Michelle Ferreri

[Government Business No. 8—Proceedings on Bill C-10, February 14th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I thank the member for such an excellent question. It is the best question I have been asked yet.

For those of you who may not know, the member who asked the question is a doctor and worked on the front lines of COVID. Earlier today, I heard a member opposite question whether he thought these measures are scientifically valid, and nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is that science and medicine are fluid, and to have really good discussions, we need to go to committee.

To the member's point and question, we cannot expedite something so serious, with this level of investment, without doing the research and bringing in experts from all levels. Medical officers of health and health experts are critical, but they look at one section: public health. We need to be looking at economic impacts, mental health impacts and social impacts. These are big when we make decisions. That is what our job is here, and that is what democracy is. It is to hear everything. We cannot just push something through because we think it is best. We are here to represent all Canadians.

[Government Business No. 8—Proceedings on Bill C-10, February 14th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her kind words on our first exchange.

I heard an infectious disease doctor on the CBC this morning doing an interview and he had a great point about assessing our individual risk tolerance, learning to live with COVID and doing things that help with our personal protection. I think it is absolutely critical that when we go to visit grandma, grandpa or somebody who is at high risk, we have honest conversations with them so that we are making sure they feel safe and we feel safe and that we have what we need to make everybody safe.

[Government Business No. 8—Proceedings on Bill C-10, February 14th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, the member would be really sorry if he ever met my mother, because she is definitely not in long-term care, and she would be deeply offended that he thinks she is in long-term care. I never said that. I said she went to the hospital.

Absolutely, these measures are provincial, and that is what this whole motion is about: transferring money to the provinces. Why are we not transferring money that can actually solve the problem? Get more health care workers, get to the root of the problem, help hospital capacity manage patient load and off-load onto mental health resources. That is what I am asking.

[Government Business No. 8—Proceedings on Bill C-10, February 14th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I want to start by saying to everyone, my family, friends and constituents, happy Valentine's Day.

Today I am standing in the House of Commons to discuss and defend the position of my party in regard to Bill C-10. For people watching who may or may not know what Bill C-10 is, I am going to read it. It is an act allowing the Minister of Health to make payments totalling $2.5 billion for rapid tests to the provinces. I am just going to read the two paragraphs.

Under the heading “Payments out of C.‍R.‍F. ”, it states:

The Minister of Health may make payments, the total of which may not exceed $2.‍5 billion, out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund for any expenses incurred on or after January 1, 2022 in relation to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tests.

Under the heading “Transfers”, it states:

The Minister of Health may transfer to any province or territory, or to any body or person in Canada, any coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tests or instruments used in relation to those tests acquired by Her Majesty in right of Canada on or after April 1, 2021.

I am not an economist, but I do know that spending money we do not have for tests that we needed two years ago is not an investment; it is a waste. How can the government ask taxpayers to spend $2.5 billion with only two paragraphs to back it up? When my tween daughter was 12 years old and wanted her first iPhone, we asked her to write a three-page essay on why she wanted it and needed it and what she would be contributing as a result of it. We asked for three pages. This bill is two paragraphs long and the government wants to expedite this motion without any debate to spend $2.5 billion.

We are almost at a trillion dollars in debt. People with good jobs cannot afford houses. We have a homeless crisis. I paid $1.58 at the pump for gas. This is not a small amount of money. We cannot just expedite this. To reiterate, we are not spending the government's money. We are spending the taxpayers' money, so we need to make sure we are having an adequate debate to spend such an astronomical amount of money that should have been invested two years ago. We are not in the same space we were in two years ago.

The chief public health officer, Dr. Tam, has stated that we need a more sustainable way to deal with the pandemic. How is spending money on tests that we needed two years ago sustainable? I think we can agree as a House that the response to COVID-19 is fluid. I think there is an agreed motion here in the House that we are doing the best we can to keep Canadians safe. Where we differ is in the execution.

In order to take control of something that is ever changing, one must be tactful and thoughtful in their approach. There are outdated travel advisories, punitive restrictions and quarantines, federal vaccine mandates and now 2.5 billion taxpayer dollars being spent on tests that might be obsolete by the time they arrive.

If COVID-19 reminded our country of anything, it is that we have a very stressed and delicate health care system. Our front-line workers, health care workers, are exhausted. They are burnt out. I witnessed first-hand the extreme negligence of patient care in the hospital.

