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Madam Chair, another example is the rental housing construction initiative, a $26-billion investment in support of housing builders in Canada. That is going to create tens of thousands of new homes.
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Madam Chair, I am sorry to say, and I say it with some respect and regret, that what the Conservatives were proposing in the campaign would have helped rich landlords sell their stock of housing.
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Madam Chair, I think the member may have misunderstood. I spoke about one million Canadians who have been helped with paying their rent since the introduction of the national housing strategy.
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Madam Chair, is the suggestion to take no measures whatsoever and to remove all testing and quarantine? If that is the intent, maybe we should hear that more clearly.
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Madam Chair, one million is the number of Canadians who have been helped since the introduction of the national housing strategy in 2017.
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Madam Chair, I will first mention that the national housing strategy is the first-ever housing strategy in Canada. We implemented it in 2017, and it led to other measures.
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Madam Chair, I will not have the pleasure of working with the member as parliamentary secretary, but I have heard extremely good things about him and his extremely important work over the last while. He wants me to thank public servants. Yes, I will do that. I think we have done that many times over the last 20 months. They have far exceeded the expectations and needs of Canadians in most respects…
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Madam Chair, that is interesting. We had those questions from the member for Carleton. My colleague said—
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Mr. Chair, because of this historic change in the CPP that we made quickly in 2016, there is going to be a decrease of 25% in poverty among seniors over the next years.
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Mr. Chair, there are different types of take-home tests. There is the molecular type, which is the most precise one that travellers into Canada need to take, and there are the rapid test home kits that people can also use.
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Mr. Chair, indeed the member is correct. We are using a range of either home tests or on-site testing as the facilities permit.
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Mr. Chair, as I have said repeatedly over the last few days, this is ramping up quickly. Just last Friday, we increased the testing capacity by 60% and we will soon reach the 100% target that we have announced.
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I have already answered that question, Mr. Chair. What I did not say, however, is that we are going to do the right things for Canadians, as we have done for the last 20 months. This is absolutely important. There are no risks to take when it comes to protecting the safety and health of Canadians.
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Mr. Chair, our first priority is to protect the health and safety of Canadians. That is why we are taking those measures. If I have more time later, I will explain why those measures are the right ones for Canadians.
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Mr. Chair, with some regret, but with respect, I will say that this is something we know, yet the members on the other side asked just a few days ago that we remove all tests and all quarantine measures. That would not have been the right thing to do.
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Mr. Chair, Canadians have learned through the history of COVID-19 that the situation evolves, and they expect the government also to change its measures to protect their health and safety.
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Mr. Chair, the answer is yes. We are obviously very mindful of the impact this is having on all Canadians, including the people in the travel industry. We do this to protect the safety and health of Canadians.
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Mr. Chair, if the member would like to have a briefing, as this is all a bit complicated, she can ask for one and I will provide it to her through my officials.
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Mr. Chair, antigen tests are tests that are typically quite rapid but not as effective and precise as the molecular tests.
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Mr. Chair, that is a great question, but there is too little time to answer. There is a big difference between rapid antigen tests and molecular tests.
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Mr. Chair, we obviously speak to everyone involved in and affected by the travel restrictions on both sides of the border.
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Mr. Chair, obviously we are all very concerned with all of what is happening with the new variant, omicron. That is why we work with our partners outside of Canada and do the right thing inside Canada.
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Mr. Chair, first, the hon. member for Hull-Aylmer is my member of Parliament, and I really like him. Second, he was a page, like me, many years ago, and third, he is an excellent speaker.
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Mr. Chair, first, I would like to congratulate the son of the member for Alfred-Pellan. I am very proud of him, and I am certain that he was very good about it and that he set an example for many others in Canada, perhaps even here in the House of Commons. Let us talk about Canada: 80% of the population has received at least one dose, 76% has received two doses. There are probably people in the Ho…
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Madam Chair, I should remind the member that a molecular test is not a rapid test, and a rapid test is not the same as being vaccinated.
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Madam Chair, the new President of the Treasury Board is fortunate to have a very well-informed and experienced critique, and the member knows there are two types of votes, legislative votes and these votes we are talking about now. The legislative votes were the votes needed to have the wage subsidy.
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Madam Chair, 15 million Canadians have been helped through the crisis, either through the wage subsidy, CERB or other tools, including helping seniors directly, so 15 million Canadians were able to make ends meet.
