Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Mégantic—L'Érable.
I am participating in this debate tonight from my hometown of Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan. Right next door to me is the Flying Dust First Nation, one of nine members of the Meadow Lake Tribal Council. On the east side of my riding is the Prince Albert Grand Council, which is comprised of 12 first nations. There are also many Métis communities across my northern Saskatchewan riding along with a huge agricultural sector and tourism.
The reason I highlight this is that all our communities, including the first nation and Métis communities in northern Saskatchewan, are looking to the government for a clear and competent vaccine plan, but they are not finding one.
The text of today's motion indicates that “a vaccine is essential to the health, safety, and economic security of every Canadian.” My constituents are now observing countries around the world as they detail their vaccine plans, with real tangible timelines, and are asking where Canada's plan is.
The Prime Minister naively announced on election night in 2015 “Canada is back.” Now we understand just how true those words were. Canada is indeed at the back of the line, behind one-third of the world population, in getting vaccines.
The attack from the Liberals on this is easily predicted, that we as Conservatives are playing politics. It may come as a shock to the Liberals, but as Canada's official opposition, it is indeed our job to push back, to hold government accountable and, in some cases, even oppose and criticize it. Without the great work of my colleagues in the Conservative Party, Canada and Canadians would be much worse off than they are today in the face of this pandemic.
What do I mean by that? In my role as shadow minister for indigenous services, at many times throughout this pandemic I have identified gaps and serious issues facing indigenous people. This began with many indigenous businesses not being able to access the government's wage subsidy program because of the way it was structured. After weeks of fighting, finally the government modified its program and allowed these businesses to access the wage subsidy.
Next was the issue of elections on first nations. As Canada was dealing with the first wave of this pandemic, elections were scheduled to occur, while many first nations were developing public health measures to ensure their people were kept safe. As members can imagine, contrary to what the Liberals clearly want, the height of a pandemic is no time to hold an election. Therefore, I, with the help of many, pushed the minister and his department to find a solution. They did. They found the ability to delay these elections in regulations created under the Indian Act.
A few months into the pandemic, I was made aware of a major gap in the government's CEBA loan program, thanks to the excellent advocacy of Tabatha Bull of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, Shannin Metatawabin of the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association and many others. Indigenous businesses do not often use traditional banking systems. Instead, they make use of the many aboriginal financial institutions, AFIs, across Canada. Alongside many stakeholders, we advocated for the government to create the emergency loan program administered through NACCA. It was eventually announced at the end of April, but still businesses could not access it until over two months later.
Let us not forget that it was the Conservative Party that first raised the idea of closing our borders to international travellers. Our concerns were met with scoffs and suggestions of racism from the health minister. Then what happened? The government eventually listened and closed our borders.
In addition to that, it was our party that fought the government to investigate rapid tests after countries around the world started to introduce them for use. The Liberals at the time, which I predict they will again do today, accused us of being too partisan. What happened? Within weeks of us raising it, the government started looking into and approving rapid tests.
It is clear that if it were not for our strong, principled opposition, Canadians would be far worse off than they are today in the face of the second wave of this pandemic. Here we are today once again identifying a major gap in the government's handling of the pandemic, hoping to receive all-party support and finally receive some semblance of a plan from the Liberals.
Getting back to the motion, the Conservatives, and I believe all Canadians, want to know how each type of vaccine will be safely delivered to Canada, stored and distributed to Canadians; the data on which each vaccine type will be first deployed in Canada and the rate of vaccinations anticipated by month; any intended federal guidance with respect to the deployment of the vaccine by priority group, such as front-line health workers and seniors; and, finally, the plan for distribution of the vaccine to indigenous communities, members of the Canadian Armed Forces and veterans.
For the remainder of my time, I want to focus on the importance of a plan for rural and remote indigenous communities, urban indigenous people and indigenous businesses.
During the first wave of the pandemic, indigenous people experienced far lower positive and mortality rates for COVID-19 because of strong local leadership. While the Liberals were playing politics about closing borders, many first nations did exactly that and were able to control who came into their communities in order to keep their people safe.
It is no secret that there are many unsafe living conditions in many of these indigenous communities across our country. In the face of such adversity, indigenous people weathered the first wave better than any other demographic across the country.
As Canada has experienced the second wave, indigenous communities are now dealing with increased COVID fatigue, leading to people to let their guard down and sometimes make poor decisions, thus increasing the risk to their families and communities. With no plan from the government on when these communities may receive a vaccine, how it will be transported to them and how many doses they will be provided, the leadership in these communities cannot provide hope that this will soon be over. This is precisely why we need a plan from the government.
Eight months ago, I raised the issue of collecting accurate and comprehensive data on urban indigenous people with the Minister of Indigenous Services. The purpose of this would be to reduce jurisdictional wrangling. Unfortunately, as we saw last week, instead of action, the minister decided to point the finger at the provinces and municipalities. Without accurate and comprehensive data on urban indigenous people, how can the government plan to vaccine this vulnerable population and learn from this pandemic?
My office has been in close contact with the Aboriginal Friendship Centres of Saskatchewan as well as its national organization. These groups have been providing much of the care for urban indigenous populations throughout the pandemic and they also have been advocating for better data so they can continue to provide these high-quality services. Without a plan that includes answers on the how, when and who, these organizations are left to fill the gap on which the government should be providing leadership.
An issue that has become near and dear to me, as I have served in the capacity as shadow minister over the past year, is indigenous businesses. I strongly believe that without true economic reconciliation, Canada's relationship with indigenous people will continue to be one of dependence. We need to put our effort and focus on supporting indigenous entrepreneurs who remain so connected to their nations and allow them to reinvest in their communities to provide real and lasting positive outcomes. That means the Liberals making good on their promise of a 5% procurement target for indigenous businesses.
The government cannot continue to operate in silos. This need to be a whole-of-government approach across all departments. Out of all the contracts awarded to businesses across Canada to produce PPE, the fact that indigenous businesses made up less than 1% is unacceptable, especially when hundreds of indigenous businesses lined up to be providers.
Indigenous businesses, like all businesses, need a level of certainty in order to successfully operate and make continued investments. As I pointed out, the government has done a poor job in supporting indigenous businesses throughout this pandemic and now, as these businesses are again looking for a plan, they are seeing a government with no plan.
In speaking with indigenous business stakeholders this week, we heard concerns regarding the lack of a mention of indigenous entrepreneurs in the fall economic statement. This has led them to be very disappointed and concerned with their ability to even survive a second wave, instead of focusing on the critical role they could be playing in the economic post-pandemic recovery.
That is why it is so important today that we pass this motion to provide these businesses and all Canadians some semblance of certainty during this difficult time.
