Karen Vecchio

[Mental Health, October 20th, 2022]

Madam Chair, I am thankful we are having this debate tonight because one thing we have heard, time and time again, is that mental health is affecting each and every Canadian. Whether it is a family member, a co-worker, a friend or a neighbour, we must recognize this.

I will be splitting my time with the member for Battle River—Crowfoot this evening.

I remain the chair of the status of women committee, which is doing a very important study on the mental health of young women and girls. I would like to talk about some of the work that we are doing on the study, but also about some of the things I am finding out with every single member who sits on that committee. There are 11 members, one male and 10 women, and I feel like I am sitting among friends. I feel that I can talk about mental health, as we are tonight, recognizing that there are many issues.

One thing I am finding is that now is a time of camaraderie. It is a time when I am listening to people who many times I may oppose, but we are all sharing stories and that is so key for me.

I am a mom. Like so many other people here, I am a parent and we have children. We tried to get through COVID-19 as best we could, but we know the impacts on our children. When I think of me and my five children, I can say that the last two and a half years were horrible. There is another word that starts with an “h”. It was just not a good place to be.

I am not feeling sorry for members of Parliament, but we were there when people were going through a crisis. We were there when businesses were saying they had to lock their doors, when families were saying a family member was sick or a loved one passed away, and when people were separated from their loved ones because of border challenges. I think about those things.

Last week at the status of women committee, we talked a lot about how children being out of school due to COVID was the worst thing possible. The kids needed to be together. The committee talked about dopamine today with Dr. Shanker. All of the things that kids need to grow were taken away from them for two and a half years.

I hope my son is not listening to my speech tonight because I do not really like to talk about him, but he is a kid who played four sports. Whether it was volleyball, basketball, soccer, badminton, whatever he could play with a racquet or a ball, that is what he was doing. He was told that they were not playing sports anymore at his school. Not only was he not going to school, but they were not playing sports. Then they were told that they could not go to the playground to run around and throw hoops. My son was 17 at the time and that kid needed to get out.

Today at the status of women committee we talked about how kids turned to social media and played video games, which was only hiding the pain and did not fix anything at all. When kids needed it the most, they were separated from people. We know that there is going to be a long journey back.

I went through another crisis, and I am proud of it. I am proud and will never be ashamed of some of the things that happened to me and my family in the last two and a half years. I can talk about my own experience. I have turned my book over because I think it is time to just talk.

When my family was going through a crisis, three moms called me that week because they too were in crisis and they had no one to turn to. I was so fortunate because I have the most amazing family, an awesome husband, phenomenal children and friends and neighbours who surrounded me. They watched as I was going through my own turmoil, while knowing that other parents needed us as well. That is why I am telling every single person here to be there when somebody needs them, to be there when one of their colleagues is going through something, because they never know when the shoe is going to drop for them. One never knows.

In the first week of my little trauma, I really got to see that there were no services available when people really needed them. When I went through the crisis, there was nothing to help me, and when people were calling me, I was doing everything I could. We need to do more and I am urging the government to get that $4.5 billion out of the coffers, start directing it to the organizations that need it and start ramping up some of these services for our health care workers who are exhausted. They cannot be there any longer and are burning out. We need to do it now because the crisis is right at the edge, and it is only going to get worse.

[Mental Health, October 20th, 2022]

Madam Chair, I know this colleague. I have worked with her very closely when we talk about mental health, especially with women and girls. One thing we have been talking about lately is self-regulation. Perhaps she can share with this House one of the aspects of what we can put into a policy.

[Mental Health, October 20th, 2022]

Madam Chair, the last two speeches focused on our veterans. I think every single person in this chamber can agree that the veterans who have fought for this country and who have served this country deserve the best. With the $4.5 billion, what would the hon. member like to see sent to veterans? What would she like to see be the priority for the government when it comes to our veterans and mental health?

[Cost of Living Relief Act, No. 2, October 18th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I know my husband is watching, so to my chicken farmer friend over there, I would like to say to him that we already know that during the federal election, the Canadian Dental Association asked for interim money to put money into a program through the provinces and territories that already existed. That was asked for by the provinces and territories. It was asked for by the CDA.

Yes, people are excited about the headlines, but it is the guts of this bill that is a real mess. Unfortunately, the headline is great, but the guts suck.

[Cost of Living Relief Act, No. 2, October 18th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, it looks really good in the headlines and it looks really good when we get the government to tell us that we do not care about children's teeth. No, we care about a program that works. We care about the economy. We care about the next generation. When we talk about spending money right, let us talk about the $4.5 billion that has been sitting in the coffers for the last year under the government when we know we are in a mental health crisis.

