(Ottawa) At the instigation of the Bloc Québécois, elected federal officials are asking the House of Commons and the Trudeau government to take the necessary steps to ensure that the masks that are distributed on Parliament Hill and in the various departments are manufactured by Canadian companies.
The House of Commons adopted on Thursday a motion presented by Bloc Québécois MP Julie Vignola to correct a situation deemed “unacceptable” by opposition parties and Canadian businesses. The motion sets January 31 as the deadline for the House of Commons and the Trudeau government to meet this obligation.
This motion was adopted after Press reported Monday that masks made in China have been distributed to federal deputies and employees of Parliament Hill for a few weeks, even though several Canadian companies have been producing personal protective equipment for several months.
These companies had also responded to the call for the mobilization of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself, who, at the height of the pandemic, in March 2020, had urged them to embark on the local production of these valuable equipment.
The objective was to ensure that Canada would never again be dependent on foreign countries, especially China, for the production of such equipment, as was the case during the first months of the health crisis.
The motion sponsored by Bloc member Julie Vignola demands that “the administration of the House and the federal government take steps to ensure that, as of January 31, 2022, the masks distributed on Parliament Hill and in the various federal departments and agencies come from of domestic companies that produce this type of personal protective equipment ”.
Conservative Party and NDP MPs supported this motion, while Liberal MPs did not signal their opposition loudly enough to House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota to be heard. After the latter indicated that the motion was carried, some Liberals rose to say that they were opposed to it. But the president said he did not hear them and therefore the motion was deemed to have passed unanimously.
It was MP Julie Vignola’s second attempt to force the House of Commons and federal departments to encourage local buying.
In the morning, she tried to get a similar motion passed during the meeting of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. But the Liberal MPs who are members of this committee were resistant to it, stating in particular that such a motion could violate the rules of the World Trade Organization.
Some also insisted that we first check whether the supply of masks was sufficiently stocked in Ottawa before disposing of those made in China. Arguments that have ridiculed the deputies of other political parties. But the endless discussions on amendments and subamendments to the Bloc motion ensured that the committee meeting took place without the members voting.