House of Commons Hansard #118 of the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was cpp.

Topics

Immigration, Refugees and CitizenshipAdjournment Proceedings

7:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

Immigration, Refugees and CitizenshipAdjournment Proceedings

7:05 p.m.

Liberal

Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member opposite for her advocacy and passion on this issue. We look forward to seeing that private member's bill and debating it when the time comes, as appropriate.

I appreciate her concerns relating to citizenship revocation. The due process protections are as I outlined earlier. There are concerns about the cessation provisions, particularly the amendments that were made by the previous government to make these retroactive and to strip people of not only their refugee status but also their permanent residency. These are things that we are committed to studying and improving. We look forward to working with the member opposite in this regard.

The EnvironmentAdjournment Proceedings

7:05 p.m.

NDP

Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC

Mr. Speaker, the last time I discussed abandoned vessel response, which is an oil spill prevention mechanism, we were on the verge of having a new federal announcement. Now the oceans strategy has been announced with great fanfare and a bit of a leap of hope in the hearts of coastal people. However, some weeks later, we still have seen no content and are no more confident from the details that have been released so far.

Therefore, I would like to talk, through you, Mr. Speaker, with the representative for the environment and transport on this file.

We recently heard the Prime Minister say, “As a community, we need to protect our magnificent oceans”. Of course, in solidarity with a great number of coastal communities, I, as the member for Parliament for Nanaimo—Ladysmith, am dismayed that the Prime Minister did not heed the call of the Union of B.C. Municipalities and multiple coastal first nations that all opposed the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion with its attendant seven-fold increase in oil tanker traffic through one of the most sensitive regions of our country. It is a region that a Transport Canada's report has described as one of two with the highest probability of a high-impact oil spill. It is already one of the busiest areas for vessel traffic, without counting the increased tanker traffic from once a week to once every day through our very sensitive and very busy waters.

There are a couple of parts of that oceans response plan that I would like to take apart. One is on the oil spill response side. We have had multiple coastal people weigh in on this. Jess Housty, a Heiltsuk Nation council member in Bella Bella, B.C., said:

It's clear that even the best available technology and most qualified personnel can't effectively contain or mitigate a spill.... I shudder to think of the risk we'll face if we see an increase in shipping due the new or expanded pipelines.

I have another quote, this time from Mike Lowry of the Western Canada Marine Response Corporation, the industry-funded oil spill response team, which is a very good group. He says: “100 per cent recovery is never possible”.

One of the most frequently cited statistics, contained in a 2013 report for the federal government on oil spill readiness, is that even with optimal conditions only between 5% to 15% of the oil spilled is ever recovered using booms and skimmers.

I can attest to this. When I was elected to local government, my role was to be part of an incident command around re-certification for Western Canada Marine Response Corporation, which Transport Canada carries out. We did a simulated oil spill of 10,000 tonnes. This was simulated and not actually in the ocean. With 300 personnel on hand and all the best practices of oil spill response, after three days, 35 kilometres of shoreline were oiled and only 15% of the oil had been recovered. This is parallelled by the terrible situation with the Nathan E. Stewart, from which tens of thousands of litres of diesel oil spilled. It took 20 hours for the Coast Guard to get there. Multiple times over 20 days booms broke up and oil spilled in rough waters, and we expect rough waters when there is a marine spill.

I understand that our premier is confident in the oil spill regulations, but we have not seen any details whatsoever, and because this government is committed to oceans and to transparency, I hope that—

The EnvironmentAdjournment Proceedings

7:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport.

The EnvironmentAdjournment Proceedings

7:10 p.m.

London West Ontario

Liberal

Kate Young LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport

Mr. Speaker, I was under the impression that we were going to be talking about derelict vessels. I do have quite a bit of information about derelict vessels, so that is what I will talk about tonight.

I would like to thank the member opposite for raising the important issue of the ocean protection plan, and we will get to that on another occasion.

Our government takes the issue of derelict vessels very seriously and this is why we announced on November 7, as part of the $1.5 billion oceans protection plan, a comprehensive national plan to address abandoned, derelict, and wrecked vessels in Canadian waters and will include new legislation that puts the responsibility and liability on vessel owners to properly remove and dispose of their vessels. This legislation will, among other things, prohibit active vessel abandonment. We intend to introduce this legislation in 2017.

The plan includes measures to improve owner identification to ensure owners are held accountable. It also includes education and outreach activities to enhance vessel owner understanding of their responsibilities and liabilities, including paying for vessel clean-up and disposal. We have designed our approach with best practices from other jurisdictions in mind.

Our government will also work in collaboration with provincial, territorial, and municipal governments, as well as indigenous groups, to support the clean up of existing smaller vessels that pose risk to Canadian coastal communities and implement a robust, polluter-pay approach for future vessel clean-up.

Furthermore, Canada's international role will be strengthened by joining the Nairobi international convention for the removal of wrecks, 2007, which will increase vessel owner responsibility and liability for wrecks from maritime incidents in Canadian waters.

