As the member knows, there is a wide latitude for members during debate.
The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons has the floor.
Dominic LeBlanc Liberal
This bill has received Royal Assent and is, or will soon become, law.
This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament has also written a full legislative summary of the bill.
Part 1 enacts the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act , which establishes a statutory framework to remove federal barriers to the interprovincial trade of goods and services and to improve labour mobility within Canada. In the case of goods and services, that Act provides that a good or service that meets provincial or territorial requirements is considered to meet comparable federal requirements that pertain to the interprovincial movement of the good or provision of the service. In the case of workers, it provides for the recognition of provincial and territorial authorizations to practise occupations and for the issuance of comparable federal authorizations to holders of such provincial and territorial authorizations. It also provides the Governor in Council with the power to make regulations respecting federal barriers to the interprovincial movement of goods and provision of services and to the movement of labour within Canada.
Part 2 enacts the Building Canada Act , which, among other things,
(a) authorizes the Governor in Council to add the name of a project and a brief description of it to a schedule to that Act if the Governor in Council is of the opinion, having regard to certain factors, that the project is in the national interest;
(b) provides that determinations and findings that have to be made and opinions that have to be formed under certain Acts of Parliament and regulations for an authorization to be granted in respect of a project that is named in Schedule 1 to that Act are deemed to have been made or formed, as the case may be, in favour of permitting the project to be carried out in whole or in part;
(c) requires the minister who is designated under that Act to issue to the proponent of a project, if certain conditions are met, a document that sets out conditions that apply in respect of the project and that is deemed to be the authorizations, required under certain Acts of Parliament and regulations, that are specified in the document; and
(d) requires that minister, each year, to cause an independent review to be conducted of the status of each national interest project.
All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.
Bill numbers are reused for different bills each new session. Perhaps you were looking for one of these other C-5s:
This is a computer-generated summary of the speeches below. Usually it’s accurate, but every now and then it’ll contain inaccuracies or total fabrications.
Bill C-5, the one Canadian economy act, aims to enhance Canada's economy by reducing interprovincial trade barriers and expediting the approval process for projects deemed to be in the national interest.
Liberal
Conservative
NDP
Bloc
Green
Motions in AmendmentOne Canadian Economy ActGovernment Orders
The Deputy Speaker Tom Kmiec
As the member knows, there is a wide latitude for members during debate.
The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons has the floor.
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Mr. Speaker, I would hope that members opposite would be somewhat more respectful when members are speaking.
At the end of the day, when the voters spoke on April 28, they sent a very strong message to all members of the House that the Prime Minister, the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, had a mandate to build one economy instead of the 13 that we currently have in the country, and that is what the legislation is all about.
If we look at the election platform on page 1, if we look at the throne speech and if we look at the announcements made by the Prime Minister, we will see that the primary focus is to build one strong, healthy economy. The strongest economy in the G7 is the goal; that is something that the Prime Minister and Liberal members of Parliament are four-square behind. The focus of the government has been to enhance and build on that theme, and that is why we have Bill C-5 before us today, because the people of Canada were concerned about the economy, jobs and the direction that we were going in.
There is a new Prime Minister and a new administration, with a focus on building our economy. When we think in terms of trade and in terms of opportunities, there is a special focus in regard to exploring ways in which we can trade with other countries around the world, expanding our opportunities.
We have a Prime Minister who, just over two weeks ago, met with all the first ministers, all the premiers of provinces and territories across the country, about the idea of building the one Canadian economy. There have been provinces that have taken initiatives to build upon that. We have to be able to demonstrate here on the floor of the House of Commons that we are listening to what Canadians want and to their expectations. Their expectations are that there would be a high sense of co-operation, political parties aside, focused on what is in the best interest of Canadians, and that is exactly what our new Prime Minister has done.
We met with first ministers of all political stripes. When meeting with indigenous leaders and with all the different stakeholders to date, the first priority has been Canadians and building our economy. That is what we are striving to do. Imagine April 28 to six or seven weeks later; look at what we have been able to accomplish in that very short period of time. We can talk about legislative measures, such as Bill C-5, which we are talking about today, which in essence captures the one Canadian economy by looking at special projects and encouraging labour mobility, in law.
We also have Bill C-2, which is to strengthen our borders. It is a tangible investment, not only from a legislative perspective but also from a budgetary perspective, where we would commit to 1,000 more CBSA officers and 1,000 more RCMP officers. This would have a real impact on making our borders that much more secure, dealing with issues such as extortion and illegal immigration of different forms. These are the types of things—
Motions in AmendmentOne Canadian Economy ActGovernment Orders
An hon. member
Fentanyl.
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Mr. Speaker, as my colleague has pointed out, it deals with fentanyl too, a very serious issue here in Canada. In fact, around the world, fentanyl is a serious issue. As a government, we are looking at ways in which we can protect Canadians, and that is Bill C-2, not to mention Bill C-4.
