Debates of Nov. 29th, 2018

Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the member for New Westminster—Burnaby is absolutely correct. It happens all too often. I can live with motions or amendments being voted down, as long as there is a fulsome debate so we can hear both sides of the argument in full and at least consider some amendments and work in a more collegial manner. In some committees, that is possible, and in others less so. To the credit of the government, there are government caucus members who have accepted amendments at other committees. However, I would say it is an infinitesimally small number of amendments. In a case like this, I do not think there are any political points members are trying to score either way.

It is during the questioning of officials that we sometimes discover an inequity in the system. It is not an intentional inequity. It is simply an accumulation of policy decisions and legislative changes made over time that lead us into situations where we may realize that we have accumulated legislative measures and regulatory ideas that have now built inequity into the system. In this particular case, there is a good case to be made that we have inequitable bereavement leave that discriminates against fathers who have lost a child as well as mothers after the 17th week.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am going to go to the bill itself. The member made reference to the province of Alberta and the price of oil. Obviously, that is of great concern to the government. I would like to think it is of concern to all members of Parliament. Where I take exception is that the Conservatives have consistently tried to pin blame on the government because of policy decisions. I would ask the member to recognize that the core of the problem, as I see it, is that 99% of our commodity is going through the United States. That has been the case since Stephen Harper actually became the prime minister of Canada, and it never changed.

The opportunity to expand our markets was there during Stephen Harper's time. Now, for the first time, we have a commitment that engages Ottawa in taking ownership of a pipeline in order for us to expand the market. That is far more than what Stephen Harper ever did.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the approach the member has suggested and the measure he is speaking of, the expropriation and purchase of Trans Mountain, is, to quote Ronald Reagan, “I'm from the government and I'm here to help”. It is patently untrue. The vast majority of Albertans would say that if the government got out of our way, we could get the job done.

It is also not factually correct to say that there were no pipelines or infrastructure built to tidewater, because in fact, the pipelines that were approved under the previous government led to Cushing and from there to Freeport, Texas. It is kind of like believing that if a road is built towards a highway, but because the highway is not on the direct road and the overpasses are not directly connected, the off-ramps do not count or do not exist. That is a patently untrue argument to make.

Pipelines are connected throughout North America. What the parliamentary secretary is suggesting is that somehow these pipelines that were approved by the previous government, and built by the private sector, lead to nowhere. It is an admission of failure for the government to spend $4.5 billion, and another $8 billion in construction in the future, to build something the private sector wanted to build.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, by his own admission, the member for Carleton has asked a simple question well over 400 times, either through committee or the House of Commons in question period, asking the government when the budget will be balanced.

The government members deflect, defer and do not answer the question. I want to ask the hon. member why that question is so important, not just to the Canadian economy but to our competitiveness and to future generations as well.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the member draws our attention to the fact that the date for balancing the budget is now difficult to even predict, because many finance department documents and budgetary documents do not quite match up. It does not make a lot of sense.

To me, it is very simple. The stewardship of the financial resources of the public treasury should be, if not mission number one, mission number two of the Government of Canada. Today's debt is tomorrow's taxes. It is leaving it to future generations to clean up the financial mess the government is leaving behind.

Let us return to the Yiddish proverb for a moment just so the member can hear it again: “From success to failure is one step; from failure to success is a long road.”

The government is failing to account for the true cost of the carbon tax and the cost of not balancing the budget today, and that long road ahead of fixing the messes and the failures of leadership will probably take two or three generations to ensure that our great-grandkids are not stuck with the bill.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am very disappointed to rise in the House to speak to Bill C-86. I think the disappointment I feel about the promise of the government in 2015 versus what it has delivered recently is felt acutely by many Canadians. Hopes were high in 2015 that things would change.

Certainly the Prime Minister, in his admittedly very effective campaign, talked about how things would change in Ottawa, how parliamentarians and Parliament would be respected and get back to doing the work we are paid to do on behalf of Canadians from coast to coast to coast after the Harper years.