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Madam Chair, that is a very timely question, because, as the member should know, we implemented a national housing strategy in 2017 with the goal, and the intended result, of ending homelessness across Canada by—
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Madam Chair, my colleague is right to bring it up. For some time now, an average of about 20 people a day have died due to the opioid crisis across the country. That is almost the same number of people who are dying from COVID-19 at present. The crisis has been growing for years. Fortunately, there are ways to deal with this crisis and to treat people, including through supervised injection sites.…
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Madam Chair, I did not mention it, but I am very pleased that my colleague is now the parliamentary secretary to my colleague, the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. Taking care of our health care workers helps them take care of us and those who need it. With the $55 billion in investments that the Canadian government has made in the context of COVID‑19, we have been able to support these w…
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Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for the question. I appreciate her. This is part of the national pharmacare challenge, to find a way to reduce the cost of and increase access to drugs, for rare diseases in particular. In this context, we have announced that we will develop a strategy to combat rare diseases with an annual investment of $500 million in the coming years.
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Madam Chair, we have an immensely great centre called the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. I am not from Winnipeg, but I know how proud people from Manitoba and all Canadians are of that particular lab. It has been extremely forthcoming and often ahead of other nations when it comes to designing tests and procedures to protect Canadians from COVID-19. We can be very proud of the work …
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Madam Chair, that was part of our $65-billion support for the health needs of Canadians, including long-term care, home care, digital care, primary care and, as the member mentioned, mental health care. Mental health has been severely affected by the crisis, and we have to look after the mental health of Canadians.
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Madam Chair, I thank the member for the important question. We have said in the campaign platform that we will be putting into place a legal change to make clear to all of our partners that these rights are important in 2021 in order to protect the rights of everyone, including, obviously, those of women.
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Madam Chair, that is an outstanding question, and it gives me the opportunity to let Canadians know that this was a collaborative effort. There was $25 billion direct to provinces and territories, and another $30 billion of in-kind investment in vaccines, testing, PPE and other tools. Finally, obviously, there was the incredible collaboration on the economic side in order to protect the economic h…
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Madam Chair, there are three things. First, we have reminded Canadians of the importance of being vaccinated. Second, we remind Canadians that we also need to keep following the public health advice, of which we are very knowledgeable now. The third thing is that we put into place some quick measures at our borders to limit the import of the variant from outside of Canada.
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Madam Chair, there are two key answers, which the member knows really well. First, there is the ACT, the access to COVID-19 tools, that we have invested in from the very start of COVID-19 and a $2.5-billion increase in our international development assistance because of COVID-19. Second, the member also mentioned the 200-million dose commitment we made to the rest of the world. That is five times …
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Madam Chair, I would like to thank the member for Surrey Centre for his advocacy and his strong mastery of the file. He is an incredibly engaged and informed person. I would like to tell everyone listening that NACI did provide some strong recommendations around boosters, that people 50 years of age and older should receive a booster dose and that those who are between the ages of 18 and 50 should…
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Madam Chair, the member is right. There were very important supports for Canadians with disabilities. We know they were adversely affected by the crisis.
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Madam Chair, I know the member is really well-intentioned and I commend her for her goodwill and concern. That being said, the advice we got from her colleague, the member for Carleton, was very different from what we followed when it came to helping seniors during the COVID‑19 crisis.
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Madam Chair, therefore, we would not have ended up where we are now with more jobs than we had prior to COVID‑19 and with more jobs relative to many other countries, including our southern neighbour.
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Madam Chair, had we followed the advice of the member for Carleton, we would have ended up not in a recession but in a depression.
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Madam Chair, not only did we act very quickly, but we did not do what the member for Carleton suggested, which was to cut taxes for the wealthiest Canadians.
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Madam Chair, I think we are all mindful of the tremendous difficulties that families, seniors and workers went through during the COVID‑19 crisis. I am sorry to say that the solution the member for Carleton proposed at the start of the pandemic was to cut taxes for the richest individuals in Canada.
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Madam Chair, it is true: Nine million Canadians received CERB during the crisis. That is close to 20,000 people in her riding who were able to pay for food for their children and themselves.
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Madam Chair, that is an excellent point. We also need to have more people come into our great country. We need to have more support for those who want to retrain themselves and get the skills they need for the new economy. We need more women in the workforce and greater access to child care.
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Madam Chair, an example from my province is a $6-billion transfer to Quebec, which has had a great day care system. It is not perfect, but it is going to lead to an additional 38,000 spaces for our children and therefore 38,000 more parents available for jobs.
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Madam Chair, the answer is a $30-billion investment in day care. This is great for gender equality. This is great for job creation. This is great for child development. This is great for poverty reduction.
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Madam Chair, through 150,000 jobs created just a few days ago, we are now at 106% of jobs back to our country following COVID-19.
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Madam Chair, I just spoke about families. I am going to speak briefly about seniors and the increases in the OAS and the GIS, along with the indexation of those pensions and benefits—
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