Evidence of meeting #110 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
I want to go back to relevance.
You know, it's very simple. The member opposite has a very simple choice: to condemn the actions of his leader and to ask his party to recognize that hate has no place in this country and that we have to call it out. He's not speaking to the issue. He's going into the technicalities now.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Mr. Chair, that's not relevant. The motion before the committee is not for me to do anything, so I think the member should just retire his comments.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
This is a Liberal government member. We have Liberal ministers here to defend their records on the estimates, on people with disabilities and on how they're representing labour. They chose to interrupt the meeting to bring this motion. There are consequences to that, as I've talked about. Look at what we could be talking about right now.
However, Mr. Gerretsen chose to do this. He knew Conservatives would want to speak about this. He knew his ministers would be interrupted. In fact, that's what this tactic is. The tactic of this motion is to disrupt this committee so that we can't hear from the minister defending this paltry $6 a day they're giving to people with disabilities. My colleague was asking great questions on that, and the minister was clearly unable to answer those questions. In a desperate attempt to protect the minister, Mr. Gerretsen brought this motion. It would appear he's desperately trying to protect the Minister of Labour, whose appearance was also disrupted because we're debating this motion.
As I said before, there are a lot of things we could be talking about with the ministers. Instead, we're stuck talking about why this meeting was interrupted by this motion. It could have been brought at any point. The ministers weren't going to be here on Thursday. However, this is clearly designed by a government that has a lot to hide. They're trying to hide their ministers when they come to this committee to answer for the decisions they've made.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Tony Van Bynen Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
It seems to me that the people trying to hide are the people who are stalling this vote.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Thank you, Mr. Van Bynen. That's very marginal.
Continue, Mr. Seeback.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate the interjections by my colleagues from the Liberal government, who chose to bring a motion when their ministers are appearing before our committee. I can assure you that it's not something that would happen when there's a change of government. We would respect our ministers coming to committee to give evidence. We wouldn't interrupt their appearance with a motion. What we're missing out on....
I'm guessing we now have a long speaking list on this motion. I know there are other members on this side who want to speak on this motion. I know there are members of the Liberal Party who keep putting their hands up, wanting to speak.
We've now interrupted two ministers because you guys thought you'd bring a motion to the committee so we can't hear from them to answer the questions.
I want to go back to what we could be talking to the Minister of Labour about. The letter from the CBTU on April 10, which was literally a week ago—
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
They're talking about the displacement of skilled workers on the Stellantis project.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Mr. Chair, there's traditionally wide latitude given on relevance. The relevance of the motion is—
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
I'll ask you again—it's been several times—to make your comments relevant to the motion.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
I'll give Mr. Seeback a break. I would strongly encourage him not to use a term: Individuals are not “suffering from” disabilities. My nephew, who has Down syndrome, is not suffering from a disability. He has an exceptionality.
Maybe Mr. Seeback can try to at least be respectful when it comes to talking about people with disabilities.
5 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Thank you, Mr. Gerretsen.
Mr. Seeback, go ahead on the motion on the floor, with relevance.
April 29th, 2024 / 5 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
I think I get the opportunity to respond to those comments, actually.
Mr. Chair, I apologize if I used the wrong term. Yes, it should be persons “with” disabilities. I meant no disrespect when I was using that terminology. What I do think is disrespectful is what the member for Kingston and the Islands has done in the middle of a meeting specifically designed to hear from the Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities about how people with disabilities are getting $6 per day day. Instead of allowing that to happen—that's what should have been happening at this meeting—if the member wants to talk about disrespect, the disrespect is bringing a motion that interrupted the evidence of the minister and interrupted questions from committee members, including members from the Bloc and the NDP. They were asking very good questions of the minister, and I'm sure that they wanted to ask more questions of the minister. I know that they also think that giving $6 per day to help persons with disabilities cope with the current affordability crisis—a crisis that has been caused by the inflationary spending of this Liberal government that is making life unaffordable and includes the carbon tax.... All of these things are having a massive impact on affordability for Canadians, and the minister has offered $6 per day to help with that.
Misusing a word or misspeaking accidentally, as I did.... I do want to say that I apologize if I've offended anyone with the words that I used. I did not mean to do that; it absolutely was not my intention. However, I wonder if the member for Kingston and the Islands is going to apologize for interrupting the appearance of the Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities when there were members of the committee who had questions for the minister, questions about how $6 per day is going to actually make life more affordable for them, questions about how they are going to deal with the affordability crisis that all Canadians are dealing with. I know that my colleagues from the Bloc and the NDP had good questions. They were asking very tough questions of the minister, and we had more rounds of questioning to actually go forward on.
I wonder if the member for Kingston and the Islands wants to apologize to the members from the Bloc and the member from the NDP for taking away their time to question the minister today by bringing a motion. Now I wonder if he wants to apologize to the member for the NDP, because it would appear that we're not going to get to the Minister of Labour and Seniors. I bet you she has questions for the Minister of Labour and Seniors on all of these things.
I think perhaps I've said enough.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
5 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
I'll not be a judge of that. Thank you, Mr. Seeback.
Mrs. Falk, you have the floor. Then we'll go to Madam Chabot, Mr. Gerretsen and Madam Zarrillo.
Go ahead, Mrs. Falk.
5 p.m.
Conservative
Rosemarie Falk Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm absolutely disappointed that we are at this point. I'm very disappointed that the NDP is doing the Liberals' bidding once again.
As has been said, the Minister of Labour and Seniors was supposed to start a while ago. We also have the Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities here. The regular members of this committee know how difficult it is to actually get a minister here to be accountable for the decisions that they, as well as their departments, make. I absolutely cannot believe that the NDP once again is in the back pockets of this Liberal government when I know that MP Zarrillo has been a champion for those with disabilities. They are always first and foremost when we are doing studies or when we have a minister. I am shocked—very, very shocked—that she wants to take away time from both ministers. I would hope that this will not happen in the future.
Mr. Chair, I move that the committee proceed to the appearance of the Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities to address the failure of the Liberal government so that she can address her government's failure to deliver the Canada disability benefit.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Madame Falk, could you repeat your motion? If there's a condition attached to it, it's not dilatory. It has to be specific.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Rosemarie Falk Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
I move that the committee proceed to the appearance of the Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities to address the failure of the Liberal government so that she can address her government's failure to deliver the Canada disability benefit.
