Debates of Oct. 25th, 2018

Dixie Presbyterian Church

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Dixie Presbyterian Church, the oldest church in Peel Region. On June 3, I attended the congregation's worship under the leadership of the minister, Rev. Karen Pozios, in celebration of its 140th anniversary.

The church's first service was held on June 16, 1878. The congregation met in the old Dixie chapel, the little stone building on the corner of Cawthra Road and Dundas Street.

Initially, the congregation served a predominantly rural community. Today, it lies in the midst of a bustling intersection within the city of Mississauga. For 140 years, the congregation has been an active member of our community, with outreach work directed at community members of all ages. They have been aiding the vulnerable, providing spiritual guidance and organizing community picnics for more than 100 years.

I wish the Dixie Presbyterian congregation another 140 years of success, as this organization is the embodiment of the community's spirit.

Old Fort Landslide

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Mr. Speaker, in my riding, residents of Old Fort have had their lives upended with a landslide that took out the power lines and the only road leading in and out of that area. The power just came back this week, and a temporary road has been made to provide some access, but much more needs to be done.

A GoFundMe fundraiser has also been started to help those who are in financial need. I have been blown away by the number of people who have come forward, willing to volunteer their time to help, free of charge. Special thanks today go to Jeff Garrison, Kristi Pimm, Rui from D. Bauer Mechanical, Northern Metallic Sales, Kevin at Bailey Helicopters, Adam at Moose FM, Matt at Alaska Highway News, Tony and Sara Warriner and the Evangel Downtown Community Church, David Ergang, and riverboaters Jason Linley, Dave Turchansky, Dan Toews, Ty Wheat, Alfred Loewen, Darwin Pimm, Rick Walters and many others.

The countless others who are helping at the PRRD EOC, those who are volunteering and those who volunteered to help, I cannot thank them enough. I want the residents of Old Fort to know that we care about them and we are here for them.

Don Valley East Volunteers

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to two long-term residents of Don Valley East.

Don Fernandes was renowned for his community service and for being a champion of social justice. Soon after moving to Canada, he volunteered many hours to help those less fortunate. He was deeply devoted to his wife Sybil, son Keith, daughter Sharon and her husband Jamie. Don passed away in March 2018 at the age of 71.

Paul Seelig was very active in his community and was known for his deep thinking about all issues. Paul was a passionate volunteer for issues that he cared about most: fairness in society and compassion for fellow Canadians. Paul leaves behind his wife Elizabeth and his sister Janet, as well as two children. Paul passed away in June 2018 at the age of 66.

They will be sadly missed in our community.

Housing

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians cannot wait, and the members of my riding of North Island—Powell River cannot wait, for a home.

Service providers tell stories of homeless people and those at risk of homelessness. They tell of families looking for a home to call their own, and seniors at risk of eviction or living in hotels. Single people are living four to a home in bachelor suites, and families are worried that they may lose their children because they cannot find an appropriate home.

Women are fleeing from violence, with or without children. There are businesses that cannot attract people to work for them because the new employees cannot find a place to live. There are wait-lists for affordable housing that are too long to ever catch up. There is a lack of supportive housing for people who need a foundation to build on, and municipalities are working as hard as they can with the little they have. Too many across this country of Canada cannot wait for a home any longer.

I request that the government open more funds through the national housing strategy. Just 10% of funding before the next election is not enough. This is an emergency and needs to be treated as such.

“World War Women” Exhibition

[Jean-Claude Poissant, Liberal, La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this week, I had the opportunity to open an exhibition called “World War Women”.

The exhibition, developed by the Canadian War Museum here in Ottawa, is on display at the Exporail Museum in Saint-Constant until January 6, 2019. It features the stories of women who made significant contributions to the war effort by supporting wounded soldiers and their families, both in Canada and abroad, and by manufacturing military equipment here at home.

I also want to acknowledge the tremendous amount of work done by Amella Zalewski, Kathleen McGrath, Molly Lamb Bobak and Edith Anderson Monture. Their contributions through volunteer organizations have helped women expand their horizons and play a vital role in the labour market.