In the Harper years we saw a systematic denial of the ability of parliamentarians to get amendments and legislation through and systematic dumping of two or three hundred page omnibus bills in the the House of Commons. Then there was fairly systematic recourse to the “guillotine”, as we say in parliamentary procedure, meaning that parliamentarians were not able to speak to and address their constituents' concerns on the floor of the House of Commons.

Those days seem almost quaint now. The offence we took at the Harper government's use of 200 page budget omnibus bills, the dumping of a whole range of unrelated factors into omnibus legislation and forcing it through the House of Commons in a week or two, seem almost quaint now as we come into 2018, almost 2019. I say this because of what the Liberal government has done instead of keeping its commitments to make parliamentarians get back to the work we are paid and asked to do on behalf of Canadians, to scrutinize and improve legislation, to work through and hear witnesses and make sure that everything that we pass through the House is the best possible legislation and does what it is purported to do.

Instead of putting back in place a Parliament that would function well, one where there was consultation with opposition parties, what we have seen saw from the Prime Minister has been a doubling down. I will come back to that later in my speech, because what we have seen over the last few months in particular really goes to the character of the government and the Prime Minister and finance minister.

Bill C-86 is the living embodiment of everything that has gone wrong with the government over the last three years. Despite the high promise and firm commitment by the Liberals before they came to Parliament, three years later we now see in Bill C-86 another example of how the government is no different from the government before it, but even worse in many respects. Instead of 200 or 300 page omnibus budget implementation bills that throw everything but the kitchen sink into one piece of legislation, we now have almost 900 pages, and with Bill C-86, some seven stand-alone pieces of legislation being included.

Instead of having the week or two of parliamentary scrutiny that we had under the Harper regime, which in itself was inadequate, we now have one or two days of consideration before the bulldozer is brought in and parliamentary rights and privileges are simply pushed aside. Instead of the government's being willing to accept the expert testimony of witnesses and to work with opposition parties to improve legislation, we see a government that is purporting to push legislation through that it knows is inadequate and will lead to court challenges.

That is the sad case with Bill C-86. Under the Harper regime it happened half a dozen times. The Conservative government rammed legislation through the House after a week or two of consideration, knowing that ultimately it would be decided in the courts. Half a dozen times the courts rejected the legislation because it was so shoddily made, because the government refused to hear from witnesses.

Bill C-86 has not been adopted yet, but the government is indicating, with all of its strength, that it will refuse to heed any advice or counsel that would improve this legislation in any way. The Liberals say they are just going to force it through, and we know now that women will be forced to return to the courts on the pay equity issue. It is a sad commentary that a government that knows that what it is doing is bad is relying on spin over substance. The Liberals have been saying in the House that they have brought forward pay equity legislation. The fact that it is full of flaws, the fact that witnesses identified the flaws, and the fact that the NDP systematically brought forward amendments that would fix the flaws so that we would have solid pay equity legislation are all tossed aside.

The government feels that spinning the point that it has put forward pay equity legislation will override the sad substance of what is in Bill C-86 as currently constituted. This will force women back to the courts again so that they can get the right of equal pay for work of equal value. It is incredible that a government would do that. It really beggars belief that a government that knows that what it is doing is wrong still intends to do it anyway, because its members think they can spin their way out of it.

That is why I say that C-86 is the living embodiment of the dashed illusions and dashed hopes of Canadians, who back in 2015 were quite enthusiastic about the government. They felt that the government would make a difference and that it would be a change from the Harper regime. Three years later, so many Canadians, including people in my riding who voted Liberal back in 2015 and were so enthusiastic, now only say that they might perhaps vote Liberal. The Liberals will say that in the opinion polls they are still doing well, but what they do not understand is that there is a difference in the strength of intensity of belief. The reality is that in the next few months there will be a debate on a whole range of government decisions, and the traditional Liberal sense of entitlement and arrogance that seems to have re-established itself after three brief years in power is going to encounter that reaction from Canadians.

Indeed, the living embodiment of Liberal broken promises contained within this massive budget, Bill C-86, has planted the seeds of what could well be, in the coming 11 months, a strong reaction from Canadians that the government does not deserve another mandate. We do not want to go backwards to the Harper regime years, but Canadians, and certainly my constituents, feel tired of a government that makes promises and then promptly breaks them.

