Evidence of meeting #1 for COVID-19 Pandemic in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was point.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

1:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Anthony Rota

Mr. Ste-Marie, go ahead.

1:55 p.m.

Bloc

Gabriel Ste-Marie Bloc Joliette, QC

Mr. Chair, I thank you from the Joliette riding.

I thank the minister for her answer. I want to remind you a second time that our intervention aims to denounce the legal use of tax havens—so tax avoidance, and not tax evasion. In that respect, Canada is lagging behind other countries and could do a great deal by making regulatory amendments, which it is not doing.

My question was for the Minister of Finance and concerned the idea that companies would give the government an equity stake, or a block of shares proportional to the amount injected. I would like the minister to answer me.

2 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Anthony Rota

The Honourable Minister has the floor.

2 p.m.

Liberal

Diane Lebouthillier Liberal Gaspésie—Les-Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC

Mr. Chair, as I was explaining to my colleague, at my request, an expert panel has been created at the Canada Revenue Agency to advise us on the measures to take to avoid people getting involved in tax evasion or in abusive tax avoidance.

As I was saying, this is a key issue for us and for taxpayers. Our government has invested the most money—nearly $1 billion—to give the agency the tools to fight tax avoidance and tax evasion. We will continue to do everything we possibly can for everyone to pay their fair share.

2 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Anthony Rota

The honourable member for Surrey Centre, Mr. Sarai.

2 p.m.

Liberal

Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC

Mr. Chair, I'll be sharing my time with the member of Parliament for Miramichi—Grand Lake.

First of all, on behalf of the constituents of Surrey Centre, I want to express my heartfelt condolences to the people of Nova Scotia. We all pray for you during this very difficult time.

It's an honour to speak and ask a question in Canada's first virtual Parliament in a time that is unprecedented in our history.

My riding of Surrey Centre had many constituents travelling abroad when the COVID-19 pandemic began to escalate globally. Specifically, we had many individuals stuck in Peru, India, Pakistan and the Philippines. My office has dealt with requests from hundreds of concerned constituents who were trying to get home or trying to help their loved ones get home after the country they were in or travelling to limited internal movement, closed its borders and restricted airspace to commercial flights.

The federal government has taken unprecedented action in this time to negotiate access to locked-down countries and reach Canadians and bring them home. I want to thank the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, their team and consular staff around the world for undertaking the largest repatriation effort in Canada's history.

My team and I are so appreciative of your quick replies to our inquiries and the inquiries of my constituents. You have been working around the clock, and we are so grateful for your efforts.

Can the minister please update us on how many Canadians have been repatriated over the last few weeks?

2 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Anthony Rota

The honourable minister.

2 p.m.

Saint-Maurice—Champlain Québec

Liberal

François-Philippe Champagne LiberalMinister of Foreign Affairs

Mr. Chair, I'm very pleased to report to colleagues and to Parliament that we have repatriated more than 20,000 Canadians so far, on more than 182 flights coming from about 81 countries. We have also been able to repatriate about 5,000 people from more than 180 ships. I'm pleased to report to colleagues and to Parliament that the last passengers now have made it to Canada over the weekend.

This has been, as the member for Surrey Centre said, the largest and most complex repatriation effort in our nation's history in peacetime, and I want to thank every member. From probably just about everyone in this House, I got an email, a text message or a voice message asking about the well-being of their constituents.

I am very pleased that this has been a team Canada effort. I want to thank the consular officials here in Ottawa and around the world. We have answered more than 82,000 calls and 150,000 emails. Our operation is largely complete. I think we're about 80% complete, and we will continue to assist Canadian travellers abroad wherever they might be during this crisis.

2 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Anthony Rota

The honourable member for Miramichi—Grand Lake.

2 p.m.

Liberal

Pat Finnigan Liberal Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

In my constituency, Miramichi—Grand Lake, the inshore fishing industry is very important to the area's economy. It employs several thousand people. The fishing sector isn't spared and is also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most fishing activity takes place in small coastal villages, where almost the entire population depends on the industry to make a living. COVID-19 is a source of major concern for plant workers and fishers, who are worried about their safety.

Another concern relates to the transportation of seafood products to markets and processing plants, since the plants have very limited storage capacity in the event of a surplus.

Lastly, although this isn't necessarily [Technical difficulty—Editor], our seasonal workers are very worried because they may not have accumulated enough hours to qualify for employment insurance after the season ends.

What measures have been implemented to help our plant workers and our fishers?

2:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Anthony Rota

The honourable minister has the floor.

2:05 p.m.

South Shore—St. Margarets Nova Scotia

Liberal

Bernadette Jordan LiberalMinister of Fisheries

Mr. Chair, before I answer the question, as the minister from Nova Scotia, I would just like to say thank you to Canadians from coast to coast to coast for their heartfelt condolences and good wishes to us here in the province.

I want to thank my colleague for the question, as well as for his continually reaching out to my office to bring forward the concerns he hears from constituents in his riding with regard to our fish and seafood sector.