With Remembrance Day just around the corner, I would be remiss if I did not also recognize the contributions of our veterans, the men and women who put their own lives in danger to defend this great country of ours.

Saskatchewan Youth Leaders

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand here today to congratulate several of my riding's truly outstanding leaders. Earlier this week, 13 grade five students from Vanscoy, Saskatchewan, learned that their hard work to make their world a better place was being recognized with a trip to WE Day in Winnipeg. The civic engagement of these girls is inspiring, and I wish them a wonderful trip to Manitoba later this month.

I would also like to express my appreciation to WestJet for making this trip possible, and for giving these remarkable students the opportunity to gather with other young Canadians who are working hard to bring about positive change, both at home and around the world.

50th Anniversary of the Saint-Basile-le-Grand Women's Organization

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

Mr. Speaker, next Friday, the Cercle de fermières de Saint-Basile-le-Grand will celebrate its 50th anniversary. This women's organization will celebrate 50 years of work improving the living conditions of women and families and promoting our cultural and artisanal heritage.

This organization enables the women of Saint-Basile-le-Grand and the surrounding area to share knowledge and expertise in weaving, knitting, embroidery and sewing, and it gives them the opportunity to participate in provincial fibre art competitions. Since the next generation is a priority for this organization, it even offers a craft program for young people in our community.

Altruistic by nature, the members of the Cercle des fermières make clothes for hospitals and shelters to bring a little comfort into the lives of those who need it most.

I have had the pleasure of meeting the members of this organization on several occasions and each time I am amazed by their dedication to our community.

Beverly Cowie

[Kim Rudd, Liberal, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge the life and passing of an unsung community hero. Beverly Cowie was a member of the Anishinabe from the community of Hiawatha First Nation, a proud member of the Canadian Armed Forces and a military police officer.

Bev's career took her to the centre of many key national and international events, from providing security for the 1976 Olympics to Hong Kong in 1978 and helping bring Vietnamese refugees to Canada, to her time as a Middle East peacekeeper and to search and rescue missions in northern Quebec. After a distinguished 17-year career in our armed forces, Bev went on to graduate from both Trent and Brock universities, beginning the second phase of her life as a community advocate and volunteer.

What may be most remarkable about her life is that she did it all while being a single mother and role model to her two children, Chad and Richelle. Bev was an example of someone we as Canadians can be extremely proud of.

Firearms Legislation

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Mr. Speaker, dust off your decoys and don your camo. Fall is here and hunters throughout my riding are celebrating the arrival of hunting season. Northern Alberta is a hunter's paradise, teeming with ducks, geese, deer and moose. This is a time of camaraderie outdoors, a time to pass on our traditions to our children and a time to put meat in the freezer.

Hunters are law-abiding and conscientious firearms owners. They are not criminals. Bill C-71, if it becomes law, will make these people put their names on the Liberals' gun registry. Their registry targets hunters, not gang members. We need to shoot down this ineffective bill and put our sights on the real criminals: the people who commit crimes.

I am a hunter, my friends and relatives are hunters, and the first nations in my riding are also hunters. We shoot game to feed our families. The government is going after the wrong people. We are not the criminals; we are hunters. As Uncle Si says, “That's what I'm talking about, Jack.”

Oxi Day

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on October 28, Hellenic communities across Canada and around the world will come together to celebrate Oxi Day.

On the night of October 28, 1940, the then prime minister of Greece, Ioannis Metaxas, was given an ultimatum by Benito Mussolini: give Italy free passage through Greece and occupation rights to strategic Greek sites, or go to war with Axis powers. Metaxas curtly replied, “Then it is war”.

While this propelled Greece into war, the Hellenic population considered Metaxas's response an act of bravery. The Greeks held the Germans back for six weeks, playing a pivotal role in the outcome of that war.

As Sir Winston Churchill said, “Hence, we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks.”