These proposed measures are consistent with a private member's motion, Motion No. 40, put forward by the member for South Shore—St. Margarets, which was unanimously adopted by the House earlier this year.

This plan is consistent with what we heard during consultations this past summer with partners and stakeholders across the country, including provinces, territories, local communities, representatives from ports, harbours, marinas and the marine industry, indigenous groups, and others. Their message was consistently clear. The current legislation, policies and programs are not sufficient to effectively address the problem.

Conversations also included a focus on how to deal with the existing stock of abandoned and derelict vessels. We are proposing measures to address this issue both for the short and long term.

Addressing this issue requires concerted effort from various levels of government. The federal government has a leadership role, given its overarching mandate for navigation and shipping. However, provinces, territories, and local governments must, and will be involved. They have shared responsibilities regarding the environment, as well as waste and land management. They have a role to play in protecting the rights of private property owners. They have the law enforcement capacity needed to reinforce responsible vessel ownership. In some cases, they are the landowners where problem vessels are located and they will want to have a say in how these vessels are addressed.

Coastal and indigenous communities near water, which rely on it for their economic and cultural well-being, also want to be part of the solution. They are the eyes and ears on our coasts and waterways, and their knowledge of the environmental and economic impacts should help inform decisions.

The EnvironmentAdjournment Proceedings

7:15 p.m.

NDP

Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the government's announcement that it intends to act on abandoned vessels, which would prevent oil spills, if we get ahead of them, and prevent them from sinking.

We are still looking for the detail that was expressed by coastal communities in the consultation this summer, and has been expressed by local governments for 15 years. We still have no detail in the plan.

The announcement did not say how the federal government was going to fix the mishmash of responsibility in our current laws. My private member's bill, Bill C-219, would do that by making the Coast Guard the first stop. We need to resource the Coast Guard well to do that.

We need to have new money and a broader mandate for the Coast Guard. We heard this summer about preventative action before the vessels become a hazard. We are looking for a turn-in program, a bring in a boat program, to make it easier for owners to do the right thing. We are looking for support around vessel salvage and fibreglass—

The EnvironmentAdjournment Proceedings

7:15 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

The EnvironmentAdjournment Proceedings

7:15 p.m.

Liberal

Kate Young Liberal London West, ON

Mr. Speaker, I again thank the member opposite for the opportunity to mention that on November 7 our government announced a comprehensive national plan to address the issue of abandoned and derelict vessels in Canadian waters as part of the $1.5 billion oceans protection plan. This plan includes new legislation that puts the responsibility and liability on vessel owners to properly remove and dispose of their vessels. Although the majority of vessel owners act responsibly, even a few instances of abandonment can and does have significant impacts on local communities. This is only reasonable.

Abandoning a car on the side of the road would be unthinkable. The same should apply to ships and boats. We need to ensure that the federal government and other jurisdictions have the necessary information and levers to track careless owners down and hold them accountable. We recognize that abandoned and derelict vessels threaten key fishing and tourism—

The EnvironmentAdjournment Proceedings

7:15 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

The hon. member for Hochelaga.

HousingAdjournment Proceedings

7:15 p.m.

NDP

Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet NDP Hochelaga, QC

Mr. Speaker, I have taken a keen interest in the expiry of the long-term social housing operating agreements since I was elected in 2011.

In the last Parliament, I moved Motion No. 450, which I moved again in this Parliament. It states:

That, in the opinion of the House, the government should, in collaboration with the provinces, territories, municipalities and community partners, maintain and expand, in line with Canada’s obligations under the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the federal investment in social housing, which would include the renewal of long-term social housing operating agreements, in order to preserve rent subsidies and provide funds for necessary renovations.

The purpose of the motion is to ensure that we continue to make the necessary investments to maintain the stock of social housing in Canada by securing the funds to renovate the units and maintain the rent subsidies without which so many families could not meet that most basic need: shelter.

To illustrate the situation, in the question I asked on October 7, I referred to a video that went viral in which little five-year-old Brooke Blair took the British Prime Minister to task because she does not understand why people are homeless or why the government is not doing enough to help them.

If we continue to allow Canada's social housing situation to deteriorate, we could end up with many more homeless families. Beginning in the 1970s, more than 620,000 social housing units were created under 25- to 50-year agreements. The agreements provided financial support to low-income households to ensure that they were not spending more than 30% of their income on housing.

In the early 1990s, the Liberal government stopped funding new social housing units. In recent years, long-term operating agreements began to expire. As of today, nearly 50,000 social housing units have been affected by the expiry of those agreements, and by the end of 2017, nearly 100,000 more households will have to face the prospect of their rent subsidy ending.

Over the years, the federal government has delegated the administration of some social housing to the provinces and, in some cases, the municipalities by transferring to them the federal funding associated with the agreements. That is the case for most low-income housing. Upon the expiry of the agreements, the provinces and municipalities will find themselves having to manage a stock of old social housing requiring major renovations without the benefit of federal money. If these jurisdictions want to prevent an increase in homelessness, maintain the number and quality of social housing units, and preserve the minimum standard of living of households who receive financial assistance, they must cover the cost themselves.