The biggest flaw with Bill C-86 is what is not in it and what could have been in it. I will include within that the mini budget that we heard last week, which was so out of touch with Canadian realities. It was so out of touch with Canadians struggling with profoundly deep debt loads, the the highest debt loads in our history and the highest debt loads of families in any industrialized country on this planet. Those debt loads were prompted by government policies over the last 30 or 40 years, the refusal to provide supports for affordable housing or pharmacare, the refusal to provide supports for families.

What we saw, both in Bill C-86 and the mini budget, was a cascade of money for corporate CEOs. The government seems unable and unwilling to address any of the concerns of regular folks right across the length and breadth of this land. To do a quick accounting, in just the last few months, the cascade of money includes $4.5 billion for an old leaky pipeline, twice its asset value. Despite that, the government did not flinch at throwing $4.5 billion into that purchase. Now we are seeing the construction costs of that pipeline again going up, being anywhere between $11 billion to $15 billion, but the government is not flinching. The finance minister does not even have a firm estimate of the costs. He is going with Kinder Morgan's estimate. That is most probably another $15 billion on top of the $4.5 billion.

In the mini budget last week, we saw $14 billion being given to corporate CEOs. The Liberal members will say that it is going to revitalize the economy, but when we look at the budget documents—because that is what we do in the NDP; we read through the documents—we see what the mini budget actually aimed to do was to accelerate tax writeoffs, so it included tax gifts for CEOs for very plush private jets and stretch limousines. I questioned Finance officials about this, because I wanted to be sure I understood it. I asked if a stretch limousine was covered by this accelerated writeoff, this big tax gift given by the Liberal government. They said it was. I asked if private jets were covered. They said yes. That is another $14 billion, and I am not even talking about the over $20 billion a year that goes to overseas tax havens.

Mr. Speaker, as you will recall, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, who is a hero, along with everyone else who works in that office, struggled for three years under the Harper regime, and another three years under the Liberal regime, before he was able to get the tax data that will allow us, for the very first time next spring, to have a conclusive and comprehensive evaluation of the amount of money that the wealthiest Canadians and Canada's most profitable corporations are squirrelling away offshore.

Small business owners, trades people and single mothers are paying their taxes, and Canadians are proud to do that because it is part of the character of our country that we provide for funds in common that are then to be invested to support all of us. However, that is not the way some of Canada's wealthiest and most profitable corporations have acted. The estimates go up to $20 billion, but the PBO could well find much more than that.

Let us do a quick accounting. We have $4.5 billion, another $15 billion, and another $14 billion on top of that. That is over $20 billion, and we are well over $50 billion without even pausing to take a breath or a sip of water.

What is not in Bill C-86 and not in the mini budget? Universal single-payer pharmacare was not in it. I have mentioned this before and I will mention it again. Every day, Parliamentarians pass Jim, begging on the bridge between the Chateau Laurier and the East Block. He is begging because there is no single-payer universal pharmacare system in our country. He has to beg for $500 a month. He lives on scant savings and a little money, but he has to beg so he can get the medication that keeps him alive.

Business owners pay $6 billion a year for drug plans, and yet we know that with our universal medicare program, that is a competitive advantage. That is $3,000 per employee per year, as a result of Canadian businesses not having to pay into the medical plans that American businesses have to pay into.

Pharmacare is a win-win for everyone, and the PBO indicated that it would be. It would represent $4 billion in savings overall for Canadians. However, there is nothing in Bill C-86 and nothing in the mini budget that addresses the crucial difficulties that people like Jim are facing. If any member of Parliament from the government side in any way is skeptical, they can just go to talk to Jim. He is out there now, begging for money so he can get the medication he needs to stay alive. It is incredible that in a wealthy country like this, a country where the Liberal government has been willing to fritter away $50 billion over the last few months with no hesitation, the government is unwilling to provide support for pharmacare.

Nothing in Bill C-86 addresses the housing crisis we are living in. It is incredible what Canadians are forced to live through in this housing crisis. Every time I mention housing, the Liberals start heckling and reacting very badly, but we are talking about real Canadians who are suffering profound difficulties.