My mother was rushed to the hospital in July 2021 only to wait hours in a hall to be seen. She was not offered any pain medication. She was not offered any water. No one even came to see her. Why are we talking about spending money on tests when we need to be talking about solving the problem? She waited in the hall as nurses and staff tended to patients who had overdosed. Just last week we talked about the opioid crisis in this country. Where is the money for that?

Do members know how excruciating it is to know that their family member needs their help? They could give it to them. I could get my mom a glass of water and fluff her pillow, but I was not allowed in because of the restrictions, so I had to harass the charge nurse by calling repeatedly and asking for help.

I have had so many health care workers reach out to me in their own state of mental health crisis. They go to bed at night and cannot sleep, because they know they do not have the resources to take care of their patients. When are we going to have an honest dialogue about where the money needs to go and where we need to invest it? The reality of this whole situation of these traumatic lockdowns and these traumatic restrictions is that we did not have a health care system capable of managing COVID patients.

Why are we not having that discussion? Why are we not investing $2.5 billion in that? If our hospitals could manage these patients, we would not be here. We need to recruit more health care workers. We need to offer recovery centres to help those struggling with addiction and mental health. We need to offload the hospitals from the opioid crisis.

The Liberals want to expedite this bill, meaning it would not go to committee. Why is that? My constituents and Canadians deserve to know who would be profiting from these tests. Where would the money be going? We need to hear from more experts before expediting such a gross amount of taxpayers' money.

I recently spoke with a small business owner. She told me a story of one of her employees who decided to do a test on her break, because she had been around somebody who thought they had COVID. She did the test and it came back positive. She was asymptomatic and she had to be sent home for five days. That small business owner is already struggling to recover and now she has to make up for that.

Was that testing necessary? We need more experts in to talk about this. We need to have honest discussions about when to test and why to test. Absolutely we need to have testing, but we need to have a lot more discussion before we decide to spend $2.5 billion on testing that may or may not be effective in helping this crisis.

I spoke with a constituent who had to stay home with his toddler, because someone at the day care centre tested positive. He does not get paid when he stays at home. Who is going to make up that money?

We need so much more research. We need to invest in research to prevent COVID and any other virus that is going to happen again. There is so much opportunity for prevention. We are always reacting and never looking at prevention or a long-term vision for solutions. There are amazing people doing amazing research. Why are we not investing in that? Why are we not learning from that?

My question rests. Where is the scientific evidence to support the need for rapid testing for fully vaccinated Canadians? Would this funding not be better spent on our health care system and our mental health care system? Why is this not being prioritized? It took two months for the government to come back to Parliament. Everything it has done has been late. Timing is everything when we are trying to solve a problem. Timing matters, and the government is offering the wrong solution at the wrong time.

Let us look bigger. Let us help people. Where is the research on the long-term mental health, social and economic impacts of these lockdowns? How do we know that? We do not. Where is the research on masking kids and speech development? Why are we not investing in that? It is time for the Liberal government to be transparent and honest with Canadians.

We are a democracy. Let us act like it.

[Opioid Crisis in Canada, February 8th, 2022]

Mr. Chair, my question is about diversion and its effectiveness if there is nowhere to take the patient. We absolutely do not want to criminalize addiction. It is absolutely a disease. I think we have all heard that this evening. However, if there are no resources, and there is nowhere to take someone, like a recovery centre, and no bed to take them to, how are we supposed to implement diversion tactics?

[Opioid Crisis in Canada, February 8th, 2022]

Madam Chair, the member is absolutely right. One of the reasons I chose to run to become an MP was our campaign strategy to provide $1 billion over five years to boost funding for indigenous mental health and drug treatment programs.

To answer her question, yes, absolutely.

[Opioid Crisis in Canada, February 8th, 2022]

Madam Chair, I wish I could respond in French. Hopefully in a couple of years I will be able to, but my French is not quite there yet.

Absolutely, the national housing strategy is a key partner. This opioid crisis, as we heard tonight from many members, is a spiderweb of a multitude of factors that come into play. As with everything in politics, we need to address one thing to help something else. So often when I saw Cassy, whom I spoke about in my speech, she did not have a home or anything to eat, so to manage that pain she often turned to addiction. Getting people into housing is a critical piece in managing the opioid crisis.

