COVID-19 Pandemic Committee on May 14th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The honourable minister.

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I too would like to take this opportunity to wish you a happy birthday.

Our artists have kept us strong and connected throughout this crisis. It is our turn to step up for them.

I want to thank you for your resilience and your patience. Your continuous feedback and inspiring work have helped us get where we are today.

Our government allocated $500 million to respond to the specific financial needs of the arts, heritage and sports organizations and help them be more resilient through these difficult times. Last week, I was proud to announce how this funding will be rolled out. In total, our cultural sector will receive over $422 million in this emergency funding. We are making sure organizations can continue delivering programs to Canadians, while protecting more jobs in our economy.

The funding process will be streamlined and will mostly use existing programs and partnerships to disburse payment as quickly as possible. Our government has always been there for our arts and culture communities. We continue to support them for our people and our economy during this difficult time.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

We'll now move on to the honourable member for Hamilton Centre, Mr. Green.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

There have been bailouts for oil and gas, big business and Bay Street, but there's still no clear new deal with cities and municipalities, yet cities from our larger urban centres, like right here in Hamilton Centre, to our small, rural and remote towns are increasingly being faced with the impossible task of either deep cuts to critical local programs and services or significant increases to municipal property taxes, or perhaps both.

Will the Prime Minister commit to providing real leadership in working with provinces to help fund our cash-strapped cities and municipalities to develop a new deal for municipalities or will this COVID crisis be yet another unbearable download onto the backs of municipal property taxes?

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

The honourable minister.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I agree with the member opposite that our cities are absolutely essential engines of growth for our country at all times and they are going to be particularly essential as we look towards restarting our economy. If our cities can't work, none of us is going to be able to work. That is why our government has been energetically working with and talking with cities. We have been urging the cities to talk to the provincial governments and we are very keen, working with provincial governments, to find ways to support our cities.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, talk will not fund budgets locally. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities recently stated that municipalities are facing a minimum $15 billion in near-term, non-recoverable losses due to COVID-19. Municipalities cannot run deficits. They do not have the ability to raise necessary revenues to meet the scale and scope of COVID disruption.

What is the Deputy Prime Minister saying to FCM, the mayors and the thousands of municipal councils that are facing the terrifying prospect of deep cuts to their critical local services, while facing soaring property taxes?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I speak with the cities very often, in fact I have been speaking with them a lot over the last few days, and let me tell you what I tell them. What I tell them is they are absolutely essential to our country, to our economy and to our restart. Cities, of course, fall under provincial jurisdiction. Having said that, our federal government is ready and willing to work with the provinces to support our cities.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, locally the provinces are crying poor, too. They know what's about to come and it's pretty clear that the Deputy Prime Minister and her government are content to continue passing the buck while our municipalities are being forced to bear the brunt of this crisis.

As a case in point, public transit is a critical service used by essential workers to get to work and by Canadians to run essential errands, but municipalities are unable to absorb the increased transit operating costs that have arisen during COVID-19. The TTC alone is predicting a $300-million funding shortfall by Labour Day.

With the recent poll by Probe Research that indicates 91% of Canadians agree that the federal government has a responsibility to provide access to safe, reliable and affordable public transit, will the Deputy Prime Minister commit to providing emergency funding to backstop public transit during this COVID pandemic and commit to investing in a bold national public transit strategy by providing direct, sustainable and annual operational dollars towards public transit?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Let me just remind Canadians and the member opposite, Mr. Chair, that our government has made unprecedented investments in cities, unprecedented investments in public transit. It is something we believe in very strongly. I agree with the member opposite that having public transit up and running will be absolutely essential to the restart. I have been speaking, just over the past 24 hours, with Canadian mayors and premiers. We believe that we need to work together to support our cities to keep them going, and that is what we will do.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Mr. Green, you have about 40 seconds left.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Big announcements, big-dollar announcements do not equal the delivery of the actual funding. One-third, one-third, one-third models from municipalities are broken. I understand it better than most. I'm a former municipal councillor.

Will the Deputy Prime Minister commit to doubling the gas tax transfers to be able to provide operational funding to transit, yes or no?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Mr. Chair, what I will commit to do is to work with our cities, to work with our provinces, to ensure that our cities are able to be the essential part of the reopening of our economy that they need to be.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

We will now move on to the honourable member for Richmond Centre.

Ms. Wong.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond Centre, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Before I start asking questions, I'd like to say a special thank you to all the front-line workers who have been risking their lives to make sure we stay healthy and safe.

Many seniors have spent their entire working life saving for their retirement, putting money away into their RRSPs. Given the current situation, those who want to should not be punished for accessing their own money, come tax season. We have asked the government for registered plan withdrawal changes to allow for limited tax-free or tax-deferred withdrawals.

Why won't the government allow seniors to access their own money penalty-free?

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

The honourable minister.

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, Minister of Seniors]

Thank you very much. I want to also acknowledge my honourable colleague for her advocacy and her questions.

Definitely, we have been mostly focused on supporting seniors and supporting them directly in their pocketbooks and accounts, so that they can help pay for the additional costs that have been seen through this pandemic. That's what we've done with our measures that we announced just recently, with the $300 to OAS recipients, a special one-time payment, and an additional $200 for our GIS recipients.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond Centre, BC]

Going back to the same question, can the minister clarify who actually is eligible for an OAS or GIS top-up? What about those who choose to defer the collection of OAS until a later date?

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

All those who are eligible for OAS will receive the additional tax-free payment that we have just announced of $300, and there is an additional $200 for those who are eligible for the GIS.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond Centre, BC]

My question is, how about those who choose to defer their OAS or GIS benefits?

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

In this case, we will be providing those who are eligible this special payment so that they can deal with the extra costs that seniors are seeing for the pandemic, and we are hearing those stories.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond Centre, BC]

Exactly one month ago today, I, along with my colleague from Bow River, wrote to the Minister of Seniors to outline several key concerns regarding the financial and physical security of seniors in the face of COVID-19.

Could the minister provide an update on the steps that she, along with her colleagues at the federal and provincial levels, have taken to balance the need for social distancing and the threat of social isolation among seniors that it entails?

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

I'm really delighted to have the opportunity to share with Canadians the extra work we've been doing through our new horizons for seniors program. We announced $9 million to United Way and Centraide to help focus on those isolated seniors so that they can be connected with their communities. Even though they have to be physically distant, they need to be socially connected to stay healthy with their mental health.

We have also changed the requirements for the recipients of the new horizons for seniors money this year so that they can change their programs and help those seniors who are much in need.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

There is one minute left.

Ms. Wong.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond Centre, BC]

On April 6, 2020, the Minister of Seniors announced structural changes to the new horizons for seniors program, the NHSP. In relation to that specific announcement, can the minister please indicate what real-world benefits Canadian seniors have experienced as a result of changes to this funding structure, or will they only start seeing them after this pandemic is over?