Earlier today, I heard that one person each week in the city of London is dying of an overdose. That is one person a week. In 2015, I was hearing that about Vancouver, but this has gone across our country. We are talking about dental care when we should really be talking about the opioid crisis.

[Cost of Living Relief Act, No. 2, October 18th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I have great respect for the member and all I can say is I am really sorry that she is so off base on this one. I look at the fact that when we are talking about this program, we already have first steps in place.

If we really want to talk about prevention, put that education in the public schools; put that education into parents' homes. That is where it is missing. We do not have the educational programs across our provinces like we once did in the 1970s and 1980s. We have seen some of that being retracted. If we want to teach education, teach prevention, and dental health is part of that.

If we want to talk about first steps, work with our partners. That is our first step. When the CDA says it wants one program and when the provincial governments are saying the same thing, listen. That is where we can do well with these dental programs.

[Cost of Living Relief Act, No. 2, October 18th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I am truly honoured to be standing here to speak to this bill. Lots of people are still in the House and I know they are all excited about my speaking to this bill as well.

I want to start off with a quote. What I have been hearing for the last number of weeks is that we do not care about children. I want to read from something that I received this morning. It was sent to every member of Parliament. I really hope that government members are listening and reading their emails. This is a letter from Children First Canada which states, “Once ranked 10th amongst the OECD for the well-being of children, Canada has fallen sharply to 30th place. Children First Canada's latest raised-in-Canada research suggests Canada has reached a critical tipping point. Many children do not make it to their 18th birthday. The infant mortality rate in Canada is higher than in most wealthy countries and the leading cause of childhood deaths include preventable injuries, suicide and homicide. Those that do not survive are not thriving. One-half of kids experience poor mental health in the form of depression, one-third experience bullying, one-quarter experience sexual harassment or assault in school before reaching grade 7 and a fifth grow up in poverty.”

I wanted to read that into the record because we are talking about a program that was introduced earlier this year which I believe has not had the appropriate consultation, especially with the provinces. I would like to ask the government what consultation it did with the provinces. The consultation with the Canadian Dental Association makes it very clear that it is not pleased with this decision.

When I read something like this from the OECD stating that there is an astounding negative impact on our children under the government with its leadership, yet the government is telling us that we do not care about our children, perhaps it should look in the mirror and tell us how we went from 10th to 30th place. That is something really important that we should be looking at. I hope that members are reflecting on that as we have this discussion.

I am coming to this discussion on Bill C-31, the dental and rental bill as it has been called, by looking specifically at the dental aspect. I have applied my education in dental health from 1993 when I graduated and then worked in the field for a number of years, and then once I had children, my understanding of the field as well. I come to this with an understanding of how these programs work, what it looks like as a dental assistant, or a dental hygienist, or working and teaching people how to brush their teeth. I have had the opportunity to work very closely with many dentists, specifically Dr. Charlin Lin in the city of London, where I have seen the importance of dental health.

When we talk about dental health, I would have to say it is one of my top three priorities, absolutely one of the key priorities when we are looking at health care. Dental health falls there, but what we are talking about is a program that we want to have nationally. This is where I applaud the government for understanding that dental health is very important, which it is, but come on. The government is providing a program that is so not beneficial to Canadian families. That is what I want to reflect on in this speech today.

Over 70% of Canadians are already covered under some programs. We know that children, specifically here in Ontario, are covered under a program called healthy smiles. Back when I graduated, it was called children in need of treatment. If anyone wants to debate it with me, they should go for it. I dare them. The fact is that children in need of treatment was an excellent program and was a very important program for low-income people.

I listened earlier to the Prime Minister talk about targeted funding. If we want to talk about targeted funding, the government should do what the provinces have asked for. The provinces have asked the government to expand the already existing programs.

That is why I say that the government has come up with a program that fills this little minute void and looks really great on paper. Meanwhile, it is sitting on $4.5 billion that was announced in last year's budget for mental health and the OECD has said that the well-being of our children has dropped from 10 down to 30 in its rankings. The government is putting forward a program that looks great on paper, but if it were to ask anything about the administrative costs, it would find out that those administrative costs are not going down to our children.

Once again, the government is wasting taxpayers' money. That is why I challenge the government to take a step back, take a look at this program, and start talking to the Canadian Dental Association and the Ontario Dental Association. I have read their reports. I have spoken to dentists and they are not in support of this program.

I will read from the newsletter of an organization, Atlas Dental. It states:

The federal government’s plan for now is both ambitious, ambiguous, and perhaps a little misguided. There are many questions that are yet to be answered before such a universal dental care program comes into effect. Such as exactly how much dental care coverage is each Canadian eligible for? What kind of dental services are covered? Will it be available under public health unit dentists or will it be open to private practice dentists as well?

