Debates of May 5th, 2014

National Defence

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Mr. Speaker, we have a government pouring resources into commemorating Canada's involvement in Afghanistan, but refusing to provide soldiers with the basic support they need at home.

Master Corporal Kristian Wolowidnyk's story is heartbreaking. He is sadly not the only soldier dismissed before qualifying for full benefits and dismissed with total disregard for their well-being after they have served the country.

When is the minister going to recognize that these men and women are also casualties of war and ensure that they too are provided with the support they need when they return home?

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

Mr. Speaker, I do agree with the hon. member that this is of course an enormous obligation and priority for our government, and in fact that is why we have taken the extraordinary step of investing significant resources in improving the health care system, including the mental health professionals, within the Canadian Armed Forces. We are now at around 400 full-time mental health professionals. That is, incidentally, the largest soldier to mental health professional ratio in NATO.

We will continue to make those important investments work with the Canadian Mental Health Association to see that those numbers continue to rise, and that the treatment that our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and women receive is among the best in the world.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Mr. Speaker, for six years, Corporal Stuart Langridge's family has been waiting for answers about his suicide. Losing a child is a parent's worst nightmare. Having the military prevent them from knowing what really happened is absolutely unimaginable. After many years and lengthy hearings, they still have to wait.

We know that an interim report has been prepared and given to the minister for his comments, but the family still has no access to it.

Will the minister do the right thing and release the report to this family so that they too can participate in the final process?

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

Mr. Speaker, this is again a very tragic matter, and I have met with members of Corporal Langridge's family. However, the reality here is that the Military Police Complaints Commission and the National Defence Act require that the report itself, an interim report, is not to be made public.

It will be reviewed by the Chief of Defence Staff, and then it will be made available to the family, but the hon. member, who is not only a critic, but a lawyer, is surely not suggesting that the Minister of National Defence would break the law by releasing an interim report. I hope he is not suggesting that.

Privacy

[Charmaine Borg, NDP, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in reply to our questions on the sharing of personal information between telecommunications companies and government agencies, the Minister of Canadian Heritage said last week that Bill S-4 would solve all the problems. The exact opposite is true. Even worse, we learned today from the press that the government has just launched an internal investigation to determine the extent of the problem.

In other words, the Conservatives have no idea of what is happening in their own agencies. Will they at least release the results of this investigation?

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and for Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, Bill S-4 is an update. This is what the Privacy Commissioner had to say about it, “I welcome proposals...” in this bill. This bill contains “...very positive developments for the privacy rights of Canadians”. She went on to say, “I am pleased that the government...has addressed issues such as breach notification...”.

It is a good bill and I do hope the opposition will consider supporting it.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians were spied on 1.2 million times last year, and under the government, it is about to get a lot worse. Under Bill S-4, the Conservatives will now make it legal for corporations to call telecoms and demand an individual's personal information.

Under Bill C-13, peace officers or public officers, who are defined in law as small town reeves, fisheries inspectors and officers and yes, mayors like Rob Ford will now be able to call telecoms and demand our personal information.

It is like a massive fishing expedition. Why has the government declared open season on the private rights of law-abiding Canadian citizens?

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and for Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth.

Personal information that is protected by the charter requires a warrant. This is what Rogers had to say when asked about this, “Where there is an immediate danger to life; we will provide information to law enforcement agencies to assist with 911 service, missing persons cases, individuals in distress”.

That is what we are talking about. I wish the opposition would support us. There is a bill before the House, Bill S-4 that will help tighten this even further and make the bill even better.

Employment

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Mr. Speaker, only a government this bad would say it is okay for Rob Ford to access Canadian private information any time he wants.

Let us get back to the Minister of Employment and Social Development who has repeatedly failed to answer questions.

Today, we learned of yet another employer mistreating TFWs since 2011. The employer never had his permits pulled, never had his name put on the blacklist, never faced criminal charges. The government failed to act for years.

Why does the minister wait for front page stories before acting to clean up the mess he has created?

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, it is basic information that is provided voluntarily. That is why the NDP agreed 14 years ago. Today, they have changed their minds and are headed in another direction.

Why not strike a balance between public safety and respect for privacy? That is what we are doing and what the G7 countries are doing. I encourage the NDP to vote against their motion.

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

Mr. Speaker, to justify their expansion of the temporary foreign worker program, the Conservatives inflated the job vacancy rate. They received their data from job postings on Kijiji, which of course is full of errors and duplications. Now we learn that Canada's real job vacancy rate is only 1.5%, not the 4% that the Conservatives had claimed.

How could the Conservatives defend their decision to dramatically expand the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada when their decision was based on bad data?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister for Multiculturalism]

Mr. Speaker, I have been absolutely consistent in saying they are not general labour shortages in the Canadian economy but there are certain skills gaps in various regions and industries such as those regions with full employment.

