COVID-19 Pandemic Committee on April 29th, 2020

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Mr. Chair, I'm pleased to tell my colleague that we have increased the financing of CFIA by $20 million, especially to make sure they have all the resources that our food processors need.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Mr. Chair, Conestoga Meats has halted pork processing for at least one week after seven employees tested positive for COVID-19.

What additional resources have been made available specifically to Conestoga Meats to maintain the pork supply here in Canada?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Mr. Chair, just to clarify the situation, it is the responsibility of the business to put in place the right measures to protect their workers. They do that following the recommendation of their local provincial public health, and the inspectors from CFIA are there to ensure food safety.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Mr. Chair, during these times of COVID-19 when processing capacity is extremely limited, will the minister, for the time being, allow provincially inspected facilities to ship meat products across provincial boundaries?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Mr. Chair, I will apologize if I did not get the question properly.

I can assure my colleague that everything related to food processing is a very top priority for us right now, and we are making sure that the borders remain open so we can make sure that the food supply chain is fluid.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Mr. Chair, I will repeat the question. For meat that comes from a provincially inspected facility, will the minister waive the requirement and allow that meat to go past provincial boundaries?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague for repeating the question. I am trying hard to work in my second language, and I appreciate it.

This is something we are looking at with CFIA, with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. When it's needed, if we see a territory or a province facing a food shortage, this is something that can be applied, and it obviously has to be done with the provinces.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Mr. Chair, communities like mine, where we have the Stratford Festival and Drayton Entertainment, are eager to know the details of the $500-million aid package for the arts, culture and sports industries. When will these details be made known, and when will applications open?

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Mr. Guilbeault, the honourable Minister of Canadian Heritage.

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Chair, we are working tirelessly to come up with these details. I'm hoping that they will be made available in the coming days.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

We have time for one more, Mr. Nater.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Mr. Chair, various farm organizations and farm groups have been pushing for many months now, even before COVID-19 hit, for a full review of the business risk management programs, including AgriInvest and AgriStability. One of the concerns I hear on a daily basis is that farmers cannot take on more debt.

Will the minister commit to a full review of these programs and explore non-debt options for these farmers?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Mr. Chair, I can assure my colleague that I'm working very hard with my provincial counterparts to make the business risk management suite of programs much faster and rely not only on loans but on grants.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

We'll now move to the honourable member for Saanich—Gulf Islands, Ms. May.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's good to see the faces of friends, and not just on our laptop screens.

I want to start by positing that in this pandemic, it looks as though the greater the degree of collaboration within a country, the more effective its response to COVID. Contrast, unfortunately, the United States versus New Zealand.

Within Canada, we see that New Brunswick has done very well. New Brunswick is the only province that has put together an all-party cabinet committee to confront COVID-19. I'm wondering if the equivalent of a war cabinet is under consideration by this government.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

The right honourable Prime Minister.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Chair, like the honourable member, I do want to underline the degree to which Canadians have worked together. Across the provinces and territories, with the federal government, we've been able to move forward on significant measures that have worked.

As the member herself has highlighted, the regular calls that public servants give to opposition members have contributed significantly in improving the legislation that we have put forward in this House in response to COVID-19. We will continue to collaborate, but we are not at this time looking at a war-style cabinet.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Chair, one thing that makes us think of war times, of course, is seeing the enormous struggles on the ground of communities like Fort McMurray. All Canadians are looking at that community and thinking, “Oh, my goodness, how are they facing this?” They had the economic downturn, the fires and now the floods. The other day, the Deputy Prime Minister referred to spring as flood season and summer as fire season. Before the climate crisis, we used to call them spring and summer.

In the context of this pandemic, acknowledging that we are also in a climate emergency, what preparations has the government taken to help house people under evacuation while maintaining the COVID public health advice?

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

The honourable Minister of Public Safety, Mr. Blair.

[Bill Blair, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Mr. Chair, I thank the member opposite for a very important question. We share her concern about the challenges facing communities that are experiencing flooding conditions, and that will also perhaps eventually face fire conditions, and ensuring that we can safely house them during those climate emergencies that do take place in our country. We are already facing a situation in Fort McMurray, and we anticipate that in the very near future in many indigenous northern communities we'll face a similar challenge with regard to ensuring that we find safe housing.

Historically, we would put these people perhaps in a community centre, but that's not appropriate during this particular medical crisis. We are exploring with our provincial partners all of the ways in which we can safely house those individuals as they face those crises of flooding and fires in their communities.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Chair, I have a quick follow-up question.

There are vast areas of British Columbia where forest fires, like Elephant Hill fire, have wiped out the forest. Nothing has been replanted there as a matter of prevention. This is hydrophobic soil. It doesn't take in the water anymore. When it rains, it just washes right down into streams and brooks and rivers.

I know that in the campaign the Liberals spoke of having a tree-planting program. Could that be applied in ways that would be an adaptation measure to help prevent floods?

[Bill Blair, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

I think it's an excellent recommendation, Mr. Chair. In fact, we have been in discussion with our provincial partners on various infrastructure programs that we are prepared to invest in that will also be intended to mitigate and prevent some of these tragedies. Certainly, I think a tree-planting program could be very useful in these circumstances.

There are other significant measures, but particularly for flood prevention, that will also have our consideration as we go forward and invest in infrastructure across the country. I believe every dollar spent on prevention can save us an enormous amount of money in the eventual cure.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Thank you.

Turning to the crisis for our seniors, I really want to commend the government. I can see that we've been moving, step by step, dealing with the crisis that hit Canadians. A lot of people are still being left behind. In the spirit of pushing for more, I want to know when we are going to help our seniors. They are watching their retirement savings shrink. They are wondering when it is their turn to see some help.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

The honourable Minister of Middle Class Prosperity.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Mr. Chair, I thank my honourable colleague for her question.

As we've been discussing, since the beginning we've been supporting seniors with helping them to get access to their GIS and OAS, and we will continue to do that. We have also invested to make sure they get access to services at their homes or access to more food. We will continue to work with seniors as we go along in this crisis.