Some answers are coming out, but at the same time, it does not answer the need.

It goes on to state:

During the 2021 Canadian federal election, the CDA recommended that Parliament conduct a detailed study on improving dental coverage for Canadians, within the first 12 months following the election. In the interim, the CDA recommended an investment of $600 million over the next five years to maintain and expand existing dental care programs delivered by provincial and territorial governments, particularly those targeting vulnerable populations.

The reason it is very important for me to put on the record is I do not know where the support for this program is, with the exception of the government bench. When we talk to dentists, the dental health associations and the public health associations about their needs and what they have asked for, the government is delivering something totally different. and I ask why. Why is the government putting forward a program when people have said this is not the way to do it?

When we look at dental programs, we should look at the schedules. This is getting into the weeds. A schedule is the lab work, the five-digit code that a dentist has to put in and say what it costs. For those working in programs like children in need of treatment or the healthy smiles program, there is a special code. People can go to their dentists, have work performed and there is a smaller cost associated with that.

Many of those programs are covered by Ontario Works, ODSP and an assortment of other programs. We are now going to be putting money into Canadians' bank accounts without actually doing the follow-up investigations that will be needed. If they are following the same schedules, because the government is saying it is going to be public and universal and it is going to be legal to have different schedule fees, what we will find is that they will be paying for a pantograph that will now be two or three times what the cost would have been under the child in need of treatment program. The filling that would have cost maybe $90 is now going to cost $345. It is a program that provides the services that Canadians need and that children across this country have received. Yes, there are gaps, but it would be replaced with a very ill-thought-out program. That is why I am very concerned.

I am going to talk about the rental benefit. I am very proud of my son, who finally moved into an apartment of his own. The cost is $1,400. What a great cost, because it is one of the most affordable apartments that he could find. The average rental cost in my community is over $2,000 and $500 does not even pay for a week's rent in the city of London. This would be a band-aid approach. Meanwhile, we see the housing markets skyrocket.

If we want to look at why apartment rents are so costly, it is because of where the houses are. If we want to compare the facts from 2018 to 2022 and look at what the market range is for real estate, we are going to find in some of our communities that there are differences of $250,000 to $300,000. This is really important to know because for someone trying to rent an apartment whose base cost was originally $345,000 and that person buys a home for $650,000, we all know that rental cost is going to go up. Then we have to add the interest rates that we are going to continue to see.

As members of the Conservative Party have been bringing forward time and time again, we see inflation and more spending by the government. We ask the government to please put a cap on it and to get something done right. It should fix our health care system with good programs and stay away from dental programs until the government gets it right. This is a failure. I hope the government can do better.

[Hockey Canada, October 6th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, we are in a crisis that we must address. For the past several months, I have had the opportunity to sit on the heritage committee, where we are focusing on Hockey Canada and the rape that occurred following its gala dinner in 2018.

However, this has opened up a whole new can of worms. In the coming weeks, Rick Westhead, the reporter who brought us the story on Hockey Canada, will be releasing his documentary, in which viewers will hear from former gymnasts who have come forward and shared their stories of inappropriate touching and sexual abuse. Over 400 gymnasts have now come forward, asking for an independent investigation. We are hearing from high-performance gymnasts, boxers and rowers, who are all sharing their stories.

The common denominator here is that these are our kids; these athletes are our children. Someone said to me, “Hockey Canada is too big. We have no power against them.” I disagree. No one is too big when it comes to the safety and well-being of our children. There needs to be an investigation, and the government needs to take action on behalf of the many young athletes who have been wrongfully violated.

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, September 28th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, our new Conservative leader will put people first: their paycheques, their savings, their home and their country.

Trevor Neiman, director of digital economy and legal adviser of the Business Council of Canada, stated, “Immigrants often have the training, experience and qualifications to work in booming industries where Canada truly, desperately needs help, but newcomers are being denied a chance to contribute because of restrictive admission rules to these professions.” These are our doctors, nurses and engineers.

A combination of factors, such as the cost of living and recognizing core credentials and experience, is leading new immigrants to consider leaving Canada after resettling for only two years. Under our new Conservative leader, we will team up with the provinces to guarantee that within 60 days, an immigrant applying to work in their profession will get a yes or no based on their tested abilities, not based on where they came from.

Let us take action for all Canadians and remove these restrictions.

[Taxation, September 27th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, under the Liberal government the cost of living is skyrocketing. However, do not fret, because the government has an affordability plan; the same government that got Canadian families into this affordability crisis.

The truth is that families are spending more of their income on taxes than on food, shelter and clothing combined. That is 43% of their income on taxes and just 35% on essentials. Will the government end its planned tax increases on gas, home heating and groceries?