I have spoken in the House about John, a senior who has ended up homeless and is in a homeless shelter now because of the lack of affordable housing in the country. I have talked about Heather. I have talked about Raj and Wade. I can mention so many stories.

Here is another one, and this comes from last night.

I turned left as I exited the Wellington Building last night and there was a woman, who I will call Yolande, sleeping outside under the canopy at the building. Every MP who left last night would have seen her. It twisted my gut to see her there. I am a parliamentarian. Despite the fact that there are 40 New Democrats here, we have been unable to get the Liberal government to understand there is a problem.

Canadians are getting increasingly frustrated with the Liberal government's inability to recognize that we are in a profound crisis. Thousands of Canadians are sleeping on the streets in our towns and cities. People like Yolande in Ottawa are sleeping under canopies. People are sleeping downtown on top of steam vents, or in parks, or in entryways of stores that have closed for the day. They are desperately seeking shelter for the night. That should not happen in a country as wealthy as Canada, full stop. Nothing in Bill C-86 addresses the profound crisis we are living through.

Nothing in Bill C-86 addresses the profound crisis in our education system for indigenous children who are underfunded and are living in appalling conditions. They go to schools that belie belief. The average is $6,500 to $10,000 less per student per year for students in an indigenous school as opposed to kids in other schools. Nothing in Bill C-86 addresses that at all.

It is not just the Liberals approach in Bill C-86. It is not just the glaring misplaced sense of priorities. It is the fact that witnesses have said, as they did with pay equity, that the bill needs to be improved otherwise women will have to go back to court. It is a sense from the Liberal government that it will not change it, that it does not care.

That is the biggest part of my profound disappointment, after three years of the Liberal government. I have a profound of sense of disappointment in the lack of an understanding of priorities, the sense of entitlement that somehow being able to spin words and say that pay equity is in the bill is the most important thing, not whether it is done right, not whether women have to return to court. It is the Liberals overall overall sense that it is fine, because they can spin it and tell everybody that they put equity legislation through, regardless of whether women have to go back to court or not.

It is like the excise tax that was imposed on medical cannabis users. The Liberals were stunned when I started to ask questions about it. Finance ministry officials had to look into it and realized that the excise tax had been imposed on medical cannabis users, 250,000 Canadians who need medical cannabis for pain management. They are often in intense pain.

We tried to fix that last spring and the Liberals said, no. They did not care. We tried to fix it again last week in Bill C-86, and Liberal members again rejected the amendments on eliminating the excise tax on medical cannabis, as they did with every other amendment that came from the opposition. This means that medical cannabis users join other Canadians who cannot afford their medication. It is just a lack of empathy, full stop.

I understand the Prime Minister comes from a life of privilege as does the finance minister. I do not begrudge them that and I do not think any Canadian would. However, it is the lack of empathy, the lack of understanding of how their policies are making, demonstrably, the lives of so many Canadians worse that I and the rest of my party decry.

Bill C-86 could have been improved. It should have had other measures that addressed the concerns of Canadians. Because it does not, I will be voting against it.

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

Mr. Speaker, it is not really a question of whether the glass is half full or half empty. Regardless of how much we take out of it, it is full. I am not thirsty, so I will not take a sip of it right now.

The reality is that the national housing strategy, which is a $40-billion investment over the next 10 years, is a re-profiling of the investments we have set to make and we now have signed bilaterals with the provinces to lock it in and deliver it.

What the member opposite fails to understand and what his criticism continually highlights is that he actually has not read past budget documents. If he had, he would know that in 2016, we invested $5.73 billion in the housing system. We did that by doubling our transfers to the provinces and tripling our funding for homelessness. That $5.7 billion is not in this budget implementation plan because it was in the previous one. We are not going to do it every time just to make the member happy.

This $5.73 billion, I might add, is four times more than the party opposite promised in its last campaign, a party that thinks the housing crisis started yesterday, apparently. Its plan for a budget this year was to put zero dollars into affordable rental housing and only $10 million toward homelessness, whereas we have $100 million and $5.73 billion.

Could the member opposite please explain to me why he thinks last year's budget implementation budget should be debated today instead of the one in front of us?

