Debates of Nov. 7th, 2018

Carbon Pricing

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, what we have seen over the past weeks is the Conservatives continue to try and find new angles to muddy the waters on a basic fact. We are choosing to put a price on pollution because we think there is too much pollution and by putting a price on it there will be less of it. That is our plan. We are happy to defend our plan.

What is interesting is the Conservatives refuse to put forward their plan or they simply have no intention of putting forward a plan to fight climate change. What Canadians want to know is this. Where is their plan?

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, only a Liberal would believe that a simple yes or no question could be muddying the waters.

The HST and GST will either be collected on the carbon tax or it will not. The Prime Minister can tell Canadians right now if he will be applying HST and GST on his carbon tax. Yes or no?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we have been laying out the details of our approach on pricing pollution not just for the past few weeks that we have announced the details of it, but over the past—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Order. I am having trouble hearing the answer. It is important to hear the answer, because if members want me to look for things that are unparliamentary or out of order, I have to be able to hear, of course.

Most members in all parties are able to sit through question period and hear things they do not like without interrupting, and so I would ask the rest to join that majority.

The Right Hon. Prime Minister.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it is very simple. Climate change represents perhaps the greatest global threat we are facing as a species. We have a plan to address the impacts of climate change both by growing our economy and protecting our families and the environment.

The Conservatives have no plan and will try all sorts of different ways to distract from the fact they have no plan. We will fight climate change.

Veterans Affairs

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I remember the previous Conservative government that for five years was unable to give a yes or no answer. The current Liberal government, though, is disappointing one community after another, and this time it is veterans.

The government has let a total of $1,037 million promised for the pension programs of our veterans to simply lapse.

Yesterday, the House unanimously approved the motion by my esteemed colleague for Courtenay—Alberni to reallocate the entirety of the funds to veterans programs, but the Liberals are refusing to do just that.

Is the Prime Minister ready to implement the motion of the NDP and finally spend the entirety of the budget promised to our veterans?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, our government is, and continues to be, committed to supporting and honouring Canada's veterans and their families. Unlike the previous government, we ensure that the necessary funding is made available to veterans when and where they need it. That is why we were happy to support the NDP's motion yesterday.

What the Conservatives did in office was to cut services for veterans, including service offices, to create a fake balanced budget for the election.

In three years, we have increased financial supports by over $10 billion, putting more money in veterans' pockets and increasing mental health supports, and we are delivering on the promises we made to veterans and their families.

The Environment

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Mr. Speaker, those are fine words, but we want to see them backed by actions.

Today, more than 400 prominent figures co-signed the Quebec pact for a green transition. Civil society is pledging to take meaningful action to combat climate warming. An emergency debate on the alarming IPCC report was recently held in the House. In spite of all this, the Liberal government continues to believe that words outweigh action.

Will the Prime Minister listen to Quebeckers' pleas and finally implement concrete policies for fighting climate change?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I will get to climate change in a second, but I cannot let that lie, because we have been taking concrete action in standing up for our veterans, whether it is $10 billion for veterans programs and services, whether it is raising financial supports for veterans and their caregivers, whether it is investing in the continuum of mental health services or expanding a range of services available to the families of medically released veterans, or reopening the nine shuttered offices. We have done nothing but act for our veterans.

We are also taking concrete action on fighting climate change, thanks to a plan that puts a price on pollution and that will show the world that Canada is a leader in addressing climate change while creating good jobs and economic growth.

International Trade

[Tracey Ramsey, NDP, Essex, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister does not even seem to care about signing away Canadian jobs by signing onto the USMCA. The government has failed to ensure that aluminum and steel tariffs are lifted, risking the loss of at least 6,000 jobs, the jobs of people who are here on Parliament Hill today.

Aluminum workers from Kitimat to Saguenay are desperately trying to defend their jobs, families and communities. Why will the Liberals not listen to the workers' call and tell the U.S. administration that Canada will not ratify the USMCA until Trump drops his illegal tariffs?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I disagree with the member's first statement, in that we know that the USMCA is creating and securing good jobs for Canadians right across this country.

However, if she does not believe me, allow me to read a quote from the NDP member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie. To the Canadian negotiators, he said “I just want to congratulate everybody in this room for the fantastic job that you did.” Then he said that the USMCA is “the best deal possible and protect workers all around this country”.

We agree with the member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie.

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, is anyone surprised that the Liberals do not want to talk about workers who are losing their jobs. Dairy farmers are not happy. Medication prices are going to explode. Steel and aluminum workers cannot believe the government signed a deal that will continue to put their jobs at risk.

