Jagmeet Singh

[Health, September 24th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have let Conservative premiers privatize their health care systems and have done nothing about it.

The last Conservative government cut health care funding by $43.5 billion. That is the salary of more than 60,000 nurses every year.

Now Conservative premiers, like François Legault, are privatizing our health care system, and the Liberals are doing nothing about it.

Why are the Liberals doing nothing to protect people and to protect the Canada Health Act?

[Health, September 24th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are too weak to stand up to Doug Ford, so some patients are leaving surgeries with thousands of dollars in bills. The Liberals are too weak to stand up to Danielle Smith, so people in her province are forced to pay to see a doctor. That is what Conservatives do. They cut and gut health care so their big business buddies can use that to rip off Canadians even more.

Why is the Liberal government letting Conservatives privatize our health care system?

[Business of Supply, September 24th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, we strongly believe in taking care of seniors, taking care of one another. That is a fundamental belief for New Democrats.

I agree that the Liberals often talk the talk, but do not walk the walk. It is obvious that we were the ones who forced the government to implement the dental care program. This program will help people throughout the country, especially in Quebec. The Bloc Québécois voted against this idea, against this program that helps so many people in Quebec, even more than in other provinces. We think this program is important, and the Bloc Québécois will have to explain why it voted against it.

[Business of Supply, September 24th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, the leader of the Conservatives might have to answer that question more directly. We know the Conservatives like to do a lot of distracting from what is really going on and distracting from the truth.

Let us talk about what the Conservatives would actually do. They want to cut and gut health care. They want to cut pharmacare. They want to cut dental care. We know that people are benefiting from this program.

I have met with people on it. I met with Sue, a retired senior on a fixed income and cancer survivor who, because of her cancer treatment, lost her teeth. I was with her at the dentist's office when she was told that she was going to get her smile back, and she broke down in tears of joy. That is who the Conservatives want to attack. They want to strip Sue of the dignity of getting her teeth fixed. That is what we are fighting against today.

[Business of Supply, September 24th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, let us talk about that choice. We are talking about health care today. I talked about the fact that the Conservative leader voted against dental care, voted against pharmacare and voted against increases to health care. Conservative premiers are destroying health care. They are cutting and gutting it. People out there can look at any province with a Conservative premier and look at the state of health care. They are destroying it. That is what the Conservatives want to do.

I asked a question directly of the member for Carleton about whether he would cut the dental care program and he did not answer. He does not have the courage to tell us to our faces, but we know what he would do. He would cut our health care system and make life harder for people. He would help his corporate buddies, for sure, and he would hurt Canadians.

That is the choice that Canadians will make in the next election. Do they want someone who will stand up for working-class people or someone who will help their corporate buddies? The choice is clear.

[Business of Supply, September 24th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie.

People across the country strongly believe that we should help each other and that caring for our neighbours makes us stronger. One value we all share is our support for a universal and entirely free public health care system. Unfortunately, decades of budget cuts have put our health care system at risk. We know that Conservative leaders have made cuts to health care in the past. The Conservative Party did the same during its time in office and wants to do so again. It voted against dental care and universal pharmacare. It continually votes against our health care system.

As a result, unless our health care system receives sufficient funding, people will have to wait longer for the services they need. The Conservatives want to privatize our health care system. This means that people will have to pay for access to services, which goes against Canadians' values.

We saw that the Liberals did not have the courage or the strength to stop the Conservatives' budget cuts across the country. The Conservative premiers, like Danielle Smith, Doug Ford and even François Legault, have all three continued to privatize our system. People are having to pay out of pocket instead of getting free services. People are paying the price.

The NDP wants to strengthen our health care system. We want to work with the provinces to have a stronger health care system. We believe in the value of keeping a universal, public and completely free system. That is why we will vote against the Conservatives' motion, against the idea of making cuts to our health care system, in services that people need. We will vote against the Conservatives' motion.

Canadians believe fundamentally that we are better off when we take care of each other, when we look out for our neighbours, when we look out for one another and when we lift each other up. When we do that, we all rise together.

Everyone should be able to have a good job that allows them to find a place they can afford to live in, to put food on the table and to have a fridge full of groceries. We believe fundamentally that Canadians share the value, as the New Democrats do, of having a health care system that is public, universal and completely free, so people do not have to pay out of pocket.

We do not believe that Canadians should have to worry about racking up credit card debt to see a doctor. People should not have to worry about choosing to pay for a doctor over buying groceries for their family. This should not be a choice that Canadians have to make. We believe in a system that is there for people when they need it.

Sadly, people are losing hope. They see our health care system eroding. They see that it is impossible to build a good life. They see costs continuing to rise. They see that it is harder to put food on the table, to buy groceries and to pay rent.

Also, Canadians are worried each time they have to take their loved ones to see a doctor or when they get care for themselves. They are worried that getting better will be connected to a bill, a bill to see the doctor or to join a membership to even see a doctor. Canadians are worried that there is going to be a bill attached to buying the medication they need to stay well.

A bill for health care is the cost of the Conservatives. Every time Canadians see a doctor to get the health care they or their loved ones need, there will be a bill. When the member for Carleton was in cabinet, and let us be very clear, contrary to what he said, he and his party cut and gut health care. In fact, the Conservatives cut $43.5 billion out of health care.