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, all members of Parliament had to battle Paul Calandra under the Harper regime, who would say things that simply were not true. It got to the point that it was an embarrassment to—

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. What I just said is true and to suggest that it is not is to suggest that I am not telling the truth, which is to say that I am lying. I would ask the member opposite to withdraw that.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I am afraid that is more debate that it is a point of order.

The hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Paul Calandra did exactly that kind of thing every time it was pointed out he was simply wrong.

The member for Vancouver Kingsway showed the member for Spadina—Fort York the platform this week, so he has the figures right in front of him. He knows it was a $3-billion investment, yet he continues to say something that he knows is not true. He knows that the billions of dollars he pretends has rained down to address the housing crisis is simply not true either.

This is what I say about the character of the government and the Prime Minister, their inability to distinguish the spin or whatever they decide to manufacture as truth and actual reality.

The actual reality is that the number of homeless in the country is growing. The number of poor children in the country is growing. There are two ways the Liberal government and the parliamentary secretary could react to that. One is to say, yes, that is true, that they will withdraw the $14 billion they gave to corporate CEOs last week and invest it in housing.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Order, please. I will remind the two members from the NDP and the Liberal Party who are talking to each other while the hon. member is trying to answer his question that it is making it very difficult for him to concentrate and for us to hear what he has to say.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. As much as I am loath to agree with my friend from Spadina—Fort York on anything, it is a matter of order, not a matter of debate, that no one can accuse a member of lying in the House. Members ought to be called—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

It is a matter for debate. No one accused anyone of lying. They were arguing the truth, which often happens in the chamber. Someone has to call someone a liar or something similar. There are different ways of getting around things, not that we definitively agree on that, but we will see where we go from there.

The hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby can finish his answer. He has very little time left.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, my point was that Paul Calandra was used as an enforcer on the floor of the House of Commons. The member for Spadina—Fort York is doing exactly the same thing.

The reality is that putting things forward that members know are not accurate information is not something they should do on the floor of the House of Commons. Whether the Conservatives or the Liberals are upset by that, the New Democrats will continue to do our work and put forward the truth. Our role in the House of Commons is to read through this document, as we did, and provide truthful, important and accurate amendments that would improve the bill. The fact that the Liberals refused any amendments from the opposition says a lot more about them than it does about any of us.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I disagree with the member characterizing someone disagreeing as being an enforcer, not that I agree with much said by the member for Spadina—Fort York. However, the spirit of this is supposed to be to authentically have conversations in a reasonable spirit.

Nonetheless, I want to ask my colleague about the issue of the media bailout. I genuinely do not know the NDP's position, so I would be very curious to hear what he has to say about that.

We are concerned when public money is given to the media. Frankly, I think many in the media are concerned this will raise questions about their independence. Journalists do important work. However, when the government is intervening to make evaluations about who gets money and who does not, it raises serious problems and questions.

I wonder if my colleague agrees, recognizing the important role of an independent media, that we should not be having a government appointed panel handing out government dollars in this fashion.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the member will not like the answer, so he may get up on another point of order.

Over 10 years, the Harper regime did nothing about the web giants as they came into our communities, Facebook and Google, and sucked up advertising revenue. In my communities of Burnaby and New Westminster, we lost half of the weekly newspapers because of that. Companies can now advertise on Facebook and not have to pay taxes in Canada. They do not have to pay for pensions, or employees or anything. Therefore, of course they can undercut traditional advertising means such as our media.

The Harper regime did absolutely nothing to address this chronic problem, even though we asked question after question in the House and put it forward as opposition motions. The Liberal government has done nothing since it took power.

Ultimately, the media fund is an important lifesaver to the media that remains in the country. What we need is a comprehensive review of our tax system so the web giants cannot get away with undercutting Canadian businesses.

That came out of the pre-budget hearings as well. We heard many people in the business community ask how Canada could have a tax structure that would allow foreign companies to come in, not pay any taxes at all and compete for Canadian businesses. This has been a long-standing problem in the country. It started under the Harper regime, has continued under the Liberal government, and it needs to be addressed.