I find that member intervening on this matter very peculiar, because he said on May 29, 2012, that, “Temporary foreign workers are an important part of the production chain and the value chain”. He also said, “Temporary foreign workers are an important part of our economy...and some of the best workers are temporary foreign workers”. He further said that, “...reducing access to temporary foreign workers could actually threaten Canadian jobs”. The member for Kings—Hants said that.

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

Mr. Speaker, in 2006, all that some employers had to do was announce a job opening for seven days on a government site that no one looked at. In 2007, the minister said, “We've expanded the temporary foreign workers program very significantly and very deliberately”.

Does the current Minister of Employment agree that that was indeed his government's policy before it tightened up the rules in recent years?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister for Multiculturalism]

Mr. Speaker, the government's policy is that Canadians must always have access to jobs before foreign workers.

Having said that, I note that the member for Markham—Unionville just today said that the temporary foreign worker program “is a good program” and he actually criticized our moratorium on the food services sector because apparently he knows a restauranteur who cannot find cooks in Canada. According to that member, whose judgment is better than that of people at Service Canada, we should be bringing in cooks from abroad, overturning the moratorium.

Where do the Liberals really stand on the temporary foreign worker program?

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

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have always said this is a good program when well managed but it has not been well managed to date.

The minister was obviously complicit in this massive buildup to the point where he was praised for understanding “how important this is from a business perspective”. Given this history no one believes his born-again pious concern for Canadian workers.

Will the minister at least adopt the Liberals five-point plan to clean up this monumental Conservative mess?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister for Multiculturalism]

Mr. Speaker, last week on Twitter the member for Markham—Unionville said that this program “gives foreigners Canadian jobs”. Today he is saying it is a good program.

The Liberals opened the low-skills stream in 2002, now they are saying it has been abused. They called for a moratorium on the food services sector, now the member wants an exemption for a restaurant in his riding.

We are going to fix the problems in this program but the last thing we will do is listen to the incoherence of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Democratic Reform

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, under the Elections Act, Canadians living abroad for more than five years are prohibited from voting. Working with Canadian ex-pat Gill Frank, I put together a private member's bill to change this. At the same time, Mr. Frank launched a legal suit and he won. The courts struck down the section of the act, saying it was unconstitutional.

Now that this section of the Election Act has been struck down, will the government agree to fast-track my bill to ensure that these changes are made to the Elections Act?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, we will study the ruling carefully, but what we will not do is accept the NDP proposal to allow people to vote without presenting any ID whatsoever. The fair elections act would require people to present ID when they show up to vote. They have to demonstrate who they are; and no longer would identity vouching be permitted under the fair elections act.

[Nycole Turmel, NDP, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians should not be losing their right to vote. There is an easy way to solve this problem: support the NDP's bill.

In committee, the Conservatives voted against an amendment that would have allowed the Chief Electoral Officer to require political parties to provide documentation to support their expense reports. However, in 2012, the same Conservatives supported a similar NDP motion.

Why did the Conservatives go back on their promise?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, we will review the ruling that was just rendered, but we will not support the NDP's proposals to allow people to vote without any identification.

The fair elections act will eliminate the use of vouching. Once this bill is passed, people will have to show ID, and Canadians agree with that.

[Nycole Turmel, NDP, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Mr. Speaker, not only did the Conservatives break their promise, but they are also opposing a common-sense measure.

Every province requires political parties to submit documentation justifying their spending. After every election, parties are reimbursed $33 million without having to submit receipts to justify their expense claims. Can anyone name a store that will refund money without a receipt?

Will the government work with us to remedy this problem that facilitates fraud?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, the parties are already required to submit receipts following an election.

First of all, there is a mandatory audit, and the fair elections act provides for an additional audit that will require parties to submit their receipts to the auditor.

Second, the Chief Electoral Officer is not required to give the parties the money before he gets all the money he needs to audit their spending.

[Craig Scott, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, after consulting Conservatives, the government rewrote the Elections Act to stack the deck in its own favour. Last week, we proposed many creative and constructive amendments. Today, we wanted to make political parties' expenses more transparent, but Conservatives said no. We wanted to give the commissioner sharper tools to investigate wrongdoing, but the Conservatives said no. Indeed, we had other creative suggestions, but the government shut down the committee. Why did the minister refuse to allow over half the NDP amendments to even be debated?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, the member says the NDP tried to bring sharper tools to the Elections Act. I do not think Canadians want his sharper tools touching anything near the Elections Act.

In fact, the creative ideas they came up with were to require volunteers, like seniors and stay-at-home moms who make phone calls to invite people to pancake breakfasts, to actually register those calls with a national telecommunications regulator; and their other creative idea was to allow people to vote without any ID at all. Those are not the kinds of creative ideas Canadians are interested in.

Health

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Mr. Speaker, during National Mental Health Week, parliamentarians are encouraged to reflect on and learn about the issues that are faced each and every day by people with mental health challenges. By taking time to talk about how important good mental health is in our lives, we can better appreciate how we as a government can support those in need.

Can the parliamentary secretary please update the House on the work that our government is doing to support good mental health?