The Conservatives might try to play loose with the facts, but the reality is that they cut health care, and it hurt. Premiers lined up to complain about the Harper cuts. People lined up to say that it was wrong. The Conservatives cut and it hurt. In fact, right off the bat, they cut 163 Canadian doctors and nurses. Wait times got longer. It was harder to find a family doctor. Waiting times in the emergency room skyrocketed. The wait for surgeries ballooned. People felt the pain. There is a cost to the Conservatives, and that cost is that people pay the price.

We do not have to look very far. We know that cutting health care is at the very core of Conservative values. We can see that happening right now. Conservative premiers are, brick by brick, trying to destroy our health care system. In Ontario, we know that Doug Ford is gleefully cutting health care, destroying our public health care system, putting health care workers and money into private clinics, which starves public health care, starves the public hospitals, and people end up waiting longer and longer to get that care. Conservative Premier Danielle Smith is destroying health care in Alberta. This is what Conservatives do. Look to any Conservative province, look to any province where Conservatives have been in power, and look at the state of the health care system. It will be in shambles, because that is what Conservatives do. They cut health care and people know it.

The more the Conservatives cut, the more the health care system falls apart. They set up the argument that now that they have starved this thing, now that they have broken it and it is not working, they will sell it to their greedy CEO corporate buddies and let them profit from it. For the Conservatives, they see sick people as an untapped cash cow. They look at sick people and ask how they can profit from their pain. They ask how they can profit from people who are sick. They ask how they can help their corporate buddies make money from their pain.

Right now, companies like Maple are charging Canadians up to $100 to visit a doctor, on top of a membership fee that they have to subscribe to be on the list to see those doctors. Who owns Maple? It turns out that it is owned by Loblaw. For the Conservatives, when it comes to the same corporate grocery store that sets our grocery prices and is ripping us off, they want it to also set the prices when it comes to seeing a doctor.

Here is what is even more shocking. The chief adviser to the Conservatives, Jenni Byrne, is a lobbyist for none other than Loblaw. Conservative insiders are directly benefiting from the privatization of our health care system. The Conservatives want to stop pharmacare. They voted against increases to our health care system in February 2023. They want to cut the pensions of people. They want to cut dental care.

We want to strengthen pensions. We want to expand dental care. We want to ensure health care is there for us when we need it. They want to cut health care. We want to shorten wait times. That is why we are not going to let the leader of the Conservatives call the shots. We are going to vote today against Conservative cuts and against a Conservative motion.

Let us take a minute to talk about the Liberals. The Liberals claim that they care about our health care system. They claim that they want to defend it, as if they are not in power and do not have the power to do something about it. When I mention the cuts that are happening to health care by provincial premiers, the Liberal government is standing by and letting them do it. It is letting our health care system be privatized. The Liberals are not using the federal tools, the tools that we have in the Canada Health Act. They are allowing it to happen.

In fact, we put forward a motion to stop the flow of public money, at the federal level, going to for-profit clinics. That motion was a strong signal to say that, no, we would not let this happen anymore. What did the Liberals do? They voted against that motion. They voted to allow for-profit companies to continue to starve our public health care system. When the private system takes all the health care workers and all the money, there is less in the public system and people have to wait longer in the ER rooms. They have to wait longer for their public care.

The Liberal government has done nothing to ban for-profit companies from scooping up health care workers. We have seen it do nothing to stop for-profit clinics that continue to rip off Canadians. It is because the Liberal government is too weak to stand up to Danielle Smith, too weak to stand up to Doug Ford and, frankly, too weak to stop the Conservative cuts proposed by the federal Conservatives. The Liberals are telling Canadians, when Conservative premiers tell us to pay up or wait longer, that this is okay, that they are going to do nothing about it.

We believe the next election is about an important choice for Canadians. After decades of cuts and broken promises, Canadians are going to need us to work to restore hope and give them relief. The next election is about that choice. It will be a choice between the cuts of Conservatives or the hope and relief of New Democrats. Hope and relief mean homes we can actually afford and not, as the Conservatives want, helping out their corporate—

[Business of Supply, September 24th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, let us review the member for Carleton's record on cuts to health care. He voted against dental care. He voted against pharmacare. He voted to cut health care, time and time again. Maybe it does not matter to somebody who has had the government pay for his dentist appointments since his early 20s, but those costs matter to families.

Let us see whether he actually answers this simple question. Would the member for Carleton cut the dental care program that has provided real relief to seniors and kids? Yes or no.

[Health, September 23rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have caved again and again to the big corporations that are ripping off Canadians, and they have not stood up to the Conservatives.

In Quebec, the Confédération des syndicats nationaux, or CSN, is saying that no one should profit from illness. We know that the Conservatives want CEOs to get richer on the backs of the sick, but it is very disappointing to see that attitude from the Liberals. They promised to stop the privatization of health care. They failed.

Is it because they are too weak to stop the Conservatives or too beholden to the CEOs?

[Health, September 23rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, it is $100 for a doctor's appointment. For-profit corporations such as Loblaw are forcing patients to pay to see a doctor. The Conservatives love this because their chief strategist, Jenni Byrne, also doubles as a chief lobbyist for Loblaw. The Liberals promised a crackdown and that turned out to be a letdown.

Why does the Liberal government continue to let big corporations rip off Canadians and not defend our health care system?

[Health, September 19th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, New Democrats built medicare; Liberals and Conservatives are tearing it down.

The Liberals promised to help seniors in Quebec with the age well at home initiative, but Quebeckers are not receiving anything because the Liberals and the Legault government are too busy bickering.

Will the Prime Minister stop this nonsense and finally deliver on the promise to help Quebeckers?