Debates of Sept. 29th, 2017

Aerospace Industry

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families]

Madam Speaker, our department and the Canada Revenue Agency are working together to offer flexibility and options to ensure people are treated fairly and respectfully. We know, and the House knows, that the Social Security Tribunal is an arm's-length judiciary process that deals with these cases on a case-by-case basis. We are working hard to make sure this situation is addressed properly and fairly, and we will be reporting back to the House when new developments occur.

Canadian Heritage

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Madam Speaker, the Liberal Party seems to be completely oblivious to the plight of ordinary Canadians. When they need help, the Liberal Party is nowhere to be found.

I am calling on the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Whenever foreign online companies want to do business in Canada, they can count on the minister and the federal government. Netflix, Google, Spotify, and Amazon get preferential treatment over Quebec companies. This is a clear-cut case of total submission, of digital colonization.

How can the minister justify giving preferential treatment to foreign companies? She gives tax dodgers a reward that she would never give to companies—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Order. The hon. parliamentary secretary.

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Madam Speaker, the Bloc Québécois may not like our government's vision for our creative community, but SOCAN likes it a lot. In fact, SOCAN congratulated the Minister of Canadian Heritage on our government's vision for a creative Canada because it emphasizes the importance of music creators.

Telefilm Canada agrees with SOCAN. It said, “The vision announced today by the Minister of Canadian Heritage will help Canada to position itself as a key player in the global cultural marketplace. I am—”.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Order. Question period is now over. Does the hon. member for Mirabel wish to rise on a point of order?

[Simon Marcil, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I seek the unanimous consent of the House to table the email from the office of the Prime Minister.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Does the hon. member have unanimous consent to table this email?

[Some hon. members]

No.

Contraception

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Madam Speaker, I have two petitions to present to the House today.

The first petition is from a group of concerned young women and men who would like the Government of Canada to support free prescription birth control. There are 15% of Canadians who have no contraception at all, and a significant number of Canadian women cannot afford contraception.

The petitioners ask the House to support my Motion No. 65, which calls on the federal government to work with the provinces to cover the full cost of prescribed contraceptives.

The Environment

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Madam Speaker, my second petition has to do with protecting the rivers and lakes in this country.

As members may recall, the Conservative government stripped away environmental regulations through the navigable waters act and left thousands of rivers and lakes vulnerable. In my city of London, the North Thames River, the Middle Thames River, and the Thames River itself are at risk. This is a heritage river.

The petitioners are asking that the federal government live up to its promises in regard to environmental protection and support my Bill C-355, which commits to protecting the Thames River and amending the Navigation Protection Act.

Physician-Assisted Dying

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

Madam Speaker, I am honoured to present three petitions today.

The first petition relates to conscience protection. The petitioners highlight that coercion, intimidation, and other forms of pressure are being applied to force physicians, health care professionals, and institutions to be parties to assisted suicide and euthanasia, which is in violation of freedoms of conscience in Canada. This is another promise the government broke when it passed legislation regarding assisted suicide.

The petitioners are calling on Parliament to enshrine in the Criminal Code protection of conscience for physicians and institutions.

Seniors

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

Madam Speaker, the second petition relates to a national seniors strategy.

The petitioners highlight the fact that right now one in six Canadians is a senior, and within twelve and a half years it will be one in four Canadians. This major demographic change in Canada needs to be prepared for. We need to have a national seniors strategy so that we can properly care for our aging population.

Palliative Care

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

Madam Speaker, the last petition I wish to present today deals with palliative care.

The petitioners highlight the fact that 70% of Canadians who need palliative care in the last days of their lives do not have it available to them. They are calling on the government to ensure that palliative care is available to every Canadian who needs it.

Criminal Records Act

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

Madam Speaker, it is my honour to rise to present petition e-1007, initiated by one of my constituents, with over 1,000 signatures.

The petitioners are requesting that changes to the pardon system that were made in 2012 be reversed. The changes brought forward under the previous government in 2012 resulted in a significant increase in wait times before a pardon could even be applied for. As well, the changes resulted in a 400% cost increase for those applying for a pardon. That has negatively impacted constituents in my riding, as well as many ridings throughout Canada, as families work hard to rebuild their lives.

It is an honour to submit this petition to the House.

Criminal Code Firearms Provisions

[Bradley Trost, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

Madam Speaker, I have the honour to present a couple of petitions today.

The first is petition e-575, which calls upon the Government of Canada to empower Canadians to be responsible for their own health and safety by removing the prohibition of sound moderators from the Criminal Code.

The majority of G7 nations allow for the legal use of sound moderators by hunters and sports shooters to reduce noise pollution and noise complaints around shooting ranges and near farms and other areas where hunting and target shooting is legal.

Marijuana

[Bradley Trost, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

Madam Speaker, I would also like to present petition e-1053, which calls upon the House of Commons to revoke Bill C-45, the cannabis legislation.

The petitioners are deeply concerned about how the legalization of cannabis will affect Canadian youth. For example, the government's proposal that every household will be able to contain four marijuana plants will make the possession of cannabis by children incredibly difficult to control and make it harder to prevent distribution of this thought-impairing drug by criminals.

Impaired Driving

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Madam Speaker, today, I would like to table two petitions on the same subject that have been signed by Canadians from across the country, particularly British Columbia and Alberta. These petitions deal with impaired driving and the need for minimum sentences in cases of impaired driving causing death.

The second petition states that the current impaired driving laws are too lenient and that in the interest of public safety, the petitioners want to see tougher laws and the implementation of new mandatory minimum sentencing for those persons convicted of impaired driving.

I have tabled a private member's bill in that regard, so I fully support these petitions.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Just to remind the member, petitions is the time to summarize the petitions and not to provide support, or not, for them.

Falun Gong

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

Madam Speaker, I rise to table a petition signed by a number of Canadians, including from my riding, mostly in the Calgary area.

The petitioners are concerned about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Specifically, they request that the Canadian government condemn the illegal arrest of a Canadian citizen for practising Falun Gong and call for the immediate and unconditional release of Canadian citizen Ms. Qian Sun.

Questions on the Order Paper

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

The House resumed consideration of the motion that Bill C-55, An Act to amend the Oceans Act and the Canada Petroleum Resources Act, be read the second time and referred to a committee.

Oceans Act

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The hon. member for Edmonton Manning had four minutes of questions and comments remaining.

Questions and comments, the hon. member for Chilliwack—Hope.

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

Madam Speaker, I listened with interest to the speech of the member for Edmonton Manning on this important bill. I certainly noticed in the first two years of the new Liberal government, that any time it needed to make a difficult decision, a lot of time the Liberals put off the decision by saying that they needed to consult with Canadians or that they needed to get it right. It went on and on and they would not take a firm position on anything.

However, with this bill, the Liberals have rushed it through without conducting adequate consultations. Would the member talk about the inconsistent approach of the government and why it should take the time to get this right?