We recognize how important that sector is to our rural coastal communities, and we're doing everything we can to support it. Right now we know that they are extremely challenged because of the loss of export markets. We're looking at a number of different measures we can put in place to help harvesters, as well as processors. This past weekend, we announced a $62.5-million package for processors to allow them to diversify their products, to do value-added, as well as to increase their freezer capacity. This, in turn, will help harvesters by making sure they have somewhere to sell.

We also recognized the challenges some of them were facing with regard to accessing the CERB. We've made it available to seasonal workers, which was extremely important to the sector. We've also made sure that people who are on fishers' EI and have now run out are also going to be able to access the CERB.

These are all measures we're taking into account, but we're not finished. We know there is still a lot more that needs to be done. We know that some harvesters are not able to access some of the programs that we've put forward. We're making sure that we have those available to them, and we will continue to work with them.

I want to thank the member for his input into these programs. It's been extremely beneficial.

2:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Anthony Rota

I'll give the floor to the honourable member for Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis.

Mr. Blaney, is your microphone off?

2:05 p.m.

Conservative

Steven Blaney Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC

Yes, Mr. Chair. I apologize. All this still needs a bit of getting used to.

Mr. Chair, you're doing an excellent job.

Unfortunately, we learned today that 15 regional media outlets, weekly newspapers in Manitoba and Ontario, will be publishing their final editions next week. Yet they play an important role, particularly in a pandemic situation.

On March 25, the Minister of Heritage announced $30 million in funding to support regional and ethnic media.

When will this money be invested in the St. Albert Gazette, in Alberta, or in La Voix du Sud, in Lac-Etchemin?

2:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Anthony Rota

The honourable minister has the floor.

2:05 p.m.

Laurier—Sainte-Marie Québec

Liberal

Steven Guilbeault LiberalMinister of Canadian Heritage

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I also want to thank my honourable colleague for his question.

I want to acknowledge all the residents of Laurier—Sainte-Marie and all Canadians. We're going through this crisis together.

Since the announcement, our COVID-19 crisis education and awareness campaign has been rolled out in over 900 newspapers and radio stations, in 12 different languages, including Inuktitut. The campaign was published in some newspapers in the member's constituency, including Lac-Etchemin, Lévis and Saint Romuald.

This campaign is ongoing. It will continue as long as we need to raise awareness regarding the important issue of the COVID-19 crisis.

2:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Anthony Rota

Mr. Blaney, you have the floor.

2:05 p.m.

Conservative

Steven Blaney Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC

I want to thank the minister for his response.

The special funding makes it possible not only to inform people about the pandemic, but also about all the government spending on advertising. The advertising must first be allocated to Canadian businesses that pay taxes rather than to the web giants, which don't pay taxes.

My second question is for the minister. It concerns the cancellation of the Calgary Stampede, the Festival d'été de Québec and the Festival Jazz etcetera Lévis, for example. Some organizations have submitted an eligibility application for Canadian Heritage programs and other organizations haven't done so.

The minister announced a budget of $500 million. How will this money be used to cover fixed costs related to organizations, celebrations and festivals? These organizations must survive this year, even though the cancellation of planned events means that they won't have any revenue.

2:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Anthony Rota

The honourable minister has the floor.

2:05 p.m.

Liberal

Steven Guilbeault Liberal Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC

I want to thank the member for his question.

We've done a number of things over the past few weeks to help organizers of social, cultural or artistic events who are feeling the full impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

One of the Department of Canadian Heritage's first initiatives was to announce that we would honour all our financial commitments with our partners, even though their events wouldn't be taking place. They were instructed to use the money to offset some of the losses. We also asked them to compensate the craftspeople and technicians who would have participated in these events.

The $500 million that the Prime Minister and I announced a week and a half ago builds on other measures that the government implemented, such as the Canada emergency wage subsidy and the Canada emergency response benefit.

We're well aware that not everyone who works in the arts, culture and events sectors can access these measures. We're working out the details. In the interest of transparency, I hope that these details will be released to the public in the next few days.

2:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Anthony Rota

Mr. Blaney, you have 30 seconds to ask your question, which will be followed by a 30-second response.

2:10 p.m.

Conservative

Steven Blaney Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC

My question is for the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

I want to know what's happening at the borders. The entire country is locked down. Here in Quebec, we can't travel from region to region. Why is the border still open when we're in the middle of a pandemic, a pandemic that we know came across the border?

2:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Anthony Rota

The honourable minister.

2:10 p.m.

Liberal

Bill Blair Liberal Scarborough Southwest, ON

Mr. Chair, we have essentially closed the border. In fact, we've seen a 99% reduction in air travellers arriving in Canada from any international jurisdiction, including the United States, and equally, a very significant reduction in the number of people crossing our borders. It is also terribly important that we maintain essential supply lines and the movement of essential workers back and forth across our border. We have imposed very strict restrictions to eliminate all non-essential travel, but we also recognize the importance of the essential movement of trades and goods and essential workers back and forth across that border. We've worked very collaboratively with the United States to ensure that happens, to keep our economy moving and to serve all Canadians.

2:10 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton

Thank you.

We'll now move to the member for Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River.