Debates of May 26th, 2014

Winery in Neuville

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise in the House today to pay tribute to Domaine des 3 Moulins, a winery in Neuville, in my riding of Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, for its success at the recent All Canadian Wine Championships.

At the 34th anniversary of the event, which concluded on May 16, Domaine de 3 Moulins was competing against nearly 200 wine producers from seven Canadian provinces. The winery brought home gold in the Single White Hybrids category with its 2012 Le Moulin à grain, and it won silver in the Grape Fortifieds & Other Dessert category with Aube du Moulin, one of my personal favourites.

I extend my warmest congratulations to the winery's owners, Monick Valois and Pio Bégin, and their entire team, for their well-deserved success after more than a decade of work. I would also like to thank them for their hard work, tenacity and perseverance in this major undertaking.

Congratulations. The fruits of your investment and your passion have put the region of Portneuf on the map right across the country.

Conservation

[Keith Ashfield, Conservative, Fredericton, NB]

Mr. Speaker, recently the Prime Minister launched the national conservation plan while he was in my riding of Fredericton. This plan will help to secure ecologically sensitive lands, support voluntary conservation and restoration actions and strengthen marine and coastal conservation. The plan will also expand opportunities for partners to improve the land and water around them. We also have programs already in place that help support these initiatives.

For example, in Fredericton last week we announced we were making further investments through a program that would help post-secondary students gain work experience, while conserving the environment.

Our government will continue to build on these conservation programs and announce new initiatives as we focus and coordinate our efforts far into the future.

Eugenie Bouchard

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate one of the most talented people in my riding on her exceptional achievement.

Eugenie Bouchard, from Westmount, defeated Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic to win the Nuremberg Cup. Eugenie is the first Canadian to win a World Tennis Association tournament since Aleksandra Wozniak, another Quebecker, in Stanford in 2008.

This triumph comes on the heels of a thrilling run to the semi-finals of the Australian Open when Eugénie earned many thousands of new “Genie's Army” fans through the quality of her play, her steely determination and her warm and approachable demeanour off the court.

Now ranked 19th in the world, Eugénie's next challenge is the French Open. We wish her the very best. She is an example for Canadians, especially for young girls dreaming of their own careers in tennis.

Eugenie, we are proud of you. You have a promising future that all Canadians will be following with great interest.

Maternal, Newborn and Child Health

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Mr. Speaker, two days from now, Canada will be hosting a summit on maternal, newborn and child health in Toronto. This summit will provide civil society, the private sector and global and Canadian leaders in health the opportunity to galvanize consensus where to focus efforts to maximize results for those in need.

I look forward to attending this summit, along with the Right Hon. Prime Minister, the Hon. Minister of International Development and high profile guests, guests like his Highness the Aga Khan, Melinda Gates, Ban Ki Moon, the President of Tanzania and many others who will discuss how to save the lives of more mothers, children and newborns.

This summit will see Canada continuing in our leadership role, addressing the health challenges faced by women, children and newborns in developing countries.

Canadians can be very proud of our government's strong track record in saving the lives of women, children and newborns all over the world.

Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Mr. Speaker, last week, from Comox to Port Alberni, Nanaimo to Parksville and throughout the Lower Mainland, British Columbians came out to hear the Leader of the Opposition.

In our communities, Canadians do not care about Liberal and Conservative mudslinging from inside the Ottawa bubble. They want to hear about what matters to them.

Last week, that is what our leader was doing. He was talking about jobs, about making life more affordable, supporting veterans, protecting our environment and fixing Ottawa.

From farmers' markets to town halls to meeting folks in coffee shops, everywhere it was clear: British Columbians want change.

From the island to the north, support for the Leader of the Opposition continues to grow, and in 2015, British Columbians will vote for the NDP in record numbers, because they know it is New Democrats who take on and defeat Conservatives.

Canadians know that with the NDP, they can vote for the change they want and actually get it.

Ukraine

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to congratulate the people of Ukraine on their election yesterday.

Initial reports indicate that the election was peaceful and transparent. This election is an example of Ukrainian people exercising their inherent democratic rights during this critical time in Ukraine's history.

Our government is proud to have helped at this pivotal time in Ukraine by sending a contingent of election observers that monitored and reported on these critical elections.

I would also like to reaffirm our government's support for a democratic and sovereign Ukraine.

Canada will continue to work with the Ukrainian government to help restore the country's economic and political stability. We will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainians who aspire for a better and brighter future for Ukraine.

Justice

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, why has the Prime Minister changed his version of events surrounding the putative attempt to have a phone call with the Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I have no idea of what that question was about. What I can say, simply, as I have said all along, is my position was that there was an issue I was aware of that I thought it likely to come before the court. Therefore, I did not consult a sitting judge; I consulted legal experts outside the court.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, for someone who did not understand the question, he sure understood the question.

