Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I will speak to something I think is extremely important for us to understand, which is long COVID. Among all those infected by COVID, whether it be severe or mild, the estimate is that between 10% and 30% will suffer from long COVID. This has dramatic impacts on their lives in the short and longer term. Thirty percent of them will need to consult more than 10 times after that. Thirty…
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Mr. Speaker, compassion is the key word. We need to have each other's backs. We need to protect each other's health. That is best done by following public health measures, as most of us are doing today, but not all of us. It is also done by being vaccinated, which protects our health and that of those we love. It also protects against long COVID. By the way, long COVID affects all vital organs wit…
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Mr. Speaker, there are two things I assume my hon. colleague already knows. The first is that I am indeed the member for Quebec, which is probably the most beautiful city in the country and I am very proud of it. I represent this area along with other distinguished members of the House. The second thing he probably knows is that on April 1, so in a just a few days, pre-arrival tests will no longer…
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Mr. Speaker, we are going to do exactly as my colleague suggests on April 1. On April 1, pre-entry testing requirements will go away. That will simplify everyone's life and encourage more people to come see my colleagues and me in wonderful Quebec City and the beautiful surrounding area.
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Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to receive this question because it enables me to add one more piece of information, this time from the United States. One million is the number of deaths that were avoided because of Americans were vaccinated. It was mentioned earlier that they could have avoided many more deaths with more vaccinations, as we did in Canada. When we speak to people who may be either …
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Mr. Speaker, I mentioned earlier the amount of $4 billion. That is a lot of money, which the federal government and other governments have saved because of high vaccination rates, in part due to vaccination mandates, but most importantly, that is a lot of household income, family income, income to look after children, to care for seniors, to look after those who may not often find it easy to make …
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Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to see and hear my colleague speak about science. If he would like to see the studies I mentioned, I can have people from my department brief him. They would be very happy to show him the statistics, methods, data, the various techniques used, the standard deviations, the confidence intervals and everything that goes with this type of study. The 1,600 deaths were pre…
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Mr. Speaker, I apologize if I disrespected my colleague. That was not my intention. I respectfully offer the assistance and support he needs and deserves as a member of Parliament. He has a very important role in the House. I think he is entitled to ask for all of the information whenever he wants if he is to continue doing his job properly, as he is already doing within the Conservative caucus.
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Mr. Speaker, the member asked two questions, one I cannot answer and the other I will. When will the COVID‑19 pandemic end? Unfortunately, I do not think we can answer that today. However, if my colleague wants access to more information in addition to what I have already provided, I would be happy to provide it in the most appropriate way possible. I tried to be as clear as possible, but maybe I …
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Mr. Speaker, this is not about politics. It is about responsibility. When one is in government, one must be responsible. I believe that everyone in the House of Commons, not just the government members, must be responsible. I look around and see that members of the Conservative Party are suddenly declaring that COVID-19 is over and that masks are no longer necessary. COVID-19 is still with us. We …
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to thank the 30 million Canadians who got vaccinated last year, when thousands of health care workers administered 81 million doses to people who made the effort to go out and get vaccinated to protect everyone around them. We should be thanking them every day. We would love to declare that COVID‑19 is over, like some Conservative members are doing today b…
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Mr. Speaker, since I like numbers and since I believe the opposition also likes science and numbers, let me quote two more: 1,600 and $4 billion. The fact that we had vaccination mandates at both federal and provincial levels in the last few months made Canadians avoid 1,600 deaths. There are 1,600 people who are now alive, living with their families, enjoying time with their friends, working and …
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Mr. Speaker, I give congratulations and thanks to Canadians. Let me point to one more number: 135,000. That is the number of avoidable deaths that we saw in the United States over the last few months. They would have been avoided if Americans had done as well as we did in Canada, which is to vaccinate everywhere. There were 135,000 people who died in the U.S. because of not being vaccinated as we …
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Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to answer this question. This gives me the opportunity to remind the House of the $72 billion we invested during the COVID‑19 pandemic to support the health and safety of all Canadians, including, of course, Quebeckers, the $45 billion in Canada health transfers that will begin to flow in just a few days, the $4 billion announced last year to deal with all kinds of d…
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc is calling for transfers, and we are sending them. In the last budget, we announced $3 billion to support the health and dignity of our seniors in long-term care centres in Quebec, $1 billion to help the provinces and territories implement vaccination programs over the past few months, and another $300 million to help pay for the vaccine passport system that they used quite s…
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Mr. Speaker, the reason we are able to lift these mandates is that we have, in Canada, one of the highest rates of vaccination in the world. In Canada, about 85% of people have had a first dose, 81% two doses and almost 60% a third dose. That is the reason we are able to lift these restrictions. Four hundred thousand people would have been the number of people dying in Canada over 2021 in the abse…
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Mr. Speaker, vaccines have prevented 1,600 deaths in recent months because of federal and provincial vaccine mandates. Those 1,600 people are still with us today thanks to vaccine mandates. Estimates suggest that vaccine mandates have also saved us billions of dollars, probably about $4 billion. That is a lot of money and, more importantly, it is a lot of people who have been kept safe and healthy…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to answer this question. The member speaks about the date. April 1 is when there will be no need for a pre-entry rapid or antigen test or molecular test when entering Canada. We do thank Canadians for all the hard work that they have done over the last few months, including vaccinating themselves in large numbers, with 87 million vaccines administered over the last year a…
