House of Commons Hansard #192 of the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was amendment.

Topics

Business of SupplyRoutine Proceedings

3:40 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

I wonder if I could ask the hon. member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes for a clarification.

Did you intend to put the motion that you raised earlier before the House?

Business of SupplyRoutine Proceedings

3:40 p.m.

Conservative

Gord Brown Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON

Mr. Speaker, I did intend to do that as a private member's motion. There may have been some confusion in terms of the other motion to defer the vote.

Business of SupplyRoutine Proceedings

3:40 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

I think the hon. member might agree that the intention was different. What I would propose to do is to take this as notice of a motion before the House.

Business of SupplyRoutine Proceedings

3:40 p.m.

Conservative

Gord Brown Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON

Mr. Speaker, I am in agreement with that.

Physician-Assisted DyingPetitionsRoutine Proceedings

June 12th, 2017 / 3:40 p.m.

Conservative

Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK

Mr. Speaker, I have three petitions to present today on behalf of the constituents of the riding of Prince Albert.

The first one is a petition to establish the conscience protection of physicians and health care institutions.

SyriaPetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:40 p.m.

Conservative

Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is calling on the House of Commons for action on peace in Syria.

Palliative CarePetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:40 p.m.

Conservative

Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK

Mr. Speaker, the third petition is in regard to hospice care, and patients and families.

Algoma Passenger Rail ServicePetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:40 p.m.

NDP

Carol Hughes NDP Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON

Mr. Speaker, I again rise in the House to present a petition addressed to the Minister of Transport. I am always pleased to rise to give voice to my constituents, but there are also people across Canada signing my petitions. This one was signed by people from Hearst, Hamilton, Gatineau, Quebec, and Sussex, New Brunswick.

This petition has to do with the passenger train between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst. People say it is impossible to access 75% of the properties and that other means of access are not reliable or safe, since many roads are industrial roads that are maintained only if industry continues to maintain them.

The petitioners are also concerned about the economic repercussions. A $2-million grant brought roughly $42 million into the region. They are calling on Transport Canada to reconsider the file in light of their support and restore the rail service.

Palliative CarePetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:40 p.m.

Liberal

Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS

Mr. Speaker, it is my honour to present a petition on behalf of constituents living in the communities of Sheet Harbour, Tangier, and Mushaboom on the issue of palliative care.

Specifically, the undersigned would like to identify hospice palliative care as a defined medical service covered under the Canada Health Act so that provinces and territories can use transfers from the federal government for this kind of important care.

150th Anniversary of ConfederationPetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:45 p.m.

Conservative

Peter Van Loan Conservative York—Simcoe, ON

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal war on history continues to prompt the forwarding of many petitions to my office. I rise today to present petitions from three Canadian historical societies, stating that they want history to be respected and celebrated during the 150th anniversary of Confederation.

The Wellington County Historical Society includes the city of Guelph. Mr. John Galt was the founder of the city of Guelph. His son, Alexander Galt was one of our Fathers of Confederation and Sir John A. Macdonald's first finance minister.

The Société historique de Saint-Côme—Linière in Quebec has also expressed their support for the petition's cause. The society has been active for the past three decades, cataloguing and recording their local history, and through their municipality ran the remnants of the Quebec Central Railway, which was established in 1869 as part of the important railway industry that was critical to Confederation.

Members of the Tyrconnell Heritage Society run the Backus-Page House Museum in the historical Talbot settlement in Elgin County, and they have signed this petition. Colonel Thomas Talbot was once the personal secretary of John Graves Simcoe. His charismatic leadership guided the settlement of the area, including establishing Port Stanley, interestingly named after his friend whose son, Frederick Arthur Stanley would become Canada's Governor General and donate the Stanley Cup, awarded last night, which was at the time it was presented originally to be awarded to Canada's top amateur hockey club.

The petitioners call on the government to reverse the decision not to have Confederation included as a theme of the 150th anniversary of Confederation.

High-Speed InternetPetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:45 p.m.

Liberal

Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise today to present a petition from many of my constituents.

The petitioners are drawing to the attention of the House of Commons the fact that not all residents of Nipissing—Timiskaming have equal access to unlimited, high-speed Internet. Therefore, the residents of the Nipissing—Timiskaming electoral district need to have equal access to unlimited, high-speed Internet, something that is found in most cities. However, once we get into rural areas, people have a hard time connecting. The petitioners find that a disadvantage to running a business and to getting a proper education.

Questions on the Order PaperRoutine Proceedings

3:45 p.m.

Scarborough Southwest Ontario

Liberal

Bill Blair LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Mr. Speaker, for reasons that will shortly become apparent, I too feel a certain resemblance to the member for Winnipeg North. Accordingly, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.

Questions on the Order PaperRoutine Proceedings

3:45 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

Is it agreed?

Questions on the Order PaperRoutine Proceedings

3:45 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

Questions on the Order PaperRoutine Proceedings

3:45 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

The hon. member for Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman is asking for unanimous consent to return to petitions. Is it agreed?

