House of Commons Hansard #134 of the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was ceta.

Topics

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

Conservative

Jamie Schmale Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the parliamentary secretary wholeheartedly. Policies that restrict competition are to the detriment of Canadian firms and their workers. Free trade agreements like CETA, as I have said before, are opening new markets for Canadian products and companies. They also force them to compete against firms, countries, and whatnot across the world, and that makes for good competition.

We all know, when we talk about agricultural products, that Canada has the best quality in the world, and we know there is demand for this product, especially in my riding that has a lot of beef. Manufacturers are looking for new markets and they are seeing the demand. As the middle class grows in other countries, especially in the Asian countries, they want Canadian beef and Canadian products. I focus on beef because there is a lot of beef in my riding, but we could name anything we have and it is the envy of the world.

Therefore, by opening up new markets, continuing to look for new opportunities is a win-win for everyone.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:10 p.m.

NDP

Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC

Mr. Speaker, we hear so much about trade. I keep hearing the words “free trade” or “free traders”. It is an ideology that everything is for free, and it makes me nervous. I feel like I am in a used car lot, where someone is trying to sell me a $40,000 car and it is almost free. The person says I will be given $2,000 if I buy the car. That is how people feel in my community.

Port Alberni had the highest median income in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Right now, it has the highest unemployment rate on Vancouver Island. What comes with that? It comes with high poverty, high suicide rates, and high teenage pregnancy. We did something wrong when we made the trade deals in the past, because coastal communities are being left out.

I want to ask the member this. What are we going to do differently in this trade deal, instead of just giving away our jobs and resources for free? How are we going to build up communities in the right way? That is what the NDP wants. We are for trade. We are for fair trade and we are for fairly protecting our communities and resources.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:10 p.m.

Conservative

Jamie Schmale Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON

Mr. Speaker, I disagree with the member from the NDP. We are not giving away anything. In fact, we are growing our market. We are going to have access to 500 million potential new customers who will want our products and services.

I should point out that the member across the way is treating exports as good and imports as bad for the economy. He is ignoring the importance that this has on raising the living standard of our country. Much more than the exports, import competition lowers prices and allows us to be more competitive. Therefore, I disagree with his comments of trade being doom and gloom. There are a number of benefits, especially one of the largest markets in the world and 500 potential new customers.

I invite the hon. member to look at that and some of the benefits.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:10 p.m.

Conservative

Peter Kent Conservative Thornhill, ON

Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to rise in support of Bill C-30, an act to implement the comprehensive economic and trade agreement between Canada and the European Union and its member states and to provide for certain other measures.

As we approach the end of today's debate, may I be permitted to address the tremendous opportunities and benefits in the bill by first reflecting on the way I watched Canada change, develop, and prosper as a result of trade and unavoidable globalization in my lifetime.

As the product of an offshore union myself, I have no real memory of arriving at Pier 21 in Halifax, a babe in my mother's arms, aboard a Red Cross hospital ship from England near the end of the Second World War. In fact, my first real trade-related memories as a child here in Ottawa in the late 1940s involved the exciting arrival of Christmas oranges in our house, the mandarin oranges that arrived every year in those early years from Japan.

By the time I began elementary school, our family had moved to Medicine Hat, Alberta. My dad had been transferred from the Ottawa Citizen to become editorial page editor of the Medicine Hat News. Our food back then was local. Milk, butter, eggs, cheese, meat, and bread came from farms, butchers, and bakers barely a couple of hours away from our house, much of it delivered to our home by horse-drawn wagons. Just in passing, I was regularly detailed to collect horse droppings for our home vegetable garden, where today, of course, there is an abundance of off-the-shelf retail fertilizers.

Our shoes and clothes in the 1940s and early 1950s came mostly from Ontario and Quebec. It is worth remembering, of course, that the Canadian shoe industry was started originally by an investment made by Jean Talon in Quebec in 1688. It developed over the centuries before and after Confederation, but after peaking in 1972, the Canadian-made shoe industry went downhill because of the arrival of less expensive, cheaper foreign imports, even despite government efforts in that day to slow the tide with import tariffs.

Our T-shirts and our underwear back in the 1950s came from a great Conservative firm in Nova Scotia. I loved my Stanfield's unshrinkable, drop-bottom long underwear when winters were longer and colder than they are today, and in those days, almost all of our cars came from Detroit or the Canadian branch plants of Detroit.