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Mr. Speaker, 135,000 is the number of people in the United States who died because they were insufficiently vaccinated compared to Canadians. It would have been a tragedy if in Canada we had not used that gift that science and scientists gave us a year and a half ago. We are extremely grateful to all the vaccinators and all the Canadians who did the right thing, which is to protect their health an…
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Mr. Speaker, I am obviously very pleased to hear one more colleague who cares about the industry of tourism. I do as well, as I just said. That is why we are working to protect both the health and safety of workers and travellers, but also to make sure that our tourism industry can thrive. We know how hard it has been for workers and small businesses over the last 23 months, and that is why we loo…
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Mr. Speaker, 1.1 million is the number that a recent Harvard study told us would have been the additional number of people dying in the United States without vaccination. In Canada, it is about 400,000 people who would have died in 2021 if, first, we did not have vaccination, and second, we did not have strong public health measures. Fortunately, we were not there, and fortunately we are elsewhere…
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Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to answer that question. As the member may know, I come from the wonderful Quebec City. I am very proud of the strong workers, people and partners working for my tourism industry. I understand it is also an important industry for the member. I look forward to further measures, but I would also point out that on Monday, just a few days ago, we announced important measure…
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Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to be able to continue on this topic. The reason I mentioned earlier that we are going through this crisis better and faster than many other countries is that Canadians have made the right choice. We were vaccinated in large numbers. That is why we are seeing large falls in the number of cases and large falls in the number of hospitalizations, and deaths are also decrea…
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Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to receive this question from the member from Ontario. I would like to signal that we have been working extremely hard and extremely well with Minister Elliott and the Ontario government over the last few months in order to protect the health and safety of Ontarians. Just to give an example, the vaccination operations that took place in Ontario probably saved thousands …
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Mr. Speaker, the member is entirely right to talk about responsibility, both individual and collective responsibility. Individually speaking, I think most members of the House have been vaccinated and many of them with a booster shot. This is exactly the right thing to do. Collectively, we had, at least on this side of the House and I think we worked collaboratively with opposition parties, the re…
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Mr. Speaker, again, I am very grateful for the question, in particular because my region, my city and my riding of Quebec are of exceptional quality. Quebec has attracted thousands, if not millions, of foreigners and tourists over the years. We are very proud of that, and that is why we are so proud that the measures to which the member alludes have been reduced. They were relaxed just a day ago. …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Saint-Laurent for her excellent question and her excellent work. Last Thursday, Medicago's Covifenz vaccine was approved by Health Canada. It is the first Canadian vaccine approved by Health Canada. It is also the first approved vaccine in the world to use plant-based technologies. The work of Medicago's workers and partners is giving Canadians one more too…
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Mr. Speaker, a word that comes to my mind is “gratefulness”. I am grateful for our relationship with Minister Merriman and the entire Government of Saskatchewan, who have been there to help the people of Saskatchewan get through this crisis, and I am grateful to the millions of people in Saskatchewan who made the right choice and got vaccinated.
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Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to speak about Saskatchewan. I want to congratulate my colleague, Health Minister Merriman, for all his hard work and collaboration over the last few months. We worked really well together on rapid testing, on PPE, on the Paxlovid treatment against COVID-19, and on vaccinations. I want to congratulate all the people in Saskatchewan for having been vaccinated in such …
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Mr. Speaker, I am very glad to hear my colleague speak about science. The science has been very clear, over the last year and a half, that what works is vaccination. Vaccination is not a punishment. Vaccination is protection. Almost 90% of adult Canadians have been vaccinated twice. We are very grateful to the scientists of this country and other places. They have provided us with vaccines that wo…
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Mr. Speaker, I have so many things that I would like to say about the winning solutions my colleague just mentioned, which are so important. Vaccines were extremely important and have been very successful. There were also the 35 million rapid tests distributed to Quebec alone in January, not to mention all of the others that will be sent. There are treatments like Paxlovid. Canada has already rece…
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Madam Speaker, he is entirely right. These rapid tests were delivered in large numbers to the provinces and territories for the purposes he mentioned. They would also be delivered directly to chambers of commerce, the Canadian Red Cross and community organizations that have direct and strong links with Canadians in their communities across Canada. They have been extremely useful since October 2020…
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Madam Speaker, the answer is yes. That is in part thanks to the advocacy of the member for New Westminster—Burnaby. He is a strong leader in his caucus. In fact, I have been engaged with many other leaders in B.C. over the last few days and weeks, as elsewhere in Canada. Those rapid tests, as the member mentioned, are essential to keep fighting the virus, and I welcome his input and the input of h…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from La Pointe‑de‑l'Île for the opportunity to speak to this. We must use every tool at our disposal, including PPE, vaccination, antivirals and rapid tests. Furthermore, the government has supported the provinces and territories by providing $63 billion since March 2022 specifically to keep people healthy and safe, as well as investing over $280 billion in dire…
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Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to hear my colleague from La Prairie talking about dialogue. We are going to be having one all day with many hours of important discussion. There will be other debates to follow, because we are only at second reading for this bill. I have had a lot of discussions over the past few weeks with my counterpart from Quebec, Mr. Dubé. Thanks to those discussions and our …
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Madam Speaker, I agree with the member opposite that this is a very important bill. I believe the member understands the reasons, but I want to make sure everyone knows those reasons. Rapid tests have become extremely important for millions of Canadians over the last few weeks. Once we started not only procuring them but delivering them in October 2020, which is obviously more than a year ago, we …
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Mr. Speaker, with respect to the consideration of Government Business No. 8, I move: That debate be not further adjourned.
