00:00:00.800You know, certainly as Conservatives, we want to make it very, very clear that there's a failure of leadership in this government in being prepared for the pandemic and the unfortunate circumstances that have continued to persist throughout the pandemic.
00:00:14.000The problem here, of course, is that we have lost 30,000 lives in Canada, which is also comparable to the 42,000 Canadians who died during World War II, in which we mounted a massive effort for change.
00:00:25.680This government has not done that, and this failure of leadership has left the provinces only with the ability to have lockdowns as their primary method of treatment.
00:00:35.580So the unfortunate thing is, is that's what we're left with as Canadians.
00:00:39.100So, Minister Duclos, I have a few questions for you, sir.
00:00:42.120Before the pandemic began, acute care bed occupancy, according to the OECD, in Canada was 91.6%.
00:00:49.360Only two countries were worse. Are you aware of this problem, sir?
00:00:52.140Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Member Ellis.
00:00:58.460I obviously, I also share the knowledge and the sadness of these 30,000 people having died.
00:01:06.700This being said, because of the hard work we made, we did together, we avoided the situation that we saw in many other countries, including in our southern border.
00:01:17.840Now, if we had had the same death rate as in the United States, we would have ended with 90,000, 9-0 death rates.
00:01:27.160That's a tribute to the hard work, including the vaccination hard work that we've done over the last few months.
00:01:32.520I would like to congratulate and thank everyone that got vaccinated in the last few months, and everyone that did the work to get those people vaccinated.
00:01:39.920Sir, I asked you a question very specifically, and this is answer period, not question period.
00:01:46.280Were you aware that the acute care bed occupancy was 91.6% in Canada in pre-pandemic days?
00:02:00.340Sir, I don't think I asked you anything about vaccinations.
00:02:02.960Sir, the second answer is that we have provided $63 billion exactly for that purpose, purposes of increasing abilities and capacity in our healthcare units, including the ICU units, obviously.
00:02:17.520During the election campaign, your party promised to hire 7,500 new physicians, nurses and nurse practitioners.
00:02:24.840And how many of these have been hired since the election, September 21st?
00:02:28.680We have indeed promised a total of $25 billion additional to what we have invested during COVID-19, which I repeated, about $63 billion just to protect the health and safety…
00:02:41.140Just the bodies, sir, not the numbers.
00:03:06.600$63 billion invested until now with obviously thousands of nurses and doctors that are being paid and being recruited and being provided with the appropriate care that they need.
00:03:17.420Sir, how many new hires since September 21st that your government promised?
00:03:22.560So $63 billion, that's obviously of great substance and great value to my colleagues.
00:03:29.020And they have been able to not only to recruit but to maintain and more and equally importantly to provide the working conditions that they deserve to look after so many others.
00:03:40.700Is it fair to say that you do not know how many people have been hired that you promised?
00:03:43.840So not only are these people now being looked after because they need to look after so many others.
00:03:52.360And that's why we're so pleased to add another $25 billion in our campaign to make sure that those significant investments will continue over the short and the longer term.
00:04:02.160Yeah, I guess you're just refusing to answer my question.
00:04:06.820Do you know that the emergency room wait times in Canada are the worst in the OECD?
00:04:10.960And do you have a plan to change that, sir?
00:04:14.140So without only do we obviously keep increasing and investing through the Canada health transfer, but we've also added another $11 billion just a few years ago to look after the mental health and the home care services that seniors and many others across Canada need.
00:04:30.160We've had another $63 billion during COVID-19 to look after the emergency health care needs that the provinces and territories are faced with.
00:04:41.580And we are adding more resources as we exit from the crisis and eventually rebuild the damage, repair the damage that the crisis has created.
00:04:49.920Do you know how many ICU beds we have in Canada, sir?
00:04:52.360So I would tell you that that differs obviously across provinces and territories, and that has been sustained fortunately because of the strong collaboration between provinces and territories and the federal government.
00:05:04.680I've had six recent meetings with my health ministerial colleagues.
00:05:08.920Now this is an important way to collaborate together and to look after the needs that so many across Canada are feeling right now in the current crisis.
00:05:17.320Sir, are you aware that Canada has the lowest number of hospital beds out of 29, we rank 29th out of 33 states, the OECD, are you aware of that, sir?
00:05:35.180First, not only was it a challenge before COVID-19, but obviously that challenge has been increased during COVID-19.
00:05:41.940And that's why we look, we're continuing our efforts with provinces and territories, not only to exit from COVID-19, which is the key priority now, but as I said earlier, to repair the damages created by the crisis.