huh! Does that CPC motion ask... for... restrictions? Riddle me this member Gorgeous, are the "widespread mass lockdowns" at, as you say, borders, ports or airports? Uhhh, no - they're not/they weren't; rather, of course, they occurred/occur within provinces, under the control of the provinces... the setting and lifting of COVID-19 related restrictions.
This is what Rempel said:
https://www.ourcommons.ca/documentviewer/en/house/latest/hansardYesterday in the House of Commons, I asked the health minister what I thought was a very simple, non-partisan question. I asked when fully vaccinated seniors could give their grandchildren a hug. The answer we got back from the health minister, a year into the pandemic, could be summarized like this: She does not know, is not sure she wants to tell us, and believes it is a provincial jurisdiction, but she will give the provinces advice. That is not what Canadians want to hear. I think that answer encapsulates best the need for this motion.
We are a year into COVID‑19, and enough is enough. A year ago, Canadians from coast to coast pulled together to say we had to shut down the economy and undertake these restrictions in order to buy time for public health experts, all of us here in this place, provincial governments and municipal leaders to figure out what COVID‑19 was, how it spreads and who was most vulnerable, and to develop tools to permanently combat it, like therapeutics, rapid tests and vaccines. A year into the pandemic, those tools now exist. The problem is that in Canada, we have not had clear guidance from our health officials on the circumstances under which widespread mass lockdowns can safely end. That is a huge problem.
Those who are watching today need to understand that no level of government in Canada has issued any advice on what fully vaccinated people can do. The only thing the federal government has said to date, when asked, is that vaccinated people still have to go into controversial quarantine hotels. The federal government has to at least tell people what the plan is to develop benchmarks on how these tools are going to bring freedom, prosperity and normalcy back to the lives of Canadians. Today, we are calling on every member of this House to support the federal government in developing a plan within 20 days on the benchmarks by which these tools can be used in order to let life get back to normal.
We all acknowledge that it is important to combat the spread of COVID‑19, important to protect people from serious illness, important to prevent death. We have been doing that for the last year, all of us in this place. What is missing now is hope for the future. Canadians have no idea when lockdowns are going to end, and that has to stop.
Why does that have to stop? It is not just me asking for this. We have Unifor asking for “a national recovery plan to include adapting border restrictions to safely reopen borders”. There is the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. The Tourism Industry Association of Canada has stated, “The news of COVID vaccine distribution gives us reason for cautious optimism”, but said that we need to plan for the recovery of Canada's tourism industry now. The Fitness Industry Council of Canada is asking for a plan. Mayors are asking for plans. Everybody is asking for a plan. It is not just stakeholders who are saying this; it is also medical experts who are saying, “We can't just live in a bubble and have a life of no risk. Everything we do has consequences.” We need a better path forward that uses these tools to protect Canadians' health while also ensuring that life gets back to normal.
These are stories from the CBC.
The federal government has to deliver this. Probably the most critical thing the federal government could do right now is deliver a plan with benchmarks on how lockdowns can be gradually, permanently and safely lifted.
We do not have that. How can businesses plan to reopen if they do not know the circumstances under which they are going to do that? Can we imagine being a restaurant owner right now, when every day it says in the news that we might lock down again, or we might not?
This is not unreasonable to ask for clarification and conditions/benchmarks for when lockdowns can start easing, or what limits currently vaccinated Canadian have and don't have. This are actually good questions I think. People have businesses and loved ones and I would think would like more clarification.
I would assume that lockdowns on ie: border travel have been put in place because certain conditions have been met, based on data. By what measure can they be lifted? People's livelihoods are being affected. If you're going to do something contrary to the Charter of Rights like continue to block a border due to an emergency and every day this decision is costing many Canadians money and limiting their Charter-protected right to freedom of movement then you need a good reason, and that reason needs to be backed by some kind of logic and ideally backed by data rather than a Minister simply pulling hunches out of their arse.
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