Debates of Oct. 25th, 2017

Ethics

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased that the member wants to talk about yesterday's economic update because it was very good news for the Canadian economy.

Two years ago, we promised to put more money in the pockets of the middle class, to help those working hard to join it, and to invest in our communities. That is exactly what we did. Our actions delivered the desired results: we have created economic growth for everyone.

The Conservatives wanted to make budget cuts and do whatever it took to balance the budget, but that would not have worked. We are investing in Canadians and that has worked. We are going to continue to do what we have been doing—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Order. The hon. member for Louis-Saint-Laurent.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Mr. Speaker, let us talk about the minister's speech from yesterday.

Yesterday, the Minister of Financepractically tried to make us feel sorry for him when he talked about how he and his family, who are very rich people, were now paying more taxes. Poor thing, we really feel sorry for him. It does not make any sense.

The reality is that the minister forgot to mention that the richest Canadians are paying $1 billion less in taxes now that the Liberals are in power, and it is the finance minister who says so. Furthermore, middle-class families are paying $800 more because of this government. Even worse, the finance minister forgot to mention that he is receiving a monthly income of $65,000 from his private company, which he still runs.

The question is clear: why has the Prime Minister not asked his minister—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Order. The right hon. Prime Minister.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, for 10 years, the previous Conservative government handed out benefits to the wealthy. That did not create the economic growth that Canadians expect.

We chose to raise taxes for the wealthiest and to lower them for the middle class. It was the first thing we did. We then implemented the Canada child benefit, giving more money to nine out of 10 families without sending any child benefit cheques to millionaires, like the Conservatives did.

That is exactly what we are doing to meet the expectations of the middle class and to create the economic growth that we are seeing today.

Indigenous Affairs

[Georgina Jolibois, NDP, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the census painted a sad picture of indigenous communities living in Canada. Indigenous people are poorer, more indigenous children are in foster care, and indigenous people continue to face a housing crisis. Twenty per cent live in housing in need of major repairs, compared to only 6% of the non-indigenous population.

In northern Saskatchewan, I constantly hear from constituents about their difficulty finding affordable and adequate housing. Why are the Liberals still ignoring these shortfalls?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, no relationship is more important than the one between our government and indigenous peoples. That is why we invested over $8.4 billion over five years to build and create opportunities and infrastructure and services in indigenous communities.

We recognize that there is an awful lot of work to do, but we have taken the first meaningful steps at improving outcomes for indigenous peoples. We have eliminated long-term drinking water advisories. We have moved forward on opening new schools for indigenous peoples. We are going to continue to improve services for indigenous peoples across the country.

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

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister spent nearly a million dollars fighting indigenous kids in court. Now his ministers are blaming the provinces, but documents show that federal programs are so underfunded that indigenous parents actually have to give their children away to provincial foster care to get help. There is something fundamentally wrong in a nation where indigenous families have to give their children away, while we have a finance minister who cannot remember that he owns a villa in the south of France.

Will the Prime Minister call off his lawyers, stop blaming the provinces, and end this system of child-focused apartheid in Canada, and do it now?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we feel passionately about the need to create nation-to-nation relationship and opportunities to set indigenous communities on the kind of path they have not been on for centuries because of the oppressive policies of this place and previous governments.

We are working very hard to fix that relationship, to move forward on a true path of reconciliation with indigenous peoples. We will continue to do so. We will continue to invest record amounts of money and work with indigenous communities to build a better future for everyone in this country.

Ethics

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, for two years the finance minister led Canadians to believe he had put his assets, the Morneau Shepell shares, in a blind trust, and only when we found out that was not the case, did he admit to it and make changes. This just begs the question of what else he is hiding in those numbered companies and trust funds that we do not know about that could put him in a potential conflict. He will say, “Well, trust me. I have a system set up that is going to work to make sure that I am not in a conflict of interest”.

However, Canadians do not believe him. I want to know from the Prime Minister, what is the finance minister hiding in these other numbered companies?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, in this House, we trust the Ethics Commissioner. We trust her to ensure everyone here is following the rules. We trust her to make recommendations to each of us to do the right thing. I can assure this House the finance minister worked with the commissioner, and followed her advice. He is happy to go above and beyond her original advice to demonstrate the trust that Canadians placed in us, and will continue to do so.

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have listened to the Prime Minister throughout this entire question period, and after hearing his answer for the seventh or eighth time, the ignorance of the Prime Minister to the Conflict of Interest Act, and how it works was actually embarrassing to me.

Here is the point, Mr. Speaker. The Ethics Commissioner works with the public office holder to set up a conflict, but it is that minister's office members that administer the conflict of interest screen.

Will he stop hiding behind the skirt of the Ethics Commissioner, and tell us what are in these numbered companies?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, leaving aside that unfortunate characterization of the wardrobe of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, it is important that everyone in this House can work with, and have confidence in the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner. This is something that protects us.

