Debates of Nov. 27th, 2018

Government Response to Petitions

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

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to five petitions.

Public Accounts

[Kevin Sorenson, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 54th report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, entitled, “Report 5—Socio-Economic Gaps on First Nations Reserves—Indigenous Services Canada, of the 2018 Spring Reports of the Auditor General of Canada”.

Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.

Business of the House

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

Mr. Speaker, I believe if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent for the following motion:

That, notwithstanding any Standing Order or usual practice of the House, any recorded division deferred until Wednesday, November 28, 2018, immediately before the time provided for Private Members' Business be deferred anew to immediately after the time provided for oral questions that day.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Does the hon. member have the unanimous consent of the House to propose the motion?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

The House has heard the terms of the motion. Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

(Motion agreed to)

Firearms

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition signed by Canadians from several ridings, including the Bay of Quinte, Kingston and the Islands, and Cambridge. Petitioners call on the House of Commons to respect the rights of law-abiding firearms owners and reject the Prime Minister's plan to waste taxpayers' money studying a ban on guns that are already banned.

Pharmacare

[MaryAnn Mihychuk, Liberal, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I have four petitions to present today. The first one is from the residents of Kildonan—St. Paul, to draw attention of the House of Commons to the issue of amending the Canada Health Act, by adding prescription medications prescribed by a licensed practitioner to the definition of “covered services” in accordance with established formulary, and develop a universal, evidence-based sustainable public drug plan that contains purchasing power to secure the best available pricing, a list of essential medicines addressing priority health needs, and the ability to expand a comprehensive permanent plan that would promote the health and well-being of all Canadians.

Health

[MaryAnn Mihychuk, Liberal, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Mr. Speaker, secondly, I have a petition from the residents of Kildonan—St. Paul and other ridings asking that we ensure fair access to health care for north Winnipeg, capital region. Petitioners urge the provincial government to reverse its decision to close the emergency rooms in north Winnipeg.

Infrastructure

[MaryAnn Mihychuk, Liberal, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the third petition relates to infrastructure. The residents of Canada and Kildonan—St. Paul call on the Government of Canada to make the extension linking Chief Peguis Trail from Main Street west to Brookside Boulevard an immediate priority.

Ukraine

[MaryAnn Mihychuk, Liberal, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Mr. Speaker, my final petition is that the residents of Canada, and in particular Kildonan—St. Paul, call on us to grant Ukrainian nationals with biometric passports visa-free travel to Canada for periods of stay up to 90 days, given Canada's long-standing relationship with Ukraine.

Labelling of Genetically Modified Foods

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

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition signed by hundreds of people from the greater Montreal area. They say that genetically modified foods are not labelled in Canada. Internationally, 65 governments require GMO labelling.

Public opinion polls have shown that the vast majority of Canadians support this measure, that consumers have the right to know what is in their food, and that more and more genetically modified foods are being sold in Canada.

The petitioners are calling on the House of Commons to adopt Bill C-291, which was introduced by my colleague from Sherbrooke and would make the labelling of genetically modified foods mandatory.

Questions on the Order Paper

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

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

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

Bill C-86—Time Allocation Motion

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

moved:

That, in relation to Bill C-86, A second Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 27, 2018 and other measures, not more than one further sitting day shall be allotted to the consideration of the report stage of the said bill and not more than one sitting day shall be allotted to the consideration of the third reading stage of the said bill; and

That fifteen minutes before the expiry of the time provided for Government Orders on the day allotted to the consideration at report stage and on the day allotted to the consideration at the third reading stage of the said bill, any proceedings before the House shall be interrupted, if required for the purpose of this Order, and in turn every question necessary for the disposal of the stage of the bill then under consideration shall be put forthwith and successively without further debate or amendment.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Pursuant to Standing Order 67.1, there will now be a 30-minute question period. I invite hon. members who wish to ask questions to rise in their places so the Chair has some idea of the number of members who wish to participate in this question period.

The hon. member for Carleton.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the finance minister is now limiting debate on his massive 800-page omnibus budget bill, so I have some questions for him if he has the courage to stand up in his place and answer those questions.