Questions on the Order PaperRoutine Proceedings

3:45 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

Foreign AffairsPetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:45 p.m.

Conservative

James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to rise today to present two petitions. They are both from the Vietnamese community. They call upon the Government of Canada to accept the two bills that are in the House right now. We will be debating one tomorrow, my private member's bill, Bill S-226, the justice for victims of corrupt foreign officials act, the Sergei Magnitsky law, which I am sponsoring on behalf of Senator Raynell Andreychuk. Petitioners are asking the Government of Canada and Parliament to accept the legislation as a way to sanction those individuals who are committing gross human rights violations, as well as those enriching themselves through corruption.

One petition has over 400 signatures on it, and the other has 1,262 signatures. The second one is slightly different in that the petitioners ask that we particularly target Vietnam, which is still suppressing political dissidents. Over the last number of years, over 420 political prisoners have been executed, and that has to come to an end.

The House resumed consideration of the motion.

Opposition Motion—Canadian EconomyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

The hon. member for Brandon—Souris has five minutes remaining for questions and comments.

The hon. member for Regina—Lewvan.

Opposition Motion—Canadian EconomyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:50 p.m.

NDP

Erin Weir NDP Regina—Lewvan, SK

Mr. Speaker, it is a little strange to have Conservatives rise in the House and bemoan the state of grain transportation while praising the record of the Harper government, because of course it was the Harper government that dismantled the system of orderly marketing that we used to have for grain in western Canada. The member for Brandon—Souris quite rightly described the railways as a duopoly. The Canadian Wheat Board used to give farmers a fair bit of negotiating power in dealing with the railroads.

I am doubtful the member for Brandon—Souris would agree with me that we should reinstate a system of orderly marketing, but I wonder if he would agree, for the sake of transparency and openness, that the government should conduct an audit on the dismantling of the Canadian Wheat Board so that Canadian taxpayers have some accounting of what happened to all of the assets in that organization.

Opposition Motion—Canadian EconomyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:50 p.m.

Conservative

Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB

Mr. Speaker, obviously, the member has never sold a bushel of grain or a tonne of grain on the Prairies in his life. Otherwise, he would realize that in terms of the marketing system today, as my colleague from Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman indicated earlier, we get no calls wanting to reinstate that particular old style of marketing.

Young farmers today are marketing all of their grain on their own. He is incorrect in his analogy. If he had done some scouting he would have seen that the Canadian Wheat Board did not do the allocation of cars all the time. The whole process of marketing grain on the Prairies has been modernized by the act that was done by my colleague here in the House, by opening up the opportunities for more processing, more expansion of grain, and particularly cleaning. Just like getting rid of the Crow rate benefit years ago, we are seeing the benefits of much more productivity and jobs in the Prairies due to the opening up of these marketing opportunities.

Opposition Motion—Canadian EconomyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:50 p.m.

NDP

Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC

Mr. Speaker, I find this to be a very difficult discussion. The Conservatives put forward a motion calling on the government to do more for forestry workers. In 2006, in my community, 82,272 tonnes were shipped out of the Port Alberni harbour. In 2016, it was up to 783,381 tonnes. That is a tenfold increase under the Conservative government's watch. There was no federal help. The government across the way talks about how the Liberal government is doing great at creating jobs. There are mills closing in my community and people are out of work. We should be talking about solutions today. I am not hearing about solutions. In fact, I find it really disrespectful to the people in the forest sector right now who are looking for jobs.

Who is going to take responsibility? Is it the federal government across the way for the last 10 years, or is it Christy Clark? I would like to find out who is going to take responsibility for inaction in my community.

Opposition Motion—Canadian EconomyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:50 p.m.

Conservative

Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB

Mr. Speaker, the member should have directed his question to a member of the government on the solutions it may have for some of these areas.

Conservatives were able to extend the softwood lumber agreement that was in place previously until 2016 and the Liberal government has let it lapse. We have now seen the results of tariffs on products coming from the United States due to the new government in the U.S. putting the tariffs on. As I said in my speech earlier, the stopgap measures that have been put in place by the Liberal government, while helpful to the individuals working in those plants, are not long-term solutions.

Opposition Motion—Canadian EconomyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:50 p.m.

Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe New Brunswick

Liberal

Ginette Petitpas Taylor LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance

Mr. Speaker, I will advise the House that I will be splitting my time with the member for Central Nova.

It is a pleasure to rise in the House today to speak to how the Government of Canada is building a strong middle class and a strong economy for Canadians. Before I talk about the Canadian economy, let me begin with a few words about the global economy.

After roughly six years of lacklustre performance, global economic growth is expected to strengthen in the near term. However, the recovery and pace of growth since the global financial crisis has been slow in many corners of the world. Rising inequalities, an aging population, and rapid technological changes have become the defining policy challenges of our time. Coupling those challenges with the anxiety felt by families around the world and their concern for their children's futures has fuelled a very powerful movement. People are looking at the pace of technological changes and the need for new skills, and are undoubtedly anxious about the future. It is hard to feel confident and face every day with optimism, when we cannot see what is just around the corner.