This Sunday I am looking forward to seeing members of the Hellenic community of the greater Montreal area to honour the heroes of World War II.

[Member spoke in Greek]

Forces AVENIR Gala

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Forces AVENIR gala was held earlier this year to recognize and promote student engagement. A young woman from Verdun, Marie-Philippe Gill, earned high praise winning the Avenir trophy for outstanding university student.

An engineering student at École de technologie supérieure in a male-dominated field of study, Marie-Philippe has set out to promote gender equality in the world.

She has been involved with the club Les INGénieuses, encouraging the integration of women in engineering, and is a massive social media influencer through her Girl Knows Tech blog, which is partly how I got to know her.

I personally want to congratulate Marie-Philippe for her success in the world of technology. Her story is a source of inspiration for many young girls in Canada and beyond.

She rocks.

Carbon Pricing

[Larry Miller, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's carbon tax is a classic example of giving with one hand and taking away with the other. With one hand, the Prime Minister is claiming that Canadians will be receiving generous rebates. Meanwhile, the other hand will pickpocket Canadians and deliver a sucker punch to the economy, particularly in rural areas. Only Liberal logic could ever argue that a tax will result in Canadians receiving more money. If the Prime Minister is feeling so generous, why is he taxing Canadians in the first place? The best place for hard-earned money is in the pockets of those who have earned it.

The collection of carbon tax dollars will come at a huge cost while being administered by more and more bureaucracy. I will never understand how the Liberal Party is unable to grasp this concept. Bigger government means more spending.

The Prime Minister and the Liberal government need to stop bribing Canadians with their own money, and he needs to keep his hands out of our pockets.

Election in Saint-Boniface—Saint-Vital

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

Mr. Speaker, Winnipeg held its municipal and school board elections yesterday.

I want to congratulate Brian Bowman on his re-election for a second term as mayor of the city of Winnipeg. Congratulations also to all new and returning city councillors.

I especially want to congratulate those elected in my riding of Saint-Boniface—Saint-Vital, namely Brian Mayes in Saint-Vital, Matthieu Allard in Saint-Boniface, Markus Chambers in St. Norbert-Seine River, and Shawn Nason in Transcona.

I look forward to working collaboratively with the mayor and all of city council to improve Winnipeg's infrastructure, build new housing, support public and active transportation, and help develop strategies to partner with Winnipeg's growing urban indigenous population.

I also want to congratulate all the school board trustees who were elected to the Commission scolaire franco-manitobaine and the Louis Riel School Division.

We thank all the candidates for presenting their vision for the city of Winnipeg and the province of Manitoba.

Housing

[Tracey Ramsey, NDP, Essex, ON]

Mr. Speaker, our country is suffering from a lack of housing, and rural communities, likes ours in Essex, are paying the price of extreme inaction by governments to address this basic human right. Safe and affordable housing is one of the most important factors affecting our health and well-being.

I want to share the words of Joyce Zuk, executive director of Family Services Windsor-Essex. She said that the homelessness crisis that we see across Essex County should surprise no one, since it has been more than 20 years since we have had an investment in affordable housing. It will take years for our community to catch up and build enough affordable housing units. In the meantime, we need to also focus on those whose housing is precarious, those who are one paycheque away from losing their housing or who are living in housing that is consuming more than 30% of their income.

This is a call to action.

Shamefully, the Liberals' housing strategy is asking people to just wait and see until after the next election.

A right to housing goes beyond a roof over our heads. For people in Essex, we cannot wait. We need action now.

Carbon Pricing

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this week the Prime Minister announced that he will be forcing Canadians living in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick to pay his carbon tax.

In Oshawa, people commute as far away as Toronto every working day, relying on their personal vehicles to get to work on time. A round trip from Oshawa to Toronto is approximately 122 kilometres. This will cost commuters driving their cars approximately $12 per day. Over the course of a working year, that works out to approximately $3,150 paid for gasoline. With an additional 11¢ per litre, that expense will rise to over $3,500. That means that if prices remain the same over the course of a year, the Liberal tax grab will cost the average Oshawa commuter an additional $350 in that year, and gas prices are likely to increase that cost.

