Debates of Oct. 19th, 2018

Natural Resources

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

The hon. member for Sturgeon River—Parkland.

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is these Liberals are failing indigenous communities. The Liberals no-more-pipelines bill, also known as Bill C-69, is a threat to the prosperity of all Canadians.

A Texas company was recently awarded because it was able to get a pipeline permitted and built in only eight months. However, under these Liberals, we are not even sure if we are ever going to get a pipeline built ever.

When will the government get serious about pipeline jobs and scrap this terrible legislation?

[Paul Lefebvre, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources, Lib.]

Mr. Speaker, there was 10 years of inaction by the Harper government, with 99% of our oil actually distributed to the U.S., and in 2015, the same thing occurred. Their approach failed and they are doubling down on that failed approach, disregarding the courts, with no plan to protect the environment and coastal communities, and with no plan for meaningful two-way dialogue with indigenous communities. We will take no lessons from the previous government.

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I know that the government is not listening to the indigenous community and so we will see if it will listen to the business community.

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the Port of Vancouver. At the Port of Vancouver there are hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of construction in new facilities happening today. The officials at the Port of Vancouver said to me that if Bill C-69 had been in place two years ago, not one dollar of what is being spent today would be invested in the Port of Vancouver.

Will the minister stand up today and say to the business community who are investing in the Port of Vancouver that she will kill this bill?

[Catherine McKenna, Liberal, Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Mr. Speaker, I will stand up today and explain why we need Bill C-69, and why we need to rebuild trust and environmental assessments. Guess what? If we do not have trust in how we approve major projects, no projects go ahead.

We have an obligation to Canadians to figure out how we are going to protect the environment and grow the economy. I have spent, with my colleagues in meetings, over two years listening to the business community. We have shorter timelines under Bill C-69. We are providing more certainty of the process. We are working with indigenous peoples. We are also working with provinces.

We need to get this right. That way we will have investment dollars flowing.

Canada Post Corporation

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

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers gave a strike notice to Canada Post this week. After falling behind because of the Harper-mandated agreement, postal workers have been negotiating for almost a year to improve working conditions and improve services for Canadians. Canadian workers deserve better.

Will the Liberal government continue the Harper ways that undermined workers' fundamental rights or will it ensure that the Canada Post management negotiate in good faith for sustainable community-based jobs that best serve Canadians?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Minister of Employment]

Mr. Speaker, we have said all along that this is a government that firmly believes in the value of collective bargaining. In fact, we believe that an agreement that is arrived at by both parties through collective bargaining is a strong agreement and one that can bring a company and its workers forward into the next term. Therefore, we stand by both parties, federal mediation is working with both parties, and we look forward to the resolution of their collective agreement.

Parliamentary Protective Service

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the changes made to the Parliamentary Protective Service are not working.

Employees of the House of Commons Parliamentary Protective Service have been working without a contract since 2016. Nothing has happened in two years. PPS management is required to initiate negotiations within the next 20 days. What is more, it seems that the employer has threatened employees who are exercising their Charter rights.

Will the government amend the Parliament of Canada Act to protect the rights and independence of the Parliamentary Protective Service?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, the legislation in many ways may need to be amended, but I would note that the matter referred to by the hon. member is under the jurisdiction of the House and not under the jurisdiction of the government.

Border Security

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in June, it was 1,263. In July, it was 1,634. In August, it was 1,747, and in September, it was 1,601. That is how many illegal immigrants came to Canada in the past four months alone, and most of them entered the country through Quebec.

When Canadians want to know why the government is not doing anything, they are insulted and told they are un-Canadian.

Today, after four months, we have a question. Today, I want to know whether the Liberals have a plan to address this problem.

[Bill Blair, Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction, Lib.]

Mr. Speaker, I want to assure the member opposite that the government does in fact have a plan. We have been working very diligently with our international partners to address the issues that lead to that migration. The RCMP, the CBSA, the IRCC and the IRB have all been working diligently to create greater efficiencies for all individuals, regardless of how they come into this country.

I want to assure the member opposite and all Canadians that the security of this country is maintained through the diligent work of our public officials.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Mr. Speaker, that is the plan of no plan. It is clear that the Prime Minister has no plan to ensure the integrity of our borders. The number of illegal crossings is on the rise. We have already had more this year than the same time last year.

Canada's Conservatives have proposed a plan. So far, the Liberals have totally failed to resolve this problem. When Canadians are struggling to make ends meet, what are the total projected costs for processing, transporting, housing and social welfare programs for these people?

[Bill Blair, Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction, Lib.]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to advise the member opposite that we have seen tremendous success in reducing the number of people who have been presenting themselves at our border. Since April of this year, we have seen significant reductions. In fact, the number of people who crossed this summer irregularly was 70% less than what we experienced just last year. Therefore, we are making real progress.