By the mid-1950s, Canada's auto industry was booming with new plants, new facilities, increased employment, and the surge in export sales as Canadian manufacturers took advantage of the fact that European makers were still recovering from the war.

My dad, who was a prudent, penny-wise newspaper man, never bought a new car, but he always bought North American, carrying our growing family around southern Alberta, first in a second-hand 1947 Chevy sedan and then in another very well-used 1954 Pontiac.

While I was studying at the naval dockyard in Esquimalt in 1960 listening to the hit tunes of those days, Percy Faith's Theme from a Summer Place and Sinatra's High Hopes, I remember seeing the decommissioned World War II cruiser, HMCS Ontario being prepared to be towed to Japan for scrap. I have little doubt that some of the recycled steel from the “Big O” came back to Canada a few years later, perhaps in the form of the first Japanese auto import, the Datsun Fairlady I remember, and of course the very first Honda Civic.

As a young journalist covering Expo '67 in Montreal, I remember the record crowds of foreign visitors and heads of government, and the excitement and the talk everywhere of the many doors being opened to Canada to global trade opportunities. Those doors did eventually open, although the big trade agreements, as we know, took somewhat longer to be achieved.

I remember as a young foreign correspondent in London, England, in the early 1970s, the political debate leading up to the referendum that saw the United Kingdom join the European common market. That was followed eventually by the Maastricht agreement and the creation of the European Union, the United Kingdom's opt-out clause, and so forth.

Britons benefited from that trade agreement, but as we all know too well, the European integration progress went a little further than British voters would accept, leading to the Brexit referendum outcome last year.

Today we face new challenges, and we have seen new challenges for the U.K., for the European Union, coincidentally for the United States, for our NAFTA partners, and pretty well all of our global trading partners, which brings me to the legislation before us today.

Certainly on our side of the House, and I know on the government side, we cannot say too often that this landmark agreement is the result of years of hard work, especially by our world-class trade negotiators, who did the heavy lifting for a succession of ministers and governments.

We in the official opposition welcome the opportunity to bring this deal into force and to recognize the work of successive trade ministers, including, most recently, the member for Abbotsford and the member for University—Rosedale. I will come back to that in just a moment.

We believe passionately, in the official opposition, that Canada should strive to maximize the benefits we have as a free-trading nation and that CETA will establish trading relationships far beyond North America. Again, we cannot say too often for our listeners at home that the 28 member states of the EU represents 500 million people, and annual economic activity of almost $20 trillion. The EU is the world's largest economy and also the world's largest import market for goods. The EU's annual imports alone are worth more than Canada's total GDP.

I spent the morning with the EU delegation to Ottawa. It was interesting to catch up with the representatives of the 28 members of the EU on the ratification process. I was delighted to remark to the representative of the government of Latvia that our foreign affairs committee is just back from an eastern European tour visiting Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Poland, and Latvia and to have been told by the minsters in the Latvian government that they are rushing to try to be the first member of the EU to formally ratify the agreement. They are urging us to ratify and enable implementation of the act.

I would like to say that I was very impressed a couple of months ago by the very gracious acknowledgement by the minister of trade, now the Minister of Foreign Affairs, of the hard work of her predecessor, the member for Abbotsford, in developing and advancing the CETA file in his time. Not all of my Liberal colleagues have been as generous.

If I could conclude on a positive note, and in the context of that spectacular Super Bowl victory last night, I would suggest that the member for Abbotsford might be seen as the Tom Brady character, moving the ball against great odds to the brink of victory. Again, with the greatest respect, the former minister of trade, now the foreign affairs minister, might be seen as James White, in overtime, two yards to go, plowing through the defence to carry the ball into the end zone to win the day.

In closing, CETA is a great deal for Canada. It is a great deal for Europe. I have no hesitation in committing my vote to bring this agreement into force.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:20 p.m.

Liberal

Eva Nassif Liberal Vimy, QC

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Thornhill for his passionate speech.

In his view, how will CETA help Canada create jobs and stimulate the economy? Could he explain the economic spinoffs that this agreement will produce in Canada?

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:20 p.m.

Conservative

Peter Kent Conservative Thornhill, ON

Mr. Speaker, as a member of Parliament from Ontario, this agreement would eliminate virtually 98% of the tariffs on Ontario manufactured goods and services. It would open up a trading market to the largest economy in the world, the EU, for our natural resources, manufactured products, and services. It has guarantees.