Obviously, the opposition's job is to try and attack the government. That is fine, but we all need to know that the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner is there to protect us all, and she does an excellent job of that.

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the opposition's job is to make sure the Minister of Finance is not in conflict of interest and represents all Canadians.

I am very disappointed to see that the Prime Minister is still defending and protecting his finance minister despite the latter's many conflicts of interest.

If ethics are so important to the Prime Minister, why does he not just tell his finance minister to disclose all of his assets and numbered companies so Canadians can get a sense of just how many of the finance minister's interests are in conflict?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, I have confidence, we have confidence, and Canadians can have confidence in the commissioner.

As for the work the Minister of Finance is doing, we are very proud of the fact that the first thing he did was raise taxes on the wealthiest Canadians and cut taxes for the middle class. That is not what the Conservatives wanted to do. For 10 years, the Conservatives consistently tried to create economic growth by lowering taxes on the wealthy and giving them all the advantages, but it did not work.

We chose to invest in the middle class and those working hard to join it, and our approach has produced extraordinary results over the past two years. Canadians continue to have confidence—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Order. The hon. member for Chilliwack—Hope.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Hope, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the finance minister failed to place his considerable assets in a blind trust. He now finds himself in numerous conflicts of interest, as a result, all thanks to a single numbered company that sheltered his Morneau Shepell assets. However, the minister has seven or eight more numbered companies that are hiding the rest of his secret assets.

In the interests of openness and transparency, when will the Prime Minister demand that the finance minister release all of his assets, so that Canadians can judge just how many more conflicts of interest the finance minister is in?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner works with all members in this House, on all sides, including everyone on both sides who hold numbered companies. This is something that the commissioner is there to do, to set the rules, so that all Canadians can have confidence in them.

I understand the members opposite have nothing to do but attack, because they have been shown the economic growth we have created over the past two years. They were completely wrong in the last election, and Canadians were right to pick a better government.

Canadian Heritage

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, members of the expert panel set up by the Minister of Canadian Heritage to advise her on her cultural policy have spoken out in a Radio-Canada article. They wonder whether they wasted their time, or worse, if the government only ever saw them as token advisors, since the Minister of Canadian Heritage neither listened to nor consulted them on the deal with Netflix. After 3,000 testimonials, 252 briefings, and 18 months of consultations, the Liberals refuse to listen to anyone, including the community, the experts, the deputy minister, and even the minister herself, according to the news.

Who was the Prime Minister listening to when he decided to sell out Canada's cultural sovereignty?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, on the contrary, we are proud of the work we have done with the cultural community and creative sector across the country. They have proven that they are world class institutions and that we should be able to share our stories, not only with Quebeckers and Canadians, but with our fellow citizens worldwide, who, incidentally, want to hear our stories.

Accordingly, attracting investors from around the world to invest in our productions, our creativity, and our cultural community is exactly what it takes to be competitive in the 21st century, in the digital age.

[Pierre-Luc Dusseault, NDP, Sherbrooke, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is not listening at all. It is simple. The government kept members of the advisory committee in the dark about the negotiations and agreement with Netflix. The committee never discussed this agreement.

I imagine that the government must have been afraid of hearing that it was the worst idea in the world for our cultural sovereignty and for tax fairness in Canada. The experts on this committee have been clear: the Internet giant must be subject to the same rules as Canadian companies and it should not get a free pass. It is simple.

Why did the Prime Minister create an advisory committee and conduct consultations if he just keeps ignoring them?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, this committee told us that Canadian producers and creators are extraordinary and that they deserve more platforms to share their productions around the world in the digital age. That is exactly what we want to do, and that is exactly why we are looking for investors to create more jobs and more productions in Canada. We want Canada to flourish not just here at home, but also around the world. This is a hopeful and proud step towards the new international digital age. This is what we are doing, and this is what producers wanted.

Taxation

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the government has a lot to be proud of, including the Canada child benefit. Under the Conservatives, families got the same whether they earned $25,000 a year or $2.5 million. That is not right.

Our government has stopped giving Canada child benefit cheques to millionaires, and gives more to 9 out of 10 Canadian families. As I hear jeers from across the aisle, I know this program is lifting 300,000 Canadian children out of poverty.

Could the Prime Minister advise this House how we are enhancing this incredible program to deliver change for Canadians?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, our plan has always been to invest in Canadians and to trust Canadians.

That is why, yesterday, we announced that the tax-free Canada child benefit will be fully indexed two years ahead of schedule. For a single mother, making $35,000, with two children, her benefit will increase by over $500 in 2019-20. This is what we can do when we stay focused on, and invest in, the middle class, and those working hard to join it.

Ethics

[Alain Rayes, Conservative, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in 2016, the Minister of Finance introudced Bill C-27 to amend the Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985, and immediately afterwards, Morneau Shepell's profits just happened to increase by $2 million. I would like the people listening to us on social media to get a simple answer to an extremely simple question.

When will the Prime Minister demand transparency from the finance minister so that he will stop deceiving Canadians?