[Opioid Crisis in Canada, February 8th, 2022]

Madam Chair, I think tonight has been so emotional and profound for so many, because we all know across this House that it is a crisis. I absolutely agree with what my colleague, the member for Foothills, said tonight: We need a strategy. We cannot have a shotgun approach.

Before I came and spoke this evening, I messaged our chief of EMS in my region, who said the same thing, that we need a strategy and wraparound services. We cannot have these single, individual whack-a-mole approaches, for lack of a better term. We need to come together. We need a streamlined strategy.

[Opioid Crisis in Canada, February 8th, 2022]

Madam Chair, Cassy was a daughter, a sister and a friend. She met the intersection of mental illness and addiction, and the system failed her.

Cassy's lifeless body was discovered at a local music store in my riding of Peterborough—Kawartha on election day, September 20, 2021. Cassy was one of 17 people a day in Canada who died from opioid poisoning. She tried to get help and her family tried to get her help, but it was not there.

Let us talk about the stats. In my riding of Peterborough—Kawartha, from March 2020 to December 2021, 75 people, including Cassy, died from an opioid poisoning, and 25 people died from COVID. How is our opioid crisis not a state of emergency?

Our hospital in Peterborough has double the opioid death rate of the rest of the province—double. We also have the highest unemployment rate in Canada and a housing crisis. These things are not exclusive of each other.

We need a national plan. We need to look at the return on investment when we delve into prevention, treatment and recovery. Right now we are caught on a merry-go-round. EMS respond to a an overdose call; they take the patient to the already maxed-out and resource-depleted ER, and the patient is released, only to overdose within hours or days, and the cycle continues.

I want to share a message I received from a constituent. I do not have permission from the family to share his name, so I will call him Johnny.

Johnny lost his mother and father to cancer within a few years of each other, and then lost his small family to a breakup. He turned to the streets. He overdosed and was hospitalized for a bit. He overdosed again last month, except this time he sat in the ER for hours without being attended to. He was apparently kicked out by security for being loud, vulgar and argumentative. He left on foot without a coat. His body was found in a local park the next morning. He froze to death.

One of my favourite quotes is from Mr. Rogers: Anything mentionable is manageable. We cannot manage what we do not acknowledge. This pandemic has magnified an already mounting crisis. People cannot manage the stress of trying to pay bills, taking care of kids and losing their jobs.

Mental health is physical health. One cannot separate the two. We need to change how we talk about mental health and addiction and we need to change how we treat it. I have a saying that education equals awareness equals change. We can be the change, but we have to acknowledge what the opioid crisis is. It is a desperate attempt to escape from both physical and mental pain.

Canada needs a government that will invest in offering recovery and healing. By definition in the medical world, opioids are prescribed to manage pain, and that is what they do, but it is not always physical pain the patient needs escape from. Canada has a chance to be a leader in how we treat pain. We have a chance to change how we help people heal. It will not be easy and it will take time, commitment and a lot more than just money to solve this crisis. We need a cultural and policy shift in how we provide health care, but we can do it. We are ready.

There is no effective strategy dedicated to the cause of the opioid poisonings. On a given day during my campaign, I would see EMS respond up to four times to an overdose call in the same area. How much is that costing? Imagine if we invested this money spent on resources to solve the problem rather than to react to the problem.

We need to invest in complete wraparound services. We need innovative treatment and recovery healing centres that do not just manage the addiction but look at the cause and manage trauma. We need to invest in the research to learn why someone turns to opioids. We need to evaluate how and when doctors are prescribing opioids.

With the right intervention and strategy, Cassy and Johnny could have been more than another statistic.

[Housing, February 1st, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, Bloomberg reports Canada has the second most inflated housing bubble in the world. Listen to this letter from a Peterborough—Kawartha constituent:

Dear MP Ferreri, my 26-year-old son and his partner put in an offer on a house today; a 40-year-old, 1,200-square-foot bungalow, no appliances, on a tiny lot and no air conditioning. It was listed for $599,000. My son offered $702,000 with no conditions. There were 18 offers and it sold for $830,000. My son has been pre-approved for $700,000 and it is not enough. He and his partner have great jobs and I have even cosigned. What is the incentive for our children to get educated and get a job, when their wages cannot meet the demand of society?

People are losing hope of ever having a home. This economic crisis is a mental health crisis. We need federal leadership, not “just inflation”.