In Canada, we have chosen to meet these challenges head-on with a positive and generous response.

We are doing what confident countries do: investing in people and in our future. The Government of Canada has an ambitious plan that involves making smart investments to create good middle-class jobs; build modern, more resilient neighbourhoods and communities; grow the economy; and provide more opportunities for all Canadians. We know that when we have an economy that works for the middle class, we have a country that works for everyone.

That is why, when our government first took office in late 2015, we immediately implemented measures to strengthen the middle class.

We began by asking the wealthiest 1% to pay a little more so that we could lower taxes for the middle class.

We then implemented the new Canada child benefit, which, compared to the old system of child benefits, is simpler, more generous, and better targeted to help those who need it most.

We then signed a historic agreement with the provinces to help people live with more dignity in retirement by strengthening the Canada pension plan.

We did even more to support Canadian families by committing to invest $6 billion over 10 years in home care and $5 billion over 10 years to support mental health initiatives.

In short, we have taken the necessary first steps to give back to the middle class. We have done this by making Canadians our first priority and by making the types of investments that will promote their talents, improve their communities, and ensure the long-term growth of our economy.

The action taken by the government, such as cutting taxes for the middle class and introducing the Canada child benefit, has played a major role in supporting household spending.

Canada’s economy saw 3.7% economic growth in the first quarter of 2017, which is very interesting. The unemployment rate continues to drop. It is now around 6.6%, compared to 7% early in our term in fall 2015. Since then, Canada’s economy has created about 350,000 new jobs. That is an impressive number.

This is all very encouraging. However, we remain vigilant and are fully aware that a lot of work remains to be done.

We will continue to focus on sustainable growth, better-paying jobs, greater opportunities for the middle class, and greater prosperity for future generations.

We are doing this by getting people ready for jobs of today, but also for the jobs of tomorrow. We call it our innovation and skills plan. To ensure that skills training effectively helps unemployed and underemployed Canadians get good jobs, budget 2017 significantly boosts federal support through labour market transfer agreements with provinces and territories by an amount of $2.7 billion over six years.

For Canadians looking for work, this means more opportunities to upgrade their skills, gain experience, or get help to start their own business. It also means more support like employment counselling to help them plan their careers.

For Canadians who have lost their jobs, we will make it easier for employment insurance claimants to pursue self-funded training, while remaining eligible for their benefits.

For Canadians going back to school for retraining, budget 2017 will expand eligibility for student financial assistance so each year an additional 10,000 part-time students and a further 13,000 students with dependent children can get the financial help they need to pursue post-secondary education.

This comprehensive set of skills and training measures will help Canadians at every stage of their career make Canada's greatest resource, our people, even greater.

Also part of the plan, the new venture capital catalyst initiative, will increase late-stage venture capital available to Canadian entrepreneurs. With funds leveraged from the private sector and depending on the proposals received, this investment could inject around $1.5 billion into Canada's innovation capital market. A strong investment culture coupled with free trade agreements are a critical component to creating good, well-paying jobs and substantial economic growth.

Over the past year and a half, Canada has strengthened its relationship with its top five trading partners: the United States, Mexico, China, Japan, and the European Union. The work continues.

Our government was elected to help the middle class and those working hard to join it. There are positive signs throughout the economy that show that our plan is working. Canada is in the best fiscal position among G7 countries, and the federal debt-to-GDP ratio is expected to remain low.

In the first quarter of 2017, the Canadian economy had a 3.7% growth. In the past six months, the Canadian economy has more than 250,000 new, full-time jobs.

Lastly, the Government of Canada will continue to concentrate on making sound and necessary investments in Canadians, our communities, and our economy. These investments will strengthen long-term growth and will build a solid middle class and a more promising future for all Canadians.

Opposition Motion—Canadian EconomyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

4 p.m.

NDP

Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC

Mr. Speaker, when members speak about the economy, I caution them to ensure they understand that some areas of the economy are not doing so well.

To give members a breakdown, my riding of Courtenay—Alberni has an unemployment rate of around 10%, which is the highest unemployment rate in southwestern British Columbia. One-third of the children live in poverty. In fact, we are 240% above the provincial average for income assistance.

Therefore, when the government speaks about how great the economy is and how things are going, it would be great if its members would actually come to my riding where they would see clearly that mills have closed and it has been just announced that the sockeye run is closed. Fishers and support workers are out of work, plunging people further into poverty. The only minister we can get to come to our riding is the Prime Minister, and he just goes to the beach and plays. It would be really good if he came to communities like Port Alberni to see first-hand what is really going on in the economy in western Canada and in forestry communities.

Why are we not talking about answers? I would love for the parliamentary secretary to start talking about what she is going to do for forestry communities and if someone is going to show up in Port Alberni. Is a minister going to come to see first-hand what is happening in my community. People are out of work and living in poverty. They need a lift.