On the issue of how these individuals are treated, we can assure Canadians as well that, by Canadian law, we have to allow them to process, and provide support to the provinces and municipalities to ensure they are properly treated. That work is ongoing between ourselves and the Province of Quebec, the Province of Ontario, and the cities of Montreal and Toronto. This is a well-managed—

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

The hon. member for Calgary Shepard.

Public Services and Procurement

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Mr. Speaker, Dominique Daigle is one of thousands of Canadians affected by the Liberal Phoenix fiasco. She has not been paid in 15 months. I sent a letter to the public works minister in July of this year on behalf of Dominique and guess what? No answer.

The minister said at the operations committee in November of 2017 that hardship cases would be dealt with in just “a couple of weeks”.

She has lost her home and has moved back in with her dad.

Will the public works minister take responsibility, end the empty talking points and pay Dominique the wages she has earned?

[Steven MacKinnon, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility, Lib.]

Mr. Speaker, we are determined to stabilize and ensure that our hard-working public servants are paid on time and are paid accurately, and that would include the employee to whom my hon. colleague refers. We will look into this specific case.

I would point out to my hon. colleague that perhaps he should survey the front bench of his parliamentary group here to find an apology to the public servants of Canada, which we are still waiting for, for leaving us with this fiasco of a pay system after eight years of planning.

Multiculturalism

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to see that our government is continuing its commitment to diversity by supporting organizations through increased multicultural funding in budget 2018.

As part of the funding, the government announced that it would engage communities on the development of a new anti-racism approach that would bring communities and interfaith leaders together to find new ways to combat discrimination.

Could the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism update the House on how the development of a new anti-racism strategy is developing?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism, Lib.]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her important question, which allows me to repeat something that I have said many times, something extremely important for me.

Throughout history and even today there are people in communities who experience systemic racism, oppression and discrimination, preventing them from fully participating in our society. These experiences are still felt by many Canadians. We can and we must do better. That is why we are conducting those important sessions.

Any form of racism and discrimination is completely unacceptable, and we need to fight that every day. That is why we are holding these consultations. We will always fight against racism and discrimination.

Dairy Industry

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are desperate. They literally misled supply-managed producers. They only pretended to defend them.

Today, they continue to improvise at the expense of farmers. They signed an agreement with the United States that is going to flood our market with American milk and prevent us from exporting ours throughout the world.

There will be fewer quotas, no exports and no compensation.

Is that what the Liberals call a good agreement? Why did they once again fail to defend our farmers?

[Jean-Claude Poissant, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, we defended our supply management system against the Americans' aggressive attempts at dismantling it.

Market access is similar to what the Conservatives had negotiated in the TPP. We are the party that implemented supply management, and we are the government that defended it. That is precisely what we we did. We understand that there will be impacts on our farmers, and we made a commitment to provide them with fair and full compensation to help them succeed.

Poverty

[Rémi Massé, Liberal, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Wednesday, October 17, was the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

Thanks to initiatives such as the Canada child benefit, the national housing strategy and the Canada workers benefit, our government will have lifted 650,000 people out of poverty since 2015.

Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development tell the House how our government continues to help Canadians who are working hard to escape poverty and join the middle class?

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

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia for his words of support for Canadians living in poverty.

Since taking office in 2015, our government has invested more than $20 billion in programs to help the most vulnerable in Canada. As a result of Canada's first national poverty reduction strategy we are on track to post the lowest level of poverty in the history of Canada. Our government is committed to being a leader, now and in the future, and a full partner in the fight against poverty.

Justice

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Mr. Speaker, two years ago in the city of Brooks, Tanya Campbell-Losier was killed by her boyfriend in a domestic dispute. She was just 19 years old. On September 27, her killer was released on day parole after serving just four months. This is yet another example of our justice system acting like a revolving door under this government's catch-and-release policy.

In the words of Tanya's mother, “She got no justice”. Do the Liberals agree with Tanya's mother that a four-month sentence for killing someone is not justice?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, I will undertake to look into the circumstances of this particular case. I believe it may fall under provincial jurisdiction, but I will examine that.

The rules with respect to day parole that apply at the present time were in fact implemented through a legal framework under a private member's bill that was proposed by a member of the Conservative Party.

Health

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Mr. Speaker, bees are essential to biodiversity, but neonicotinoid pesticides are pushing them to the brink of extinction. Pesticides are not good for the environment or for human health.

Europe plans to ban neonicotinoids by the end of the year, but the Canadian government is hiding behind consultations, which will not yield concrete results until 2025. This week, Équiterre called on the government to follow Europe's lead.

Will the government act immediately to help farmers eliminate neonicotinoids by the end of this year?