Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, one of the benefits of having been in the House for a while is I do have recollection of previous Conservative governments. I watched the Harper government bring in time allocation time and time again. Therefore, it is quite rich to see Conservatives stand up in this House and complain about the use of time allocation. I would point out as well that the Conservatives are correct that …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my hon. colleague for this bill, which we will be supporting. My question concerns the age. My colleague referred to Senator Greene Raine's bill from 2016, which would have prohibited marketing to children under 17 years of age. At that time, the Liberals, her colleagues, at the health committee amended that bill to reduce the target age from 17 to 13. Acc…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-337, An Act to establish a national strategy on the reduction of textile waste. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to introduce the textile waste reduction strategy act, with thanks to the member for Nanaimo—Ladysmith for seconding this bill. Consumers are currently buying more clothes and wearing them for less time than ever before. This has caused a sharp incre…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Health recently blocked reforms that would save Canadians billions on their prescription medicines. The minister said he did this because he wanted to be consulted by Canada's drug price regulator but did not receive an invitation. In fact, documents obtained by the health committee show he was invited at least five times, and the minister's office either ignored or re…
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Mr. Speaker, I have sat in the chamber listening, and the Conservatives have put up speaker after speaker claiming they care about child care and talking about the urgent need for child care. They also stand in this House and talk about the very real crisis that most Canadians are finding themselves in economically. However, what are we debating in the House tonight? Anybody watching this should k…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, it is a great honour to stand in this House today and speak in support of Bill C-284, an act to establish a national strategy for eye care. I am proud to say that New Democrats will be supporting this bill and, in fact, as I will point out in my remarks, this is something we have been championing since the 1960s. This legislation, in general, would provide for “the development of a …
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Mr. Speaker, yet another study once again proves public pharmacare saves our health care system money: $1,500 per patient every year. It also reveals patients cannot access medicine because of cost. This means more hospital visits, needless suffering and billions of dollars wasted. The New Democrats have pushed for public pharmacare for decades because we know it saves lives and money, and the Lib…
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Madam Speaker, I listened intently to my hon. colleague's speech, and I think there is a little bit of confusion about what a conflict of interest or a perception of a conflict of interest is and what it means when such a charge is made. Nobody is questioning the eminence of David Johnston or his lifetime of service. Many eminent people can have impeccable integrity but can still be caught in a co…
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Mr. Speaker, a new report shows the number of Canadian teenagers regularly vaping is now shockingly among the highest in the world. This puts the health and lives of youth at great risk, and experts say it is Liberal inaction fuelling this growing crisis. The government's refusal to take on big tobacco is allowing it to use flavoured products to hook a new generation of Canadians. Why are Liberals…
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Mr. Speaker, I represent an urban riding in a major municipality, and I think that there is a pretty broad consensus in my constituency that people are in favour of strong, fair and rational gun legislation and restrictions. I think they understand the connection between the proliferation of guns and associated violence that comes from it, but at the same time, we do have a healthy number of peopl…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I represent one of the most ethnically diverse ridings in the country. Over 100 languages are spoken in my riding. About 35% of my riding is ethnically Chinese; 15%, Filipino; 15%, South Asian; 6%, Vietnamese; and it carries on. History has shown us that the actions of a foreign government, whether Japan or Italy in World War II or the Austro-Hungarian Empire, can lead to impacts on t…
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Mr. Speaker, during National Nursing Week, we recognize the critical role nurses play in our communities. Last weekend, I travelled to Newfoundland and Labrador for important discussions on health care. I learned that there are 750 vacant nursing positions in that province. Ninety per cent of nurses experience burnout, and 85% believe that understaffing is creating unsafe conditions for patients. …
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals promised universal public pharmacare in 1997. Since then, countless committees and commissions, including this government's own Hoskins report, have advised that single-payer pharmacare is the only way to go, but Canadians are still waiting for the Liberal government to keep its promise. While the Liberals protect big pharma's profits, the NDP is fighting to deliver publi…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, on March 18, the Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha Vancouver marked a momentous day by breaking ground at the site of its new gurdwara. This wonderful organization was established in 1982 and provides both a place of worship for Sikhs and a centre for social, educational and cultural activities for the entire community. For over four decades, its congregants have shared and taught us all the v…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Canadians pay the third-highest prices in the world for prescription medicines. Since 2015, the Liberals have been promising to lower costs, but failed to deliver. Now officials from Canada's drug price regulator confirm the Minister of Health stopped them from lowering drug prices for Canadians by billions of dollars. Former board member Matthew Herder testified that big pharma knows…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I would like to congratulate my hon. colleague on this bill. As he knows, it follows a bill that I introduced in 2019 to do the same thing, to make it an aggravating factor in sentencing for there to be an assault on a health care worker. I noticed that in this bill, he uses the term “health care professional”, and he has expanded the protection to first responders. However, there i…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I live in Vancouver, which I think is the epicentre for the housing crisis not only in this country but around the world. It is fair to say that it is indeed a crisis. Housing anchors us in our communities. It is not just a commodity that can be traded, purchased and sold. It is an absolute necessity. It is how people anchor themselves for work; their children go to schools and peop…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to express, on behalf of my New Democrat colleagues, our support for Bill C-321, an act to amend the Criminal Code, assaults against health care professionals and first responders. Once again, I would like to offer my gratitude and congratulations to my colleague from Cariboo—Prince George for his constant attention and care to our frontline responders in …
