Questions Passed as Orders for Returns  With regard to Canada’s smallpox vaccine supply: (a) how many doses of smallpox vaccine does Canada have in its federal stockpile as of May 25, 2022; (b) what is Canada’s capacity to domestically manufacture smallpox vaccines, and over what time period; and (c) how many doses of smallpox vaccine, within other sources, is the government aware of being available in Canada, broken down by source (e.g. provincial stores)?

Public Safety  I could use examples from any political party, but one example that sticks with me the most is calling a certain group of people who believe a certain thing racist and misogynist during the political campaign in 2021. I firmly believe vaccines had a major, incredibly positive impact on limiting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but there were people in Canada who had legitimate concerns or were vaccine hesitant. Instead of trying to listen to their concerns or address those concerns in a meaningful way, name calling was used, and I think that pushed civil disobedience.

Business of Supply  The third point is that restrictions were put in place to get us vaccines and therapeutics. I am fully vaccinated and boosted. I encourage anybody who has not been vaccinated to consider getting vaccinated. Doing that is the best way to prevent severe illness from COVID.

Economic and Fiscal Update Implementation Act, 2021  However, I would argue that after six months under many of these restrictions, the people who have not been vaccinated to this date have probably made a choice, and frankly, the political rhetoric around vaccination that we saw during the federal election campaign did nothing to help raise vaccination levels.

Business of Supply  It is going to be a tough conversation and we do have to de-escalate the rhetoric in it, but I have to say that the restrictions are not going to fix that. I will close with this: I encourage anybody who has not gotten vaccinated yet to do so, but continued restrictions are not going to change their mind after six months. We have to look at other ways to incent people to get vaccinated, and we have to fix our health care system.

Economic and Fiscal Update Implementation Act, 2021  My colleague spoke in the past tense about measures that the government had taken, such as vaccine passports and these things. We have to be talking in the future tense. We have to be saying where we are, going forward. We cannot be looking in the—

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, as the minister mentioned, Canada now has vaccines, therapeutics and tests. We are beyond the stage we were at in March of 2020, and in fact, we are in year three. The reality is that many restrictions are still in place as a stopgap because the government has failed to use its convening role to address a fundamentally broken health care system in Canada, where a few hundred patients can overwhelm an ICU.

Order Respecting the Business of the House and its Committees  Madam Speaker, I will take this opportunity to remind Canadians that vaccines are safe and effective. I am fully vaccinated, and I encourage any Canadian who is not vaccinated to avail themselves of that opportunity. Every member who is in this place is compliant with COVID-19 rules that are set out by the House of Commons by virtue of their presence here.

Order Respecting the Business of the House and its Committees  I would say that my colleagues, particularly with the examples they are using of one of my colleagues who is fully vaccinated but contracted COVID-19, are saying that somehow he does not want to be in this place or show up for work. That is not what he wants. We all want to be able to come here and hold the government to account.

COVID-19 Emergency Response  Mr. Speaker, he is right. We would not have let vaccine manufacturing capacity atrophy. We would not have raided vaccines from the COVAX fund. We would not have sent PPE abroad, putting our doctors and nurses at risk. We would not have given contracts to cronies while Canadians suffered.

Health committee  As well, Mr. Stewart, it's been reported that the federal government is not currently tracking the vaccination status of returning Canadians who got their COVID-19 vaccine abroad. Is this correct?

Health committee  In front of this committee, the head of PHAC said that every Canadian currently has a pathway to a vaccine and then made this sort of glib comment about the Twitter account, Vaccine Hunters. Would you characterize that as correct in your community right now? Does every resident in your community have a current pathway to, let's say, even a second dose of vaccine?

Health committee  Kohler, our committee has had a great degree of difficulty obtaining details around the contracts that were signed by the federal government with vaccine manufacturers. One small example would be that I don't think Canada has received a single dose of vaccine from AstraZeneca, in spite of our bilateral contracts. Based on your research, is there any reason why we as parliamentarians shouldn't be getting access to that?

Health committee  This is the last question. Today, Perrin Beatty made a comment that it is now easier to fly to France for a fully vaccinated Canadian than it would be to go to Buffalo. Would you agree with that assertion?

Health committee  In your piece in The Globe and Mail, you said that Europe is already welcoming fully vaccinated Americans. Are there any other international examples that you would point us to in terms of best practices right now?