Bill C-4 is the legislation that would put into law the tax cut for Canadians. Contrary to what the Conservatives are saying, it would be a substantial tax cut through which people would realize, in a fiscal year, over $800, for an average family with two workers in the home. They could get up to $840, I believe. It is a significant amount of money. There are 22 million taxpayers who would benefit by that—
Motions in AmendmentOne Canadian Economy ActGovernment Orders
The Deputy Speaker Tom Kmiec
I have to interrupt the parliamentary secretary.
The hon. member for Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères is rising on a point of order.
The House resumed consideration of Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act, as reported (with amendments) from the committee, and of the motions in Group No. 1.
One Canadian Economy ActGovernment Orders
Winnipeg North Manitoba
Liberal
Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Mr. Speaker, in a 10-minute speech, there have already been two interruptions. I would encourage members to be a little more courteous.
I would suggest taking a look at the legislation. I referenced Bill C-4, and it would be a tax break for Canadians not only in terms of their tax policy but also in terms of first-time homebuyers. First-time homebuyers who are purchasing a new home would actually get a GST exemption on it, up to a significant amount of a tax break for those first-time homebuyers, thereby making homes more affordable and ultimately increasing the number of houses being built.
These are substantial legislation measures and substantial budgetary measures that we have seen in a very short window. We made an investment, for example, of two—
The House resumed consideration of Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act, as reported (with amendments) from the committee, and of the motions in Group No. 1.
One Canadian Economy ActGovernment Orders
Winnipeg North Manitoba
Liberal
Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Mr. Speaker, the bottom line is that our election mandate is to build a strong, healthy economy, an economy that is the strongest in the G7. We have a new Prime Minister, a new administration. In a very short window, whether it is for legislation or budgetary measures, what we have witnessed, I believe, is a Prime Minister and a Liberal government that are committed to serving Canadians every day in order to build the dream that Canadians have. I for one am very grateful for the opportunity to be able to do that.
On a final note, I would like to thank a very special person who works in our MP lobby: Sarah is a wonderful research person and has been a great support over the years, and I thank her.
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Mr. Speaker, we can always tell the level of truthiness from the member's speech. The louder he gets, the less factual it is. So, we can certainly hear the level of truthiness, I guess, in today's speech.
The member talks about the one strong economy, and yet the government is a government that helped kill pipelines, energy east, which now leaves us bringing in $20 billion a year of oil from from Donald Trump's America instead of bringing it in from Alberta. The Liberals are keeping the unconstitutional Bill C-69, the “no new pipeline” ban; they are keeping the oil and gas cap, which is going to drive out many thousands of jobs; and the Quebec lieutenant says, “No more pipelines”. The resource minister cannot even say the word “pipeline” in the House. How is that building one strong Canada?
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Mr. Speaker, really and truly, the Conservative Party knows absolutely no shame. When Stephen Harper and the member's leader, Pierre Poilievre, sat around the cabinet table, do members know that they did not build one inch of pipeline to tidewaters? They talk a lot about it, but they were an absolute, total disaster in terms of building any pipeline. The Liberal Party has nothing to learn in terms of building a pipeline to tidewaters, because Pierre Poilievre was an absolute, total failure when it came to building a pipeline in the 10 years in which he sat on the government benches.
Xavier Barsalou-Duval Bloc Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the member opposite a question.
We have studied the bill in committee. Every time we debate a bill at second reading and point out gaps or problems, we are systematically told that these matters can be cleared up when the bill is sent to committee. We are assured that the bill can be improved at that stage.
However, in actual fact, when we examined this bill in committee, very few witnesses were heard. Worse still, the committee had very few hours to study the bill.
Therefore, I would like to ask the member opposite a specific question. How is it that his government, which claims to be so open and so unifying, rejected every single amendment put forward in committee?
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Mr. Speaker, it was not just the Liberals. The Liberals worked with the Conservatives to bring in the closure and time allocation motions, which actually set the time frame in terms of how long the committee would meet. There were some restrictions.
The members should be a little more straightforward in telling the full truth in the sense that there were many amendments, some of them Bloc amendments, that actually passed at the committee stage as well. I assume that the Bloc members at committee did have some consultation before they proposed those amendments.
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands—Rideau Lakes, ON
Mr. Speaker, during the member opposite's presentation, we heard him talk about Stephen Harper.
Stephen Harper was the prime minister more than a decade ago and had great success in developing Canada's economy. However, for the last 10 years, it was that member and his Liberal government, with Justin Trudeau, who introduced legislation that stymied the growth of Canada's economy and sent billions to dictatorships and to the United States. The member is here talking about a new government but also wants to talk about Justin Trudeau and his success.
Can the member stand up and say that he is proud of the work of Justin Trudeau and that he stands with Bill C-69 and the other job-killing bills that he passed with that government?
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Mr. Speaker, I have a reality check for the member. If we contrast the Trudeau administration to the Harper administration, we will find that the Trudeau administration created close to two million jobs in just under 10 years. Contrast that to one million jobs with Stephen Harper.
If we want to talk about the manufacturing industry, we can take a look at what happened in Ontario. Stephen Harper virtually destroyed the manufacturing industry in Ontario during that 10-year period of time. I would have no problem doing a comparison at any time on that issue.