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Mr. Speaker, under the Liberals, the nursing shortage has gotten worse everywhere in the country. A report today says that nurses in Ontario are leaving the profession because of inadequate wages and poor working conditions. We are losing them to private for-profit clinics, and patients are suffering. That is why the NDP called on the government to require public funds to go to public health care,…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague spoke in his speech about the overdose drug crisis in this country. In 2010, I was part of the public safety committee that toured this country and studied the provision of mental health and addiction services in Canada's federal prison system. At that time, we came out with a number of recommendations to the Harper government, which included a number of positive t…
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Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague and many of his Conservative colleagues have been talking about housing. I think one thing we all agree on in the House is that there is a crisis of unbelievable proportions related to housing in this country. I live in Vancouver and have been there for close to four decades. The rise in house prices began in the mid-eighties, particularly after Expo, and then cont…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the world just marked Earth Day and Canadians understand that climate change is an existential crisis. However, our actions have not met our aspirations or the urgency required. We must significantly reduce our fossil fuel usage. A clear majority of Canadians want the oil and gas sector to do its fair share. Oil and gas accounts for just 5% of our economy, yet is responsible for 26% o…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to ask my hon. colleague about consent rights under this bill. Individuals, under Bill C-27, would have significantly diminished control over the collection, use and disclosure of their personal data. The new consent provisions ask the public to instill what could be an extraordinary amount of trust in businesses to keep themselves accountable as the bill's exceptions t…
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Madam Speaker, I will keep it brief. Last week, my colleague from Vancouver East and I hosted a town hall on the environment and heard a lot of very passionate people talk about their concerns for the environment. We just saw recently that the Trans Mountain pipeline is now estimated to cost $30 billion, and it is going to expand bitumen export in this country. I wonder if my hon. colleague thinks…
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Madam Speaker, since 2015, I have become well aware of the importance of social determinants of health, and also how important preventative measures are. In this country, we have a hunger problem. Across this country, millions of Canadians go to school hungry every day. Canada is one of the few countries in the world that does not have a national nutrition school food program. The Liberals and the…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Canadians need to know their government is using public money responsibly, especially when it comes to their health. However, the Liberals are refusing to tell taxpayers how much money they lost on a failed $200-million vaccine factory in the health minister's own riding, a scheme that did not produce a single dose of the COVID vaccine. When will the Liberals do the right thing and in…
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Madam Speaker, I enjoyed working with my hon. colleague on the health committee. I am a bit disappointed in my friend's pessimistic view of the efficiency of government. He seems to think government is not capable of delivering programs. He was highly skeptical that the federal government could deliver insurance for a dental plan. However, we know the federal government administers employment insu…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
moved for leave to introduce C-328, An Act respecting the development of a national strategy on student loan debt. Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise today to introduce the student debt relief act, with thanks to the great member for Edmonton Griesbach for seconding this legislation. Far too many Canadian students have been forced to assume a crushing debt load simply to receive an education. In C…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, today, I am pleased to welcome members of the Canadian Dental Hygienists Association to Parliament, especially Donna, Cindy, Bev and Juliana, who met with me this morning to share their experience and wisdom. Dental hygienists are essential primary health care professionals who are critical to oral health and who specialize in preventative care. This year, National Dental Hygienists W…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the government’s contract with the Pacific Gateway Hotel in Richmond, British Columbia, for the provision of quarantine facilities and accommodations during the COVID-19 pandemic: (a) on what date was the contract signed; (b) what was the end date for the contract; (c) what was the rationale for awarding the contract; (d) how much has the government paid to date for all services pro…
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Mr. Speaker, we know from NSICOP's foreign interference report from a few years ago that there are a number of countries alleged to be interfering in Canadian democratic processes. Does my hon. colleague think the motion is broad enough to encompass all those countries, not just China? I think Canadians want to make sure their elections are free and clear of all foreign interference, not just that…
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Madam Speaker, New Democrats have been clear from the beginning of this issue that nothing less than a thorough public, transparent and independent inquiry would suffice to give Canadians confidence in our democracy and make sure future elections are free of foreign interference. In fact, we were the first party in the House to call for that. I happen to sit on the National Security and Intelligen…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for a very thoughtful speech. I have the pleasure of serving with him on the health committee, so I am used to his logical and fair interventions. The member raises some interesting concepts that I would characterize as comprising the rule of law. Everybody in the House and Canadians like to use that phrase. We all believe in the rule of law. It is the founda…