My only caution is that we, on the opposition side, hope the government will ensure that those sectors of the Canadian economy most impacted by opening our markets to European exports will respect the promises it has made to guarantee those sectors are eased in through a period of adjustment. I am thinking now of the supply management sector primarily, but the other sectors as well that will have some challenges as they adapt to this new reality.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:20 p.m.

NDP

Erin Weir NDP Regina—Lewvan, SK

Mr. Speaker, the member for Thornhill presented the European Union as a massive export market for Canada. However, in 2015, Canada sold only $22 billion of exports to the EU, if we exclude the United Kingdom, which is in the process of leaving that organization. Meanwhile, we imported $52 billion worth of merchandise from what is left of the European Union.

If we were to amplify those trade flows on a bilateral basis, we would have an even larger trade deficit, hence an even greater loss of Canadian jobs. Therefore, I wonder if the member for Thornhill is relying on some sort of Tom Brady-style comeback to overturn this trade deficit.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:20 p.m.

Conservative

Peter Kent Conservative Thornhill, ON

Mr. Speaker, although I certainly disagree with the member's modifier of only $22 billion, we have to recognize there are certain vagaries and unpredictabilities about the global economy, the direction of global trade, and of advantages and disadvantages. The resource sector is going through a particularly bad patch now. Certainly, on the foreign affairs committee's recent visit to Europe, we found a great welcoming and recognition that Canadian products and services would soon be entering their markets, as well as pleas that the agreement ensure an equal and fair playing field of opportunities, both for our side and for our European partners' side.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

Conservative

Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK

Mr. Speaker, it is great to be able to ask my colleague a question. I really enjoyed his history lesson. I cannot believe the 39-year old has that much knowledge about history. However, I want to use that advantage and that wisdom wisely today to talk about the fact that, historically, when we looked at the first free trade agreements, when we look at NAFTA and agreements like that, there were all these naysayers who said that we would lose our wine sector. For example, I remember that the B.C. wine industry would disappear off the map and it would never survive.

I would like the member to comment on how many times we have heard the NDP and other parties talk about how trade is so horrible, that it will basically ruin Canada, and on what we have heard in today's debate.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

Conservative

Peter Kent Conservative Thornhill, ON

Mr. Speaker, Canada, along with every trading country in the world, has to adapt to today's globalization and trading realities.

I have a framed mallet in the den of our house that my grandfather used as a harness maker. I am not sure that he made buggy whips, but he was a harness maker, and he adapted to that trade and reality before he died. Those of our economic sectors that are challenged by globalization must do that today, and government must assist them.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

Is the House ready for the question?

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

Some hon. members

Question.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

The question is on Motion No. 2. A vote on this motion also applies to Motions Nos. 3 to 53.

Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

No.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

All those in favour of the motion will please say yea.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

Some hon. members

Yea.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

All those opposed will please say nay.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

Some hon. members

Nay.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

In my opinion the nays have it.

And five or more members having risen:

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

Liberal

Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB

Mr. Speaker, I ask that the vote on the motion be deferred to Tuesday, February 7, at the expiry of the time provided for oral questions.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation ActGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

The vote will be deferred to Tuesday, February 7 after oral questions.

A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved.

Democratic ReformAdjournment Proceedings

February 6th, 2017 / 6:25 p.m.

NDP

Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON

Mr. Speaker, last October I asked the Minister of Democratic Institutions about promises that she and her government made to Canadians. Now, we find ourselves in a new year and, sadly, with a whole new set of broken promises. I am extremely disappointed that the Liberals have chosen to ignore Canadians and back away from their commitment on democratic reform.

The promise to Canadians was very clear. Sixteen months ago on the election trail, our future Prime Minister stated that his party would make every vote count; and on numerous occasions, more than 1,800 in fact, claimed that a Liberal government would be committed to ensuring that the 2015 election would be the last federal election using first past the post. That was a clear promise, a clear commitment, one for which many Canadians voted. As recently as last October, the Prime Minister restated his support for electoral reform, describing it as “a commitment we made in our election that I continue to be deeply committed to”.

I am starting to wonder if members of the governing party actually understand what the word “commitment” means. It is truly disheartening for Canadians to have watched the Prime Minister and his Minister of Democratic Institutions slowly but surely redefine, weaken, water down, and then back away from their commitment to a fair election process.