The deficit is three times what he promised this year. He said it would be about $6 billion during the election campaign, and instead it is $18 billion. Next year, the budget was supposed to balance itself. That is only a month from now, 2019. That was the year we were supposed to be deficit-free. That tiny, temporary deficit was supposed to be gone. Now, the government admits not only will it not be gone, it will be bigger next year than it is this year as this Prime Minister stacks another $20 billion on the national credit card.

When governments use deficit spending to buy products and services in a tight economy, they drive up prices for consumers. When they go out and borrow $20 billion more a year, they compete with homeowners and consumers for credit, and drive up interest rates. In other words, deficits not only drive up taxes tomorrow, they drive up the cost of living today.

Therefore, will the finance minister tell the House how much his massive deficits are driving up interest rates on Canadians trying to pay their mortgages?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Minister of Employment]

Mr. Speaker, I am glad to have the opportunity to talk about our record in the three short years since we had the privilege of forming government.

After 10 years of Conservative inaction, we committed to Canadians that we would invest in the middle class and that we would help grow our economy. We have delivered on that promise through the implementation of the Canada child benefit that has raised well over 300,000 children out of poverty and through the middle-class tax cut that cut taxes for nine million middle-class Canadians and raised them on the richest 1%. The average Canadian family is $2,000 better off now than under the Harper Conservatives.

The party opposite likes to talk about its support for small business, but it is actually our government that cut taxes for small businesses from 11% to 9%, meaning small business owners will have, on average, $1,200 more to reinvest in their businesses. That is real support for small business and job creators, which, I might add, have added over half a million full-time jobs in the three short years since we formed government.

We are very pleased with our record. We are very proud of this particular piece of legislation and the work that we are doing to grow our economy.

[Anne Minh-Thu Quach, NDP, Salaberry—Suroît, QC]

Madam Speaker, a time allocation motion for such a massive bill is unacceptable. This bill is 850 pages long, amends seven acts, and more.

The Liberals always spoke out so fiercely against bills this size when the previous government introduced them. Back then, the bills were about 300 pages long. This budget bill is almost three times longer.

The government is also silencing members who wish to have their say on this bill. We had barely any time to debate it. I believe we had two days, and now time is up. The NDP asked the government to split the bill so we could analyze it and take the time we need. I am sure most of the Liberal members have not had time to unpack even one-fifth of this bill.

How can the minister possibly think this is an appropriate and democratic way to proceed?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Madam Speaker, Canadians elected us to deliver on an ambitious agenda, which we are doing. This bill has been debated extensively in the House. In fact, there has been more than 15 hours of debate at second reading and report stage, which includes 22 Conservative members, eight NDP members and one member from the Bloc Québécois. At committee stage, it was studied by four separate committees. There were eight meetings, during which more than 45 witnesses spoke. We have accepted some amendments as a result of that careful deliberation. Canadians expect us to continue on our ambitious agenda and that is exactly what we are doing today.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Madam Speaker, the broken promise made during the last election campaign to run small deficits and come back to balance is obviously something that was thrown out the window in the very early days of the current government.

The small business tax reduction was something Conservatives put on the books to do and Liberals chose not to do it until they were pressured by small business itself. Because they wanted to increase taxation on small business, small business rose up and made them reverse what they were going to do. That is the reality of the situation.

The reality of the situation is the Prime Minister said the budget will balance itself and yet Liberals cannot answer the basic question of when the budget will balance itself. These are fundamental promises made to people during election campaigns and yet Liberals come here and try to spin it, saying their desire to tax and spend is for the greater good of the Canadian public. It is not for the greater good. When will they balance the budget?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Madam Speaker, I find it hilarious that the member used the phrase “put on the books to do”. Conservatives had a decade to do this and clearly they did not. We, in fact, are the party that moved forward with a commitment to support small business and are implementing those commitments.

Conservatives made a commitment to grow the economy and a decade of inaction led to a stagnation of the economy, where fewer jobs were created and businesses and our economy struggled. We now have one of the fastest growing economies in the G7. The unemployment rate is the lowest that we have seen in 40 years and there is wage growth. We are seeing all kinds of positive economic growth as a result of our ambitious agenda that we will continue to deliver for Canadians.