With a payout of the Liberal cash grab sitting at a lowly $12.50 a month, Canadians are left paying more than they will receive back from the Liberal government's election gimmick.

The Netherlands

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Mr. Speaker, today is a special day for us, as we witnessed the first official address to our Canadian Parliament by a Dutch Prime Minister, the hon. Mark Rutte.

As a Canadian of Dutch heritage, I want to highlight the importance of Canada's friendship with the Netherlands. In 1945, during the liberation of the Netherlands, more than 7,600 Canadians died and were buried on Dutch soil. Following the liberation of Holland, my parents immigrated to Canada, along with 160,000 others. Today there are more than one million Canadians of Dutch descent living in Canada.

Many Canadians may not realize that not only do we have a rich history and a large Dutch community, but trade between Canada and the Netherlands has more than tripled over the past 10 years, and it will continue to grow with the ratification of CETA.

I encourage all my hon. colleagues and all Canadians to learn more about the rich history of our two countries, both economically and culturally. May we always remain allies and friends.

Carbon Pricing

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal high-tax hypocrisy is back. We all remember when the finance minister brought in massive new tax increases on small businesses but exempted the Prime Minister's multi-million dollar trust fund inheritance and his own billion dollar family business from any increases. We all remember when they raised taxes on the middle class by $800 a family but collected less from the wealthiest 1%.

Why is it with the carbon tax, it is once again more high-tax hypocrisy from the Liberal government?

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

Mr. Speaker, I am extremely pleased to stand up in this House and say that polluting will no longer be free. We know there is a cost to pollution. We are seeing extreme weather events across this country, from forest fires in British Columbia to droughts and floods across the Prairies to people literally dying of extreme heat. We need to take action on climate change, and we are going to do it in a way that makes sense. A family of four in Ontario will receive $307 back for climate action expenses. That is more than they will pay. We have a plan to grow the economy. We have a plan to tackle the environment. We have a plan to tackle—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Order. I remind members that the time to speak is when they have been recognized.

The hon. member for Carleton.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Here we go again, Mr. Speaker. The Liberals have a separate deal for special interests that have powerful lobbyists. It says right here in their own background document there will be a separate pricing system for industrial facilities. They will get a 90% exemption from this Liberal carbon tax, while small businesses, soccer moms and suburban commuters will have to pay the tax on 100% of the energy they consume.

Why is it that with this Liberal high-tax hypocrisy, those that emit the most pay the least?

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

Mr. Speaker, let us be perfectly clear. There is a cost to pollution, and everyone will pay the price for pollution. That includes large industry. On the other side, large industry will pay nothing, because the Conservatives do not believe there is a cost to pollution. They think polluting should be free. The system we are following for trade-exposed industry is the same followed in Quebec, in British Columbia, in California and in Europe. It creates the incentive for industry to reduce emissions but to stay competitive and keep good jobs in Canada.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, yes, in all those jurisdictions the minister just mentioned, the government wins and taxpayers lose. That has been the experience in every jurisdiction where there is a carbon tax. People pay more so governments can spend more, and that is the case with this same plan. According to the government's own briefing documents, the current government will collect more in taxes than it gives back in rebates, which means it is impossible for taxpayers to be made whole. Why is it targeting soccer moms, suburban commuters and seniors with this high-tax grab?

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

Mr. Speaker, we understand that climate change is real. We understand that there is a cost right now, and Canadians are paying it. Unlike the party opposite, which thinks polluting should be free, which has no plan to tackle pollution, we have a plan.

Let us talk about what people are saying about our plan. The president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada said:

We support the price mechanism because it provides the economic incentive for consumers to change their behaviour and for businesses to invest in technologies that progressively reduce their emissions over time.

Tracy Snoddon, from C.D. Howe, stated, “carbon pricing continues to be the most cost-effective option for achieving emissions reductions—”

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

For Kathleen Wynne too.