Debates of Sept. 29th, 2014

Foreign Affairs

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, yes, if the government proposes a combat mission to Iraq, we will bring it before Parliament. We will have a debate. We will have a vote.

The member opposite wants to know what is the time period. The government has made no such decision. We recently got a request from President Obama. We will review that request. If we do propose a combat mission, and we have not yet made a decision as to whether we will, we will bring it before this House just like we have done in every other instance.

I wish the previous Liberal government under Paul Martin had brought these issues before Parliament.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, what we do know is that when that party was in opposition, its members asked for a vote in the House every time we deployed troops. It is not just good enough when it is on their time and their dime; it is about when we send people abroad.

While we have been trying to get answers from the government on how many troops have been sent to Iraq, what they are doing, what their mandate is and what the assessment will be, we could have actually been saving lives. We could have been building refugee camps. We could have been supporting minorities who need our protection. We could have been doing that right now, instead of trying to figure out what the heck the government is doing over in Iraq with our troops.

Why are we not helping our people—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs.

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, Canada and Canadian taxpayers are providing relief supplies and emergency shelters. We are helping protect civilians. We are providing financial support to the International Committee of the Red Cross and to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees on the protection of minorities. We are working to support initiatives on sexual and gender-based violence.

If there will be a combat mission, this government has said repeatedly, and I will say it again, that we would bring it before Parliament for debate and a vote.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, even the minister himself, on September 9, said that we are not doing enough to help support refugees, as well as some of the other issues that we asked for support for.

Saving lives in Iraq must be our top priority. That is what Canadians want to see us doing, not playing politics. U.S. Ambassador Heyman said, this weekend—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order. The member for Ottawa Centre still has the floor, and I will ask members to let him finish putting the question.

The hon. member for Ottawa Centre.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, U.S. Ambassador Heyman said on the weekend that it is a multi-pronged approach and that Canada can help to do what we can to help save lives.

We believe that is the case. The question is, what did Mr. Obama ask us to do, and did we offer or were we the ones who were asked?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, the ambassador from the United States was very clear that the President of the United States, President Obama, asked.

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

Mr. Speaker, a lot of basic questions about Canada's military involvement in Iraq remain unanswered.

For example, our soldiers have been in Iraq for nearly 30 days, but we still know nothing about the logistical problems they have faced.

Can the minister tell us whether an agreement on the status of the forces on the ground was in place to ensure legal protection for our soldiers when they arrived in Iraq?

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, as we indicated before, our armed forces have obtained full diplomatic status. They are there at the request of Iraq. They are providing strategic and tactical advice.

We have been very clear on that. It would be nice if the NDP got on side with the important work that are our armed forces are doing over there.

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

Mr. Speaker, unlike the Liberals, we are not willing to give the government a blank cheque. There are too many unanswered questions.

The British debated and voted on this in the House, but the Prime Minister chose to go to New York to announce his plans to boost Canada's military involvement in Iraq. It looks like the Prime Minister cares more about the Americans' opinion than about Canadians' opinion.

When will we have a real debate and a vote in the House on Canada's involvement in Iraq?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, we called the committee back early. We brought the official opposition foreign affairs critic to Iraq so he could ask questions and see things himself. We had a debate within 48 hours of Parliament returning for this session.

We have said that if there is going to be a combat mission, we will hold a vote. We will hold debate.

What we saw, though, in the United Kingdom was the opposition parties, including the social democratic Labour Party, stand up and fight terrorism. That is what we need to see from this social democratic party.

Employment

[Jinny Sims, NDP, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the farce that the government has made of the temporary foreign worker program continues.

Today we learned that the government granted labour market opinions and work visas for a company that did not even exist. As a result a worker from Iran is out $25,000 to a shady immigration consultant, and he still has no job.

Is this what the minister considers due diligence? How are the minister's paperwork-only inspections going to catch this kind of violation the next time?

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

Mr. Speaker, the application was made by a third party, not the company in question. What happened was absolutely outrageous, which is why there is a Canada Border Services Agency investigation, as well as one led by my ministry.

The good news is that the stronger new penalties we put in place can be imposed on abusive employers and on crooked immigration consultants who facilitate such fraud. There should be no quarter for such people, who exploit vulnerable immigrants and cheat our immigration system.