Aluminum workers from Unifor are here today on the Hill to ask the Prime Minister not to sign the USMCA until tariffs are off the table.

What is the Prime Minister going to tell those workers right here, right now?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Once again, Mr. Speaker, we see a situation in which the NDP says one thing in the House, but another behind closed doors.

The member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie called the USMCA the best deal possible. He acknowledged that it is going to protect workers across the country. We know that we are always going to protect workers. That is what we told steel and aluminum workers, and that is what we told dairy sector workers. That is what we are telling everyone across the country, and we are going to do what we say.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

I am afraid I have to remind the hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby and some others near him not to interrupt when someone else has the floor. I would appreciate his agreement with that.

The hon. member for Richmond—Arthabaska.

Privacy

[Alain Rayes, Conservative, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

Mr. Speaker, for the past two weeks, the Prime Minister has been stubbornly defending access to the personal and confidential data of 500,000 Canadians without their consent.

The situation is so disturbing that the Privacy Commissioner has launched an investigation. A petition was started just six days ago calling on the government to put a stop to this, and 19,000 people have signed it already.

Will the Prime Minister finally listen to Canadians and put an immediate stop to this serious invasion of people's privacy?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we take the protection of Canadians' privacy seriously, as does Statistics Canada.

Statistics Canada has been in contact with the Privacy Commissioner about this pilot project, which has not yet been launched. We will keep working to ensure that protecting privacy remains a priority for Statistics Canada and our government.

I do want to point out that the Conservatives are using the same arguments for this issue as they did to justify getting rid of the long form census. Canadians were disappointed in that decision and—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Order. The hon. member for Richmond—Arthabaska.

[Alain Rayes, Conservative, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister sounds like a broken record, but here is what Canadians really think.

Aline is wondering what the government is up to and whether it knows the meaning of personal and confidential. Marcel thinks it is sad the way we are being led the by Prime Minister's government. Catherine says that it is totally unacceptable and she is against this approach. She thinks this is very risky and intrusive.

We get hundreds and hundreds of messages like that.

For the umpteenth time in two weeks, I ask: will the Prime Minister end this unacceptable situation immediately?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, allow me to reassure those Canadians directly.

Contrary to what the Conservatives are telling them to scare them, we will always protect Canadians' privacy. We are working with the Privacy Commissioner to ensure that all this data remains anonymous, that it is subject to stringent controls, and that there is no risk of this information being shared. Canadians can rest assured that this government will always protect their privacy.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister needs to wake up and understand that Canadians reject the government's support of Statistics Canada's harvest of deeply personal financial data without asking for permission. Canadians realize that Europeans this year have new privacy laws that prohibit this sort of privacy exposure without the specific consent of clients.

Why will the Prime Minister not accept that Canadians own all of their personal information, financial or otherwise, and that they should decide whether that data is shared or not?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, if the member remembers well, in the years leading up to the 2015 election we heard Conservatives making these arguments left, right and centre about the need to protect Canadians from the intrusiveness of Statistics Canada. Canadians rejected that approach of the Conservatives.

There were celebrations across the country when the very first thing we did was to restore the long-form census at Statistics Canada, so that decisions could be based on evidence and data and not ideology.

We will always protect Canadians' privacy and do it—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

The hon. member for Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I really hope the Prime Minister would tell that to the 27 million Canadians whose information a credit bureau was compelled to provide to Statistics Canada without any consent from them, contrary to what he said. The Liberals do not seem to understand that the personal information of Canadians does not belong to the government. They believe they have the right to know what everyone is doing with their finances all the time.

On this side of the House, we believe that access to that kind of information requires consent. No consent, no data. Why is the Prime Minister still refusing to listen to Canadians who want this program cancelled?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, once again, these are the same arguments they made about Statistics Canada's compelling people to fill out the long-form census. In the 2015 election, Canadians spoke loudly and clearly, rejecting the Conservative vision of policies based on ideology rather than evidence and data.

We will not engage in the kind of fearmongering they are trying to use around Canadians and their data, because we can state unequivocally to Canadians that we continue to protect their data. We continue to understand how important it is to work with the Privacy Commissioner to ensure that happens.

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has just clearly said that it is their number one priority to protect Canadians' data. Perhaps he would like to explain to us today why Canada Post allowed a breach of the private data and credit card numbers of 4,400 cannabis purchasers in Ontario, That was just hacked within the government that he says protects Canadians' privacy. Would he like to explain to us exactly how that happened?