I think this will be part of what Canadians will be considering in 10 month's time, when they talk through our federal election in 2019. They will be concerned about members of Parliament who were not willing to apply a level playing field in the tax system so Canadian companies could compete.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his attempts to amend this bill. The government has repeatedly said that we are all in this together, yet when it comes to tabling bills, it rejects every sensible amendment.

Last night, there was an emergency debate in the House on the energy situation particularly being suffered in the province of Alberta. Almost a year ago exactly, in Bonn, Germany, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change committed that she would finally invest some dollars and have a strategy on an energy transition strategy for workers. Here we are about to go to the next COP on climate and nothing has been invested by the Liberal government.

Could the member speak to what the government could have done to invest in helping our workers, including our oil field workers like those of Iron & Earth, who are proud to be oil field workers but would also like to be trained as well so they can move into the energy efficiency and renewable energy sectors. Why has the federal government put nothing in this budget?

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, by far, that is the best question I have received today. It is a question of substance.

The green energy, or clean energy, market in the United States is exploding. As the member knows, it is estimated by building trades to quadruple over the next decade. Yet, we have unemployed oil and gas workers in Alberta who are crying out for clean energy funding that would allow capped oil wells to take advantage of geothermal. There is immense potential for solar and wind power in Alberta as well and a tremendous ability to transition those oil and gas workers into another sector of the energy field.

Under the past Conservative government as well as under the current Liberal government we have seen complete inaction. That is absolutely tragic. We could be talking about up to a million clean energy jobs with the right investments and we are not seeing any action from the federal government.

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity today to talk about the importance of the intellectual property strategy.

From the beginning, our government has always worked to strengthen Canada's IP laws.

IP incentivizes and rewards intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields, and it is essential to a modern and dynamic economy. In fact, I would argue that it is a fundamental asset of the knowledge economy. IP protections act as an incentive by rewarding creators and inventors for their contribution to the economy in our society. IP enables them to profit from their ideas and their creativity and provides them a mechanism to obtain a return on their investments. IP laws achieve this by granting them exclusive rights, thereby preventing others from making, selling or using the fruits of their labour without their permission.

In addition, the use of IP is correlated with positive economic outcomes. Businesses with a solid understanding of IP and a strong, strategic plan for its use and protection are important contributors to the Canadian economy. In fact, these businesses create jobs that pay, on average, 16% more than businesses with little or no IP. Also, businesses using IP in patent-intensive industries have about eight to 10 times more revenue than those not using IP.

Canada's laws cover many forms of intellectual property, including patents, trademarks, industrial designs and copyrights. Following on budget 2017's commitment, budget 2018 proposes $85.3 million over five years and $10.1 million on an ongoing basis for measures in support of a new intellectual property strategy.

In April 2018, on World IP Day, our government officially launched the IP strategy that will help solidify investments in creativity and innovation, support our efforts to create high-quality jobs and enhance the understanding of the elements necessary to succeed in the global, modern economy.

The IP strategy is an important element of the innovation and skills plan, by fostering an ecosystem that enables businesses to grow to scale. The strategy will ensure that Canadian firms have the awareness and incentive to strategically use IP to grow and compete. The elements of the IP strategy fall under three strategic pillars: the need to increase IP awareness, education and advice; the provision of strategic IP tools for growth; and legislative amendments.

A number of initiatives are under way and planned under the first pillar of IP awareness, education and advice. Most notably is that the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, CIPO, will continue to build on current learning tools and resources and also develop new educational resources to better equip innovators and businesses with the knowledge they need to succeed. Its teams of IP advisers located across Canada work directly with companies and innovators to deliver seminars and participate in innovation and business-related events.

We will be conducting an IP awareness and use survey to identify how Canadians understand and use IP, including groups that have traditionally been less likely to use IP, such as women and indigenous entrepreneurs. The results of the survey will help better meet the needs of these groups.

We will support increased engagement between indigenous people and policy-makers both domestically and internationally by providing support for this engagement, for research and for capacity-building.

We will encourage the creation of IP legal clinics by providing funding to help clinics obtain resources and tools to improve the quality of prior art searches. We see IP legal clinics as a win-win-win, enabling law students to learn more about IP, helping businesses get a sense of their IP needs and facilitating access to the profession that can provide quality IP advice.