The minister responsible for housing has been given the mandate of restoring the federal government's role of supporting housing mainly by helping municipalities to keep rent subsidies geared to income. The 2016-17 budget also provides $30 million over two years to maintain rent subsidies for social housing. However, this amount is solely for housing administered by the CMHC, and not the housing whose administration has been delegated to other authorities.

Despite our many questions, we still do not know what will happen to social housing funding that has already expired.

Families who live in subsidized social housing need to hear a firm commitment from the minister. What is he waiting for? When will he clearly announce what he intends to do to resolve the matter of funding for social housing in Canada once and for all?

HousingAdjournment Proceedings

7:20 p.m.

Winnipeg South Manitoba

Liberal

Terry Duguid LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families

Mr. Speaker, I welcome, once again, the opportunity to respond to the member for Hochelaga, who I know has a very deep commitment to affordable housing and social housing.

Let me assure the member that the government shares her concern for the housing needs experienced by many Canadians. As members may know, last year the federal government provided funding to support more than 546,000 households living in existing social housing units. Budget 2016 also included significant new support for social housing, in the form of $574 million over two years to renovate and repair existing units.

We are also providing up to $30 million to renew existing subsidies for all federally administered social housing projects with operating agreements expiring by March 31, 2018. The doubling of spending under the investment in affordable housing program also provides provinces and territories with a significant source of new funding that can be used to support projects under their administration.

However, social housing is only part of the solution. The government believes that innovation also plays an important role in building a strong and vibrant housing sector for Canada. This is why budget 2016 included two initiatives that support the construction of affordable rental housing, which is an important option for many Canadian households.

We recently launched the $200-million affordable rental innovation fund. Through the innovation fund, CMHC will offer financial support for useful ideas for building a more inclusive society, new funding models, and innovative building techniques that spur the rental housing sector. The fund is expected to help create up to 4,000 new affordable rental units over five years, reducing the number of Canadians living in housing need and the reliance on long-term government subsidies for some.

Work is also continuing on the design of a proposed affordable rental housing financing initiative, which will provide up to $2.5 billion in low-cost loans to municipalities and housing developers during the earliest and riskiest phases of development. This is also why the government is undertaking to identify and implement innovative new approaches through the development of a national housing strategy.

The Minister of Families, Children and Social Development and I, as his parliamentary secretary, led a four-month consultation process to hear from a broad range of stakeholders about how we can improve housing, socio-economic, and environmental outcomes for Canadians.

We consulted with Canadians from coast to coast to coast, because we recognize that the Government of Canada does not have all the answers or the tools needed to address persistent housing problems. We wanted to hear what the experts, stakeholders, and Canadians had to say, because we believe that government should base its policies on facts, not ideology.

We are consulting and we are listening, because housing is such an important component of our government's overall approach to strengthening the middle class, promoting inclusive growth for Canadians, and helping to lift more people out of poverty.

A “What We Heard” report was released on November 22, National Housing Day in Canada that contained a clear message: Canadians want better housing outcomes, especially for those who need help the most.

The feedback we received will inform the development of the strategy, which will be released in 2017. I encourage the member for Hochelaga and indeed all members from the other side of the House to read—

HousingAdjournment Proceedings

7:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

The hon. member for Hochelaga.

HousingAdjournment Proceedings

7:25 p.m.

NDP

Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet NDP Hochelaga, QC

Mr. Speaker, the government keeps telling us that it has doubled the amount of funding for affordable housing over two years and that the provinces and territories can use that money to maintain their social housing stock and the subsidies for low-income families.

In Toronto alone, $2.6 billion is needed just to clear the backlog of repairs that need to be made to the city's social housing. However, the province will only receive just over $650 million. That is not even to mention the rent subsidies that are set to expire.

If the provinces put all the money into social housing, there will be none left for affordable housing. In his housing strategy, does the minister intend to invest the necessary funds to maintain social housing stocks and rent subsidies, and will funding be allocated for the construction of new social housing units?

HousingAdjournment Proceedings

7:25 p.m.

Liberal

Terry Duguid Liberal Winnipeg South, MB

Mr. Speaker, one of the messages we heard loud and clear from Canadians was that the national housing strategy must include measures to address the pressing housing needs of low-income and vulnerable Canadians.

Canadians also believe that we need to strengthen the capacity of housing providers and to promote innovative financing solutions to support the development of new affordable rental housing. Special attention needs to be given to improving housing outcomes for indigenous people wherever they live, including in the north. We also heard that a national housing strategy should respond to the growing affordability challenges facing low- and middle-income Canadians.

Finally, Canadians told us they want the national housing strategy to include solutions that support sustainable housing and communities. As I noted earlier, all of this will be taken into account as we develop the national housing strategy, which will be released in 2017.

Good night.

HousingAdjournment Proceedings

7:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m., pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 7:29 p.m.)