundred years ago next year, Sir Frederick Banting, a Canadian orthopaedic surgeon, along with his colleagues, Charles Best and J.J. Macleod, discovered insulin at the University of Toronto. However, Dr. Banting did something exceptional with his life-saving medicine: He sold the patent rights to the university for one dollar, claiming that the discovery belonged to the world, not to him. This allowed insulin to be mass produced, making it widely available to all who needed it no matter their financial means. The bill before the House reflects this noble principle.
The Canada pharmacare act would establish a framework for the implementation of universal public pharmacare in Canada. This legislation is modelled on our cherished Canada Health Act. It mirrors the 2018 majority support of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health, which studied the issue of pharmacare for two solid years. It also is based squarely on the recommendations of the Hoskins Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare.
Like the Canada Health Act, the Canada pharmacare act specifies the conditions that provincial and territorial prescription drug insurance programs must meet to receive federal funding. This includes the core principles of public administration, comprehensiveness, universality, portability and accessibility. The Canada pharmacare act would establish a new Canadian pharmaceutical policy by declaring that it would be the duty of the Government of Canada to facilitate access to prescription drugs without financial or other barriers in order to protect and promote the physical and mental well-being of Canadians.
The overarching purpose of universal public pharmacare is simple. It will ensure that all Canadians get access to the medication they need regardless of their ability to pay. For too long, prescribing decisions in Canada have been influenced by industry profits, marketing and lobbying efforts. Instead, decisions about what drugs are covered ought to be based on empirical evidence and the best health outcomes for patients.
To accomplish this, formulary coverage must be managed by an agency that is arm's length from government and free of industry interference. As such, New Democrats believe that it is imperative to construct a comprehensive public drug list that meets this goal.
For this reason, the Canada pharmacare act would give the federal health minister the authority to work with the provinces and territories to establish an independent drug agency with the mandate to the following: assess the clinical and cost-effectiveness of prescription drugs compared to other treatment options; advise on which prescription drugs, supplies and devices should be covered; negotiate prices and supply arrangements with drug manufacturers; provide advice to health care practitioners and patients on how best to use prescription drugs; and monitor the safety and clinical effectiveness of prescription drugs.
New Democrats are also very mindful of the need to ensure that Canadians with rare diseases and disorders are well served and that promising drug therapies are accessible. We believe that special care must be taken to ensure that drug listing decisions are responsive to these requirements and future pharmaceutical innovation. Ultimately, the goal must be to construct a broad, comprehensive, national drug list that all provinces and territories agree to cover, without cost to their residents, in exchange for federal transfers. This is the premise of our successful medicare system. It works and it is deeply valued by Canadians.
Importantly, New Democrats believe that pharmacare is an important piece of a large, comprehensive pharmaceutical policy reform. In addition to public pharmacare, Canada needs the re-establishment of public drug manufacturing in Canada, an intellectual property innovation fund that ensures taxpayer-funded research is commercialized for our citizens' benefit, patented medicine pricing transparency and the use of compulsory licensing when drug companies refuse to make patented pharmaceuticals available to Canadians on reasonable terms.
To situate this legislation in its historical context, it is important to remember that universal public drug coverage was always intended to be part of the medicare. In 1961, the Royal Commission on Health Services was appointed by Progressive Conservative prime minister John Diefenbaker to study the concept of universal public health care. Mr. Diefenbaker appointed a fellow Conservative, Justice Emmett Hall, to chair that royal commission.
In 1964, the Hall commission released its report, which surprised many by recommending the adoption of the comprehensive health insurance program based on New Democrat Tommy Douglas's Saskatchewan model. In response, some provincial premiers charged that this approach was an intrusion into their jurisdiction, and there was reluctance to proceed within then prime minister Lester Pearson's Liberal caucus. Ironically, we hear much of the same claptrap today.
However, because Canadians had elected a minority Parliament in 1963, with New Democrats holding the balance of power, Tommy Douglas was able to leverage this influence and work with the Pearson government to advance the implementation of medicare, and indeed they did. In 1966, Parliament adopted the Medical Care Act by a vote of 177 to two.
At that time, it was understood that prescription drugs and other essential health services would incrementally be integrated into medicare. In particular, the urgent need to provide coverage for out-of-hospital prescription drugs was specifically highlighted by the Hall commission. However, over a half-century has now passed and, despite repeated studies, proposals, pledges and solemn political promises in campaign platforms, Canada remains the only major country that offers universal health care without some form of universal pharmaceutical coverage. This is not just unjust; it is perplexing from both a health and fiscal perspective.
Canada's failure to implement universal public drug coverage means that at least 20% of Canadians, some seven and a half million Canadians, cannot access the medicine they need when they need it. One in four Canadians is forced to avoid filling or renewing a prescription due to cost, or skips doses because they cannot afford it. To add injury, Canadians pay among the highest prescription drug prices in the industrialized world, due to our U.S.-style private patchwork approach to drug coverage. Even those with private coverage are seeing their employer-sponsored benefits shrink, a trend that has accelerated due to the economic impacts of COVID. In fact, Canadians now are twice as likely to have lost prescription drug coverage as to have gained it in the past year. Worst of all, Canadians die each year simply because they cannot afford the medicine they need.
It is time to finally address this serious deficiency. Evidence has been clear for decades that universal public pharmacare would expand coverage and improve outcomes, while reducing costs for Canadians. Most recently, the Liberals' own Hoskins advisory council found that universal public pharmacare would reduce annual system-wide spending on prescription drugs by $5 billion through the negotiation of lower drug prices, increased generic substitution and streamlined benefits administration. The Hoskins report also found that businesses and employees would see their prescription drug costs reduced by $16 billion annually under pharmacare, and families would see their out-of-pocket drug costs reduced by over $6 billion.
Under this NDP bill, the average Canadian family would save $500 per year and the average employer would save $600 per employee. Universal public drug coverage would also mean long-term savings for our public health care system when those who cannot afford to fill prescriptions achieve improved health outcomes. Yes, it is a fact. With universal, comprehensive and public pharmacare, we can cover every single Canadian's prescription medicine and devices and save billions of dollars every year.
In public life, it is rare to find such an effective policy innovation staring us in the face. Only the most obtuse right-wing ideologue or courage-challenged centrist could fail to see the clear health and economic benefits of this necessary and sensible public policy. It is time and Canadians know it. Polls repeatedly demonstrate astronomical support for public pharmacare because, as with medicare, Canadians know a good idea when they see it. Just as establishing universal hospital and physician care took courage and cross-partisan collaboration, so too will the implementation of pharmacare.
I urge all parliamentarians to join us at this historic hour by supporting the swift passage of the Canada pharmacare act. Let us follow in the brave footsteps of those who served before us, and march forward together toward a more just and healthy society for all.
Health November 18th, 2020
Mr. Speaker, this government has refused to be transparent about the vaccine deals it has signed with drug makers or its plans to deliver COVID vaccines to Canadians. Just today, we learned from the Ontario health minister that six million doses of vaccine will apparently be delivered to Canada between January and March, with almost half for Ontario alone. This is just a fraction of the doses the Prime Minister claims he has secured.
Why are we hearing national vaccine plans from a province, and when will this Prime Minister reveal full vaccine distribution details for Canada?