Debates of March 10th, 2015

Veterans

[Erin O'Toole, Minister of Veterans Affairs, CPC]

Mr. Speaker, when looking at the total impact of programming at veterans affairs and benefits directly to veterans and their families, Canadian veterans have among the best comprehensive suite of veterans' benefits and programs in the world.

I would like to remind this member that we added to that yesterday with the new proposed retirement income security benefit to address a gap that existed at 65 that the ombudsman has asked for and that the House has asked for.

I hope the member can put politics aside and put that to a vote in this House shortly.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Mr. Speaker, first of all I want to thank the government for actually moving the other day on one of the recommendations of our report. However, the committee had asked that all recommendations be implemented immediately, not just one or two at a time.

The fact is that many veterans out there are questioning the age 65 limitation. Will they still be losing money under this system when they turn 65?

According to their own chart yesterday, when a veteran who is disabled turns 65, even under this new system, there is a possibility that that person would end up losing money when they turn 65.

Can the minister guarantee that no disabled veteran, when they turn 65, will lose any income whatsoever?

[Erin O'Toole, Minister of Veterans Affairs, CPC]

Mr. Speaker, if a moderately or seriously injured veteran is receiving financial benefits at 64, they are eligible for the retirement income security benefit at 65, until the end of their life.

I would also like to add that they will get permanent impairment allowance, the permanent impairment allowance supplement. What I want to see is all of these benefits streamlined together in one pension for our most seriously injured members.

Health

[Rob Clarke, Conservative, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I was pleased yesterday to vote in favour of Bill C-2, the respect for communities act.

This would give law enforcement, municipal leaders and local residents a voice when injection sites want to open in their communities, and yet the Liberal leader could not resist furthering his ideological agenda for more injection sites to be built across Canada by voting against communities having their voices heard.

Can the Minister of Health please update the House on the latest developments regarding this legislation?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, as a former RCMP officer, the member knows very well that dangerous and addictive drugs tear families apart, and they destroy lives.

Our government, and I as health minister, will continue to support treatment and recovery programs that get addicts off drugs and help them recover drug-free lives.

The Liberal leader's recent comments in support of opening heroin injection sites across Canada are shameful. We strongly disagree with his blind support for opening more heroin injection sites without public consultation.

As health minister, I will follow the Supreme Court ruling and make sure that communities have a voice.

Aboriginal Affairs

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women took the unusual step of launching an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada. It found that Canada has committed a grave violation of the rights of indigenous women, and it recommended a national inquiry and a national action plan.

The Conservative government has rejected both. Why do the Conservatives continue to reject a national inquiry and a national action plan that would help end the violence that indigenous women face in our country?

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary for Status of Women]

Mr. Speaker, our government has already taken significant action in this area. It is important to remember that many of these recommendations are outside federal jurisdiction.

Since coming to office, we have passed more than 30 criminal justice and public safety initiatives, including tougher sentences for murder, sexual assault, kidnapping and mandatory prison sentences for the most heinous crimes. The opposition voted against these bills.

We also closed a 30-year legislative gap by ensuring hundreds of thousands of first nations people living on reserves get the same human rights protections as other Canadians for the first time by including them under the Canadian Human Rights Act. That member voted against it.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Mr. Speaker, another example of this government's shameful behaviour toward first nations is its failure to fulfill its commitment to resolve specific land claims.

This was detailed in a report released yesterday by first nations, tribal councils and organizations. It denounced the bad faith shown by the department in negotiations.

Our leader and our caucus have endorsed this report. Will the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development listen to the recommendations laid out in this report and answer for his department's failure?

[Bernard Valcourt, Conservative, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development]

Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to achieving fair and timely resolution for first nations specific claims since the announcement of the “justice at last” initiative.

We have cleared a backlog of some 516 claims in assessment, and we have settled 120 specific claims. Our government has made unprecedented progress on this topic and we will continue in that vein.

Transportation Safety

[Matthew Kellway, NDP, Beaches—East York, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we have seen three train wrecks in less than a month, tank cars exploding, oil spilling, damaging our environment and endangering lives.

The minister's response in the House yesterday was, “We need to wait and see”. Surely the minister has seen these, the main estimates, showing cuts of 43% from the strategic infrastructure fund and $40 million from Transport Canada.

Is this what the minister calls working diligently to protect the safety of Canadians, slashing funds from transportation infrastructure?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, of course, we are very grateful that there are no injuries with respect to this latest derailment.

As well, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the first responders in the community for working so well with CN and making sure that they were able to put the fire out, which they were able to do this morning.

I am very proud of our record. The things that we have done since the tragic incident at Lac-Mégantic are very fulsome and very complete. We have included new tank car standards, new operation requirements for trains and reduced train speed. New compensation liability requirements have been proposed.

We keep working on the file and we will continue to do so.

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, there have been three derailments in northern Ontario in less than a month. Burning rail cars and oil spills pollute the water and the air and put Canadians at risk.

Despite the Lac-Mégantic tragedy and despite the fact that the Transportation Safety Board of Canada has called for safer rail cars, the Conservatives are dragging their feet. The minister even found a new excuse to avoid taking action right now. She said that she would wait for the Americans. How many more tragedies will it take before the minister takes action?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, last April we made announcements with respect to a very vigorous outrunning of these cars. We said that the 5,000 at most risk would be phased out immediately. We did that within 30 days. We also gave a timeline of three years for the next most at-risk cars to be retrofitted to a new standard, and we made that very clear.