Breaking this promise, this commitment, does more damage to our democratic system than the Prime Minister is willing to admit. It tarnishes the credibility of all MPs in this House. It tells Canadians that politicians are only interested in getting elected and will say anything to make that happen. It starts to pick away at the fabric of our democracy and we begin to see that fabric unravel as people lose trust in the political system. Making promises they never intended to keep further disenfranchises those who came out in droves to vote for change. People believed the Liberal Party actually wanted to create change. They were sold a bill of goods and now are left with the status quo and a lack of trust in the political system. This is a betrayal of every Canadian who voted to change the electoral system, as well as of every Canadian who voted to do politics differently. The unvarnished truth is that rather than fixing our broken electoral system so it benefits every Canadian, the Liberals are keeping the current system because it benefits them.

We are also left wondering what the next broken promise will be. Clearly, commitments and promises are meaningless to the Prime Minister. I wonder if the next broken promise will be in regard to pensions for our veterans. This was a key election promise just like democratic reform. It made it into the minister's mandate letter, just like democratic reform. Yet here we are in 2017 with no promised pension, and veterans back in court fighting the government on the sacred obligation our government owes to the men and women who serve this great country.

Therefore I want to ask the parliamentary secretary across the aisle from me today if the government intends to keep the promises and commitments it made to Canadians. Are there any other promises the Liberals intend to break? What are they? What else do the Liberals intend to simply walk away from after abandoning their commitment to electoral reform?

Democratic ReformAdjournment Proceedings

6:30 p.m.

Halifax Nova Scotia

Liberal

Andy Fillmore LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Democratic Institutions

Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to speak to the issue raised by the member for London—Fanshawe back in October, which is why we are here this evening. That is the issue of non-resident Canadian citizens voting in federal elections. I would like to start by saying that this government is firmly supportive of enhancing electoral participation of all kinds.

The right to vote is a fundamental democratic right, enshrined in section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The constitutional enshrinement of this right reflects the centrality of voting in our democratic system, as well as its essential link to Canadian citizenship. The charter protects and promotes the right of each citizen to play a meaningful role in the political life of our country. As Chief Justice McLachlin stated in the Saskatchewan Electoral Boundaries reference, “the Canadian tradition as one of evolutionary democracy moving in [gradual] steps toward the goal of universal suffrage..” .

The special voting rules in the Canada Elections Act, which set out how non-resident Canadian citizens may vote, constitute one such step. Before 1993, the only non-resident Canadians who were able to vote in federal elections were generally members of the Canadian Forces and the federal public service. The special voting rules marked a watershed moment in the enfranchisement of non-resident citizens. Introduced in 1993, the rules extended, for the first time, voting to non-resident citizens who did not fall under the two exceptional categories.

At the time, after much debate in this place, Parliament saw fit to impose three limitations on non-resident voting: namely, first, a requirement of prior residence in Canada; second, a requirement that the non-resident elector have resided outside of Canada for fewer than five years, with certain exceptions; and, third, the requirement that the elector intended to resume ordinary residence in Canada at some point in the future.

After the latter two limits were challenged in July 2015, the Ontario Court of Appeal held that the five-year cut-off and the requirement of an intent to return constituted reasonable limitations on the right to vote under section 1 of the charter. That judgment has been appealed to the to the Supreme Court of Canada. On October 20, the Attorney General of Canada filed her factum defending the right of Parliament to make the choice that it did in 1993 as being within the bounds of constitutionality.

The Minister of Democratic Institutions is firmly committed to enhancing the participation by Canadians in the electoral process. That is why we have just introduced Bill C-33, legislation that, if passed, will enable electors who have lived for more than five consecutive years outside of Canada to vote, and electors will not need to state their intent to return.

The government believes that Canadian democracy should be inclusive and in tune with the realities of an increasingly interconnected world. I look forward to the hon. member's contribution to the discussion when we debate Bill C-33 in this House.

Democratic ReformAdjournment Proceedings

6:35 p.m.

NDP

Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON

Yes, Mr. Speaker, democracy should be inclusive.

Let us look at the facts. Two-thirds of Canadians voted in the last election for parties promising electoral reform. During the committee hearings, almost 90% of expert testimony and 80% of public testimony called for the government to adopt a proportional voting system.

When they launched their own extremely biased and poorly designed online survey, Liberals never even asked Canadians what system they wanted. Today, reports have surfaced that the Liberals spent nearly $4.1 million consulting Canadians on electoral reform. I wonder if they had any intention of implementing it in the first place.

It amazes me that the promise to strengthen our democratic institutions has gone from a clear commitment to the trash bin in just over a year. Why is the Liberal government so afraid of democracy?