Finally, there will be a new team of dedicated IP experts working through existing federal programs to ensure that Government of Canada program officers have the knowledge and capacity to address IP issues and guide program recipients to improve their IP knowledge and savvy. These advisers will supplement, rather than replace, existing IP professionals.

The second pillar of the IP strategy provides some tools to help Canadian businesses make the most of their new-found awareness of IP. First, one of the recurring issues that we heard during the consultation process was the lack of visibility of IP held by federal public institutions and institutions of higher learning. To this end, the IP strategy includes a new online IP marketplace designed to help surface dormant IP that was funded by public institutions.

We also heard about the time that it can take to resolve IP disputes and to get a ruling on a new copyright tariff. We all know that time is money. The IP strategy includes additional resources for the Federal Court to assist in the management of complex litigation, as well as a reform of the Copyright Board.

The additional fiscal support for the Copyright Board and accompanying legislation will make it more efficient and effective. These changes will help rights holders who now better understand the value of the IP they hold by reducing the time they spend fighting over their IP and more time monetizing it.

Canadian technology is cutting edge and should be recognized as such more often. The IP strategy will support enhanced participation of Canadian businesses in the standards-setting process, and encourage the inclusion of Canadian innovations in international standards.

The Standards Council of Canada will work with innovative Canadian companies to leverage their IP during this standards-setting process.

Finally, the last tool will be the development of a patent collective to bring together businesses to facilitate IP outcomes for its members. The patent collective is the coming together of firms to share in IP expertise and strategy, including but not limited to gaining access to a larger collection of patents and IP.

The third pillar involves proposed amendments to key IP laws, notably the Patent Act, the Copyright Act and the Trade-marks Act. The proposed amendments are intended to encourage creation and innovation by either clarifying acceptable behaviours or discouraging actions that have possible negative consequences. The proposed amendments would protect consumers by clarifying that notices that include settlement offers or payment demands do not comply with Canada's copyright notice and notice regime. They would also fulfill the earlier objective of expediting IP disputes by making the Copyright Board's decision-making process more efficient.

Proposed amendments to the Trademarks Act would prevent the abusive use of the trademark regime, such as by applying for registration with the sole intention of seeking remuneration from the legitimate owner of the trademark by creating—

To continue, being the chair of the industry committee, we had lots of conversations with our witnesses. Universities were saying they had a lot of great practices. Businesses were saying that finding access to IP was very challenging.

One of the initiatives that we introduced earlier this year was the $950-million supercluster initiative. Part of that supercluster initiative is having academia and industry come together, to work together, to create jobs and economy, but also to share the intellectual property that is sometimes locked away in places that will never see the light of day.

It is important if we want to grow our economy and if we want to create jobs, to have intellectual property accessible not only to academia but to businesses as well.

When we look at how we are moving forward and the investments we are making, it is so critical that we create an environment where all of our businesses and academia can work together, so that they can thrive and build the economy and grow good, well-paying jobs.

When we look at B.C., for instance, we have the digital supercluster that was awarded to British Columbia. B.C. is already at the forefront of digital media and IP is so critical. When we look at the economic tables, we can tell that currently on digital health care products, our revenues are about half a per cent or about $7 billion. By 2020, it is estimated that the digital health care marketplace in the world will be about $322 billion.

We are trying to create an environment where we get the best minds, the best people, the best research and the best companies that can work together to put us at the forefront of that marketplace. That is where we want to be. Do we want to be behind the eight ball, or do we want to be in front, leading the charge?

We are attracting the best and brightest minds here in Canada. This is what a government should be doing, to be able to lay out the environment where we can all thrive. We heard from all of our witnesses that it is so critically important that we have a national IP strategy and what is proposed in this budget is going to help address those issues. The $85 million over a five-year term will help to grow the landscape of intellectual property and help educate people so that they have an understanding of what that means.

If they do not know what kind of intellectual property is out there, people either have to reinvent the wheel or they have to go through an expensive process. The more we can share intellectual property, the easier it becomes because then they can license it for a short period of time, which allows them to move faster and create the products necessary to grow our economy.