The U.S. has not done any of these things. Indeed, we work with them, and the fundamental reason we work with them on this is that the trains cannot stop at the border and change their cars out and then continue to the other country. We have to do this together with the United States.

National Defence

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Corporal Stuart Langridge died by suicide in his barracks.

Today's report confirmed the fears of the family that the investigation was botched from the beginning.

The Military Police Complaints Commissioner found, “aspects that were shocking and beyond comprehension”. Contrary to the recent answer by the parliamentary secretary saying that they just got their recommendations, the recommendations were tabled last May.

The Department of Defence has not accepted a single major recommendation to prevent similar tragic incidents from happening in the future, so I want to know why the minister is deliberately brushing off this report about an important incident and why—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, the member is referring to the interim report. The department will be looking at the recommendations on an expedited basis, and we will respond to those recommendations on the final report.

We agree with the Military Police Complaints Commission that what happened is unacceptable, and the Department of National Defence will respond in due course.

Citizenship and Immigration

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

Mr. Speaker, we have learned from a Conservative document that the government thinks it is risky to promote immigration because of its own political base. Clearly it sees that base as dominated by the old anti-immigration Reform Party.

Is that why we hear bigoted attacks by the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration on innocent Muslim women wearing hijabs or headscarves, when he never utters a word against nuns and their habits?

Is that not because the Conservatives are shamefully trying to appease their anti-immigration Reform Party base? That is the reason.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, committee members, as always, are masters of their own proceedings, and we look forward to hearing testimony from all witnesses appearing before the committee.

Canada is proud to be one of the fairest and most generous countries in the world. This year alone, we are planning to welcome about 280,000 newcomers to our country. We welcome one-tenth of the world's refugees worldwide. We look forward to welcoming newcomers who can contribute to our economy.

It is a little rich hearing that question from the member over there. He has voted against every initiative that would provide assistance to newcomers to help them integrate into our country.

Fisheries and Oceans

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Mr. Speaker, the ferry MV Apollo has been stranded for over a week in St. Barbe, Newfoundland's great northern peninsula. Passengers are forced to sleep in cars. Some have run out of medications and perishable foods are spoiling in trucks, while everyone waits for help. It is inexcusable that a vital link should be out of commission for so long with no end in sight.

When will the government stop ignoring the urgent situation and send in a heavy icebreaker to free the Apollo?

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, passenger ferries are the first priority for icebreaking after distress calls and emergencies. Due to the extreme ice conditions across the east coast, some ferries are experiencing delays.

The Canadian Coast Guard is sending another icebreaker in the area to assist. Ice conditions are constantly being assessed, and a ferry transit will take place once it is safe to do so.

Rail Transportation

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, it has been two weeks since the storm, yet CN Rail is still blaming weather for delays at the port of Halifax.

On Tuesday, the shipper Autoport suspended normal operations. Not only do hundreds of longshoremen rely on Autoport for their livelihoods, but millions worth of new vehicles are stranded, possibly for as long as three weeks.

This is not an isolated incident. An earlier delay by CN caused a huge backlog of cargo at Halifax's two main container terminals.

What is the government doing to fix these problems at the port of Halifax?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, this year this government announced that the Hon. David Emerson would be leading the transportation review of the Canada Transportation Act to look at our logistics chain across the country to ensure we are meeting the needs of services today and that we are ready for the future as well.

I look forward to all of the recommendations from Mr. Emerson. I also encourage people who are at the port of Halifax, or any other stakeholder who is interested, to ensure they give their advice and presentations to this committee.

National Defence

[Lawrence Toet, Conservative, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, our government stands with the people of Ukraine. Last week, members of 3rd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment left for eastern Europe. Our government is also providing satellite images to the Ukrainian military so it can monitor Russian troop movements and see if they are respecting the conditions of the Minsk agreement.

Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence update the House on the activities of the HMCS Fredericton?

[James Bezan, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Elmwood—Transcona for his strong support for Ukraine.

The HMCS Fredericton is participating in a joint NATO training exercise with warships from several allied and partner nations in the Black Sea. This strengthens not only our operational readiness, but also our ability to work with NATO allies and security partners in the region.

Since arriving in the Black Sea, Royal Canadian Navy sailors have been confronted by Russian warships and buzzed by Russian fighter jets. Indeed, the HMCS Toronto entered the Black Sea last September, to be circled by Russian military aircraft as well.

We are there as part of Canada and NATO's steadfast commitment to our allies and security partners in the region in the face of Russia's continued aggression toward Ukraine.

Ethics

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Public Works and Government Services. Earlier in this question period, she said that there was some degree of innocence that was given to her by the report.

However, I would like to quote from the report by Mary Dawson. She refers to the Prime Minister's guideline, “Accountable Government: A Guide for Ministers and Ministers of State”. She says, referring to the minister, “It appears that some of these guiding principles were not top of mind in the handling of the Markham proposal”. She also says, “I therefore concluded that [the minister] contravened subsection 6(1) of the Act”. She finally says, “The funding decision may have been influenced by political considerations, but the reasons why this proposal was given preferential treatment remain unclear”.

Why is Mary Dawson so wrong?