Early on the Prime Minister was affirming that he had talked to legal experts and that it was entirely theoretical that anyone could challenge the appointment of a Federal Court judge to the Supreme Court to be one of the three reserve judges from the province of Quebec. Then we had a version from his office that it was inappropriate and inadvisable that he take the call.

He changed his version the last time he was in the House and we would like to know why.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, once again, I do not know what the change of version is. What I know is that the government consulted outside legal experts as well as inside legal experts. All opinions we received indicated that Federal Court judges were eligible for appointment to the Supreme Court, as had always been considered the case in the past, including when vacancies were being filled from Quebec.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that he completely changed his version the last time he spoke in the House.

Early on, the Prime Minister tried to lead us to believe that the situation was so theoretical that it was not even worth talking about. Then he came up with a new version where he said that he would not take the Chief Justice's call because he knew that the appointment would end up before the Supreme Court, given its controversial nature.

Since the Prime Minister does not even realize that he changed his version, can we—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order.

The Right Hon. Prime Minister.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said multiple times, we consulted inside and outside legal experts as to whether Federal Court judges were eligible for appointment to the Supreme Court. Traditionally, these judges, including those sitting in Quebec, were considered. Our experts confirmed that such was the case, and I acted in accordance with the opinions we received from constitutional experts.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, it has now been exposed that four of six candidates on the short list of Quebec nominees for the Supreme Court proposed by the Prime Minister were Federal Court judges. Conservatives rigged the process to make sure that at least one of the three final candidates would be from the Federal Court. Why?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said before, the reason Federal Court judges were considered in this appointment was that Federal Court judges had always been considered eligible for these appointments up to and including the process that chose Justice Wagner.

Obviously the Supreme Court has now ruled otherwise and, as I said before, the government will respect that ruling and act accordingly.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, will the Prime Minister promise, from his seat, that the Conservatives will not try to appoint another Federal Court judge to be one of the three judges from Quebec who sit on the Supreme Court of Canada, yes or no?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I have said multiple times that the government must respect that ruling. I have also noted that the reality is that doing so will limit the opportunities of Quebec judges on the Federal Court and weaken an important federal institution. However, since that is the ruling, the government will take the necessary steps.

Employment

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives do not seem to know if temporary foreign workers are getting paid too much or too little.

Under this government, nearly 10,000 foreign workers were paid less than the prevailing wage for the work they were doing. In many cases, that was illegal, and it certainly lowered Canadian wages.

Why did the government break the law?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, once again, it is difficult to understand the Liberals' position. One day they are calling for an end to the moratorium and an expansion of the temporary foreign worker program. The next day, they change their position.

Under the rules we put in, employers are required to pay temporary foreign workers the prevailing wage.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the position that is hard to understand is the government's position. On the one hand it illegally pays less than the going wage to workers, some 10,000. On the other hand, the minister now is open to a system where a foreign worker, working beside a Canadian and doing identical work, will get paid more per hour. On the one hand it wants to pay less. On the other hand it wants to pay more. All in all, this is a grossly self-contradictory, incompetent government hopelessly flailing about in its own Conservative mess, so why does it not just adopt the Liberal five-point plan?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the contradictions of the Liberal Party on this are really too numerous for me to document in 35 seconds. What I will say is the following. Employers are, under changes we have put in, required to pay a prevailing wage. I think it has also been observed that if there are genuine labour shortages that should indicate upward pressure on wages, and of course that would be a good thing for Canadian workers as well.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the number of long-term unemployed Canadians has more than doubled since 2008. It is so bad that 39% of jobless Canadians have stopped looking for work altogether. Will the Conservatives listen to these Canadians who are giving up hope of ever finding a job? Will they listen to BMO economist, Doug Porter, who says, “That headline jobless rate doesn't necessarily capture how weak the jobless picture really is”.

Will the Conservatives face reality and provide Canadians with a real jobs plan, not just Conservative talking points?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the reality is of course that Canada has the best job creation record among all of the G8 member economies. Nearly 1.1 million net new jobs have been created since the recession.

Is the member right to observe that there are still challenges in the workforce? Of course there are, but the kinds of policies advocated by the Liberal Party and the other opposition parties, to raise taxes and to raise debt, would kill jobs not create them.

Justice

[Françoise Boivin, NDP, Gatineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, for more than a year now, Quebec has not had a voice on the Supreme Court because of the Conservatives' mismanagement, ideological stubbornness and contempt for the rules and the Constitution.

Documents obtained by The Globe and Mail depict the Conservative disaster. In addition to replacing Justice Nadon, the government will also soon have to appoint someone to replace Justice LeBel.

Will the Prime Minister respect the letter and spirit of the Supreme Court decision on the eligibility of Federal Court judges?

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, of course I reject the entire rambling preamble of inaccuracies in the member's question. She would know that we did have a process that involved consultation with the Barreau du Québec. She was part of the consultation with respect to the formation of a list. We sought outside expert advice as well in this process. As a result of a Supreme Court decision we are now in a position where we will move forward and have a name that will result in the appointment of a new Supreme Court justice for Quebec very soon.