When it comes to intellectual property, we have to look at those three pillars and education is absolutely critical. We need to be able to help people understand the ins and outs of intellectual property.

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

Mr. Speaker, there was an interesting delay in the middle of the member's speech, but things like that happen every day for all of us. I appreciated the grace with which he dealt with that.

As a member who represents a rural and remote riding, one of the challenges of the communities that I represent is looking at ways to be innovative and creative with the lack of Internet access that they have. I think in particular of Campbell River, one of the communities that I am proud to represent. The city itself has built infrastructure within the downtown core to have that very high level of accessibility to fibre. The businesses that the member mentioned, which focus on things that are really IT and meeting those high needs, have actually done that themselves because they simply could not get it any other way.

Could the member explain how we are looking at rural and remote communities to make sure that they get the resources that they need, as they look at their changing economies? The people I represent are extremely innovative. They are doing a lot of amazing things with what they have, but they definitely need to see the support in order to see their communities stabilize and grow in this changing economy.

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Mr. Speaker, a rural broadband strategy is something we have looked at. We know that if we can figure out how to get broadband to rural communities, to the last mile, it will help businesses thrive. We know that absolutely. In budget 2016, we invested $500 million in the connect to innovate program, which helped quite a bit. I believe the CRTC has also invested another $750 million. However, it cannot end there.

When we did our committee report on the broadband strategy, we saw some low-hanging fruit. We saw some things that can help. For instance, can they piggyback on existing infrastructure, such as telephone wires and railway lines? Is there an opportunity for that to happen if we all work collectively together?

Also, some projects might not be viable for large companies. By contrast, smaller companies have the ability to go out into the small, rural communities and actually contribute and deliver the services that are needed. This is part of that strategy.

Earlier this year, the industry minister and the provinces all got together and signed a memorandum of understanding on how to create a national rural broadband strategy. It is absolutely critical, and we absolutely need to move forward. It is a process to get to where we need to go.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, we understand that there is a difference of perspective between the current government and our party about whether or not Canada should run large deficits, especially in the current context. Surely, though, the member would acknowledge that the platform he ran on in the last election promised balanced budgets by this fiscal year. That was a clear commitment. The Prime Minister was very specific about saying that it was set in stone.

We now see the government running away from that commitment, claiming that it promised deficits, which it did. However, it promised limited deficits, up to a point, not unlimited deficits.

Would the member agree that his party has broken its promise with respect to deficits? Would he agree with us that the finance minister should at some point tell Canadians when the Liberals' plan envisions the budget being balanced?

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Mr. Speaker, when we came into power, we looked at the lay of the land and saw what was happening. The investments we are making in this country are critically needed.

When we talk about investment in housing, we are not just making it up. People need to have a home to go to so that they can find a job. I challenge anybody who does not live in a home and does not have a roof over their head to go out and find a job. It is not an easy thing to do, because nobody will want to hire them.

Therefore, the investments we are making, whether in housing, intellectual property or digital superclusters, are designed to help grow our economy and not shrink it. Our country is like a six-cylinder engine firing on two cylinders. We are not going to go very far. We need to make investments that are going to help the other cylinders start to fire, and that is by helping people get a roof over their heads, helping them find jobs, and helping employers who want to hire them. It is creating an environment where people and businesses can thrive.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the member touched on the issue of copyright. I hope he will forgive me, because I know this is not in Bill C-86. It is a question of what we do about the Copyright Modernization Act, which was brought in under the former minister of heritage, James Moore, in the 41st Parliament.

The word “education” was put in there, and it has cost the authors, publishers and creators of this country. They have lost $30 million from poor interpretation. It was not clear when the act was put forward, and I remember telling the minister at the time that it was going to cause confusion. What has happened is that holus-bolus, entire texts are being photocopied without providing copyright, without paying for the use of that material. We are going to lose Canadian content.

I wonder if the member has any thoughts on the direction this is going in. In the short term, Canadian publishers are going to need some financial support to help make up for lost revenue from poor interpretation of an act brought in by the last Parliament.