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Madam Speaker, like my colleague, I think we are broadly supportive of the aims and principles of this bill but have some significant concerns about many of the details. This includes that the bill would open the door to new surveillance obligations; would allow the termination of essential services, perhaps without due process; may undermine privacy; lacks guardrails to constrain abuse; and has s…
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Madam Speaker, I think everybody in the House agrees that we need to up our game in this country to protect Canadians and our society from cyber-attacks. My specific question has to do with certain specific vulnerable groups. I am thinking of young people, particularly teenagers between the ages, say, of 13 and 19. Even more particularly I am thinking of young girls and women who may be subject to…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce a petition signed by many constituents in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, who point out that Canada has signed the 2030 Nature Compact, which commits us to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. They point out that the Fraser delta is recognized as a Ramsar wetland of international importance, a western hemisphere shorebird reserve network site and p…
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Mr. Speaker, I would request a recorded vote be held in this matter.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, we absolutely need to open up the Canada Health Act, but we need to do it for the purpose that the NDP is talking about today. This is to close the loopholes that are allowing private, for-profit care to creep into our system. Right now, we have a shortage of doctors in our hospitals. We have a shortage of nurses in this country. Staff are burnt out at every hospital. How can it pos…
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moved: That, given that, (i) during the 2021 federal election campaign, the Prime Minister was harshly critical of the Conservative Party of Canada's proposal to encourage “innovation” in the health care sector by expanding for-profit provision of publicly funded services, (ii) the Prime Minister has now dramatically changed his position and has lauded as ‘’innovation” Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s …
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Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague and I sat through a study of the human resources crisis in health care. He knows, as well as I do, there is a screaming conclusion: Human resources are finite. The same pool of doctors, nurses and other health professionals currently working in the publicly funded system would be pulled from that system to work in the privately funded system. He knows that a parall…
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Madam Speaker, I respect my hon. colleague's position. Actually, health care has been ruled by the Supreme Court of Canada to be a shared jurisdiction in this country. We cannot even find the words “health care” in our Constitution. The provinces have jurisdiction over the establishment and maintenance of hospitals and also regulation of the professions. The federal government has its spending pow…
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Madam Speaker, I say this with the greatest of respect, but there is a profound error in my colleague's comment, when he asserts over and over again that health care is a provincial responsibility in jurisdiction only. That is just incorrect. The Supreme Court of Canada said, “'Health' is not a matter which is subject to specific constitutional assignment but instead is an amorphous topic which ca…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, this motion calls on the government to close loopholes in the Canada Health Act. One of the most egregious of these is that while the Canada Health Act prohibits extra billing, which means doctors are banned from charging patients more than the medicare rate for insured services, private clinics get around that by advertising and offering surgery to patients from a different provinc…
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Madam Speaker, as we near the end of this debate, a couple of things have been made clear to me. One of them is that I have not once heard the Liberals stand up in this House and say they agree with the New Democrats that additional federal public dollars must go to public health care. They claim to support public health care. They claim to support the Canada Health Act. However, they will not say…
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Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague was relying on quotes, so I am going to share some quotes with him. Bernie Robinson, from the Ontario Nurses Association, said, “I fail to understand where the government thinks it's going to get the human resources to staff these private clinics other than by draining our already-taxed public system.” J.P. Hornick, from the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, …
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Madam Speaker, I note that the Bloc Québécois voted against dental care and now it seems it will vote against the NDP motion to ensure we have a strong, publicly funded system. I do not think that is what Quebeckers want. However, my question is not really about the Canada Health Act today; it is about policy. It is about whether we are going to allow public dollars to be diverted to private-for-p…
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Madam Speaker, I do not disagree that provinces and territories should be sharing information and best practices, but the debate today is about national leadership. It is about the member's government and what it is going to do to help ensure that we not only protect but also strengthen and expand our public health care system. When the Prime Minister of the member's government is applauding a pri…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, in the second petition, the petitioners point out that in Canada more than 600,000 social housing units that were created between 1970 and 1994 were provided through long-term agreements with social housing providers. They point out that these agreements are essential to provide affordable housing options to people, particularly tenants, with a maximum of 30% of their income dedicated…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions to present today. In the first petition, the petitioners note that more than four million Canadians, including one and a half million children, live in homes where the families report food insecurity. They point out that it is important to remember that the health and development of children requires that they have access to healthy food, particularly in a school …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, for-profit clinics across Canada are selling preferential access to surgery for those with the money to pay for it. They are exploiting a loophole in the Canada Health Act that is costing Canadians up to $28,000 per procedure. Even former Liberal health minister Jane Philpott says this contravenes the principles of medicare. New Democrats believe Canadians should have access to care b…
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