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moved that Bill C-10, An Act respecting certain measures related to COVID-19, be read the second time and referred to a committee of the whole.
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Madam Speaker, my colleague is right: We cannot fight what we do not know or do not measure. That is one important reason, as he alluded, we need rapid tests and, obviously, the additional PCR molecular tests that we have been using for many months. These are complementary tools. We had the delivery of 140 million rapid tests in January, and in addition to that we have been delivering rapid tests …
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Madam Speaker, my esteemed colleague, whom I very much like, mentioned the word “urgency” several times, and this is indeed an urgent matter. We are in the middle of a COVID-19 pandemic with the omicron variant, which is filling hospital beds in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada. The provinces and territories need more rapid tests now, in addition to the ones they received over the past few weeks and…
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Madam Speaker, I will take this wonderful opportunity to say that we are all privileged to be leaders in this democratic process. We will have an entire day today to speak about this particular bill. More generally, we have the responsibility every day of looking after the health and safety of Canadians. That comes, in part, through those investments. These are big investments. We are speaking abo…
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Madam Speaker, I confirm unequivocally that a report will be provided every six months on the important elements that the member just mentioned, and rightly so, namely, the dollar amounts, the number of tests and their use in the following months. As he pointed out, this will be a way of ensuring that there is significant and necessary accountability on the part of the Canadian government on this …
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Madam Speaker, I will say three things, briefly. First, about the investments that we have made, $8 out of every $10 of the total economic support that has gone to businesses and workers over the past 22 months has been provided by the federal government's leadership. Second, an additional $63 billion has been invested in protecting the health and safety of Canadians. That is in addition to other …
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Madam Speaker, I would invite my colleague to continue working with my own colleagues, the Minister of Seniors and the Minister of Finance, on this very important other bill that is before the House. On the commitment for this particular bill, I am very happy to repeat that we are going to report to the House every six months on the use, cost and number of rapid tests that will have been delivered…
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Madam Speaker, the member for York—Simcoe is asking why they are important to the federal government. Let me give two examples. The first is from the regulatory side, which the member mentioned. Health Canada has approved dozens of rapid tests. These are not only antigen tests, but molecular tests. It has approved all sorts of other tests over the past months and years. Canadians expect Health Can…
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Madam Speaker, I have a great relationship with Minister Main: my colleague, the minister of health in Nunavut. We have been working together really well, and I want to commend him and his government on their leadership and what they have done over the past few weeks and months. It has been critical for us to do that together, because the people in Nunavut are facing challenges that southerners ar…
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Madam Speaker, I not only very much like the member for Guelph on a personal level, but also very much value his role and leadership in his community and for his riding as an outstanding member of Parliament. He mentioned a couple of things that he does with his community in part through working with businesses, small businesses in particular, and through chambers of commerce. Chambers of commerce…
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Madam Speaker, vaccination is not a punishment. Vaccination is protection. The enemy is not vaccination. The enemy is the virus. When we hear members of the opposite side talk about vaccination as the enemy, I am a bit disturbed by it. There is a tool we need to use that we were given by science and scientists about a year and a few months ago. If there is a tool we should all be grateful to be us…
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Madam Speaker, approximately 130 people die of COVID-19 every day, so that is one example of the sense of urgency. Provinces and territories are requesting the help of the federal government in providing greater numbers of rapid tests, in addition to the substantial numbers I mentioned earlier. Obviously the Senate is going to do its own job, and we value and appreciate what they will do at the ap…
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Mr. Speaker, speaking of division, I think that in Canada most people are not divided. On the contrary, they support vaccination and think it is important. Eighty per cent of people have chosen to get fully vaccinated. Nearly 50% have gotten a booster dose and that number is going up every day. Every day, 150,000 Canadians are receiving their booster shot and 10,000 others are getting their first …
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