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it is becoming increasingly difficult to believe the minister.

His reform of the temporary foreign worker program is supposed to address the serious labour shortages in Canada. However, he seems incapable of getting any reliable data on the labour market from his department. Employers are saying that the statistics on the number of temporary foreign workers in this country do not reflect the reality.

How can we believe that the minister will get the temporary foreign worker program back on track when he cannot even tell us what is really going on?

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

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, the hon. member is wrong.

The data relative to the program is multifaceted. We know exactly how many foreign workers are entitled to work in Canada. For instance, one set of data is provided by employers. Our research shows that most of the discrepancies recently reported in the media come from information provided by employers.

In the new system, we will verify all the information provided by employers.

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, there have been more and more cases of abuse of the temporary foreign worker program.

In Alberta, an employee who was paid less than the legal minimum for several years never received her raise when the labour market opinion was renewed in 2012. It was very tragic for this young woman, who lost everything when the company went bankrupt.

Clearly, the new administrative controls do nothing to protect workers from exploitation by unscrupulous employers.

Will the minister do something to put an end to these abuses?

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

Mr. Speaker, once again, the hon. member is completely wrong. Indeed, we have the power to penalize employers who do not follow the rules.

I thank the public servants in Alberta who brought this violation of their wage regulations to our attention. Naturally, my department is now conducting an investigation. There are serious penalities—which are even more serious since the new legislation passed in June—for employers who violate the rules of the program.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Alberta Federation of Labour has released information revealing that the government routinely grants labour market opinions to Alberta companies who significantly underpay temporary foreign workers. Some LMOs are being granted without even listing a prevailing wage, which is a violation of the law. Far too many companies have been allowed to significantly increase their percentage of temporary foreign workers for skilled jobs.

Why is this minister not enforcing the law in Alberta to protect Canadian workers?

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

Mr. Speaker, I am and we are. In fact, there is an absolute, unconditional obligation for employers to have their labour market opinions approved, and, in the past and under the new system, to pay at the prevailing wage rate unless there is a collective bargaining agreement that is below the prevailing wage rate, which is the case in the instance that the member raises.

What I find really peculiar is that after reforms in June, her colleague, the NDP finance critic, complained that employers said that the new rules were far too stringent and that they needed more temporary foreign workers in his constituency, so could the member tell me what the position of the NDP really is?

[Chris Charlton, NDP, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, another day and another example of mismanagement of the temporary foreign worker program, but it does not stop there. Conservative mismanagement is taking its toll on the economy too.

Today S&P slashed growth forecasts for Canada in just the latest condemnation of the Conservative record. For far too long, Canadians have faced low wages and persistent unemployment under the Conservative government. When will the minister switch course and introduce a plan to create good, full-time, family-sustaining jobs?

[Kevin Sorenson, Conservative, Minister of State (Finance)]

Mr. Speaker, the member knows that thanks to our Conservative government, Canada has emerged from the global downturn with one of the strongest economies. In fact, undoubtedly, Canada's economy is envied by most of the world. Over 1.1 million net new jobs have been created in this country. Again, the majority of those are in the private sector, and overwhelmingly they are full-time jobs.

Both the IMF and the OECD recognize Canada's future. Coming through this global downturn, Canada is the economy that is going to come out strong.

[Arnold Chan, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's last-minute change to the agenda of the visiting EU delegation meant that Canadians had to swallow $300,000 to fly the delegation home on a government Airbus. Meanwhile, hard-working families in southern Ontario are struggling to make ends meet, yet the minister of state for economic development is missing in action. Despite a budget of $177 million to help create jobs, the minister has only invested $79,000 this year.

When will the minister finally do his job and address the unacceptably high rate of unemployment in southwestern Ontario?

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Minister of International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, the member referred to the comprehensive economic and trade agreement that we just signed with the EU, which is great news. Last Friday's events saw the launch of a huge coalition of Canadian businesses and stakeholders, which are committed to taking advantage of the most comprehensive trade agreement in Canada's history. This coalition represents hard-working Canadians from coast to coast to coast who understand the benefits of this agreement to Canada.

However, it should surprise no one that the Liberals would continue to undermine Canada's trade agenda. On this side of the House, we know how important trade and investment are to Canada's long-term prosperity.