House of Commons Hansard #281 of the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was women.

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A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved.

Natural ResourcesAdjournment Proceedings

7:20 p.m.

Conservative

Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB

Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to rise tonight to talk about pipelines and their impact on the national economy. I know that 125,000 people in northern Alberta have lost their jobs due to the government's inaction on getting the products produced in the resource development sector to market.

In my riding, we have been devastatingly hit by the actions of the Liberal government. One of the major projects that has not gone forward because of the actions of the government was the Carmon Creek SAGD project. This is a project that was going to bring the oil out of the ground near Peace River, Alberta, and it was going to bring oil to the international markets. The company cancelled that project shortly after the current government came into power, due to the lack of pipeline access. It said that given the remarkable actions by the government it did not see that a pipeline was going to be going forward anytime soon and so it pulled out. It was a $10-billion project. The company had already spent $2 billion developing the project and it backed away from $2 billion. It left $2 billion lying up in northern Alberta. In that same week, the company made an announcement that it was investing in Kazakhstan.

I ride the airplane a lot of times back and forth from here to home, and I sit in the back of the airplane and talk to the oilfield workers. Paul Cox was the last guy I sat beside on my way home from here. He is working in Kazakhstan. That is a coincidence, one might say, but I do not think it is a coincidence. A company named Shell was the proposer for the Carmon Creek project. It backed out and it is now investing in Kazakhstan. This guy happens to be working in Kazakhstan. He is from Alberta. He flies halfway around the world to work in Kazakhstan in an industry that he knows and loves. That is what we are dealing with when it comes to the actions of the Liberal government.

Everyone knows the current situation with the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline. Kinder Morgan has been saying it has stopped proceeding with it. Just today, we heard that it has pulled out all its people who have been working on permitting. It has pulled them out of B.C. and told them to go home as the company does not see a way forward right now. Kinder Morgan has already halted action on the ground there, and we are looking to the government to do something.

Today as well, the member for Calgary Shepard moved a motion at the finance committee to study the financial impact of this pipeline on Canada. The government continues to say that this pipeline will get built, that this is a national building project. What did the Liberals do at committee? They voted the motion down. They voted not to study the impacts of the pipeline. I thought they said it was such a great pipeline. If this was such a great pipeline and they were so happy, would they not want to show the world how great this pipeline is? No, they voted that motion down.

This is not the first energy project to be in jeopardy. We have seen the death of energy east. We have seen Kinder Morgan come and go. Northern gateway was approved. The Liberals said, “We have approved the pipeline.” We have heard them say that over and over again, and here we are, northern gateway is dead. Petronas LNG is gone, sold off to the highest bidder. The government has a terrible track record when it comes to standing up for our resource industry. It has a terrible record when it comes to any pipeline development in this country.

What is going to be the net impact on the national GDP? We have seen things that have happened in Alberta before that have impacted the national GDP. What is going to be the impact on the national GDP of the Liberals' actions up to this point?

Natural ResourcesAdjournment Proceedings

7:25 p.m.

Labrador Newfoundland & Labrador

Liberal

Yvonne Jones LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs

Madam Speaker, unfortunately there is not enough time in this session to address all of the claims that the member has raised, but I do want to tackle some of the issues that I feel are very critical. Those are around job creation, what is happening in Alberta, and how we are standing up for Canadian jobs on this side of the House.

Last year alone, Canada added more than 420,000 jobs, most of them full-time jobs and many of them in our resource sector, including in Canada's oil patch and including those linked to our approval of the Line 3 pipeline.

In fact, the job gains posted in Alberta are some of the most significant that have occurred in any province in the country. According to Statistics Canada, Alberta added 55,000 new positions last year, and its economic output is again leading the country on a per capita basis.

As one University of Calgary professor told The Canadian Press earlier this year, Alberta's economy is recovering faster than almost anyone could have ever expected.

What is the result? Let me review.

Canada's unemployment rate is hovering at a 40-year low, and last year our 3% growth led all G7 countries.

Now, that does not mean that there is not still more work to be done, which is why we are getting the Trans Mountain expansion pipeline built. It is at the top of our list, as has been reconfirmed and reiterated time and again by the Prime Minister.

We have determined that the $7.4 billion project is in Canada's national interest because of the jobs it will create right across the country, and also because of the greater access it will provide to global markets for Canadian businesses. It is also because of the increased revenues it will generate for all levels of government within the country and because of the new economic opportunities it will offer for the 43 indigenous communities that have signed benefit agreements up and down the pipeline's route.

All of these benefits will come at the same time that we are making the largest-ever single investment to protect Canada's oceans and coastal communities, strengthening the eyes and ears of the Canadian Coast Guard to ensure better communication with vessels, adding new radar sites in strategic locations, and putting more enforcement officers on the coast.

It also means enhancing our response capabilities, protecting whales and other marine life, and building meaningful partnership with indigenous peoples.

We know that economic prosperity and the environmental protection that we are so proud of can go hand in hand in this country. That is why the Prime Minister repeated this past Sunday that the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is of vital strategic interest to Canada. That is why he instructed the Minister of Finance to initiate formal financial discussions with the pipeline proponent. That is why we are pursuing legislative options to exert the Government of Canada's clear jurisdiction over this project to see it proceed.

As the Prime Minister has said, this pipeline will be built. I can assure the member that it will be built.

Natural ResourcesAdjournment Proceedings

7:30 p.m.

Conservative

Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB

Madam Speaker, did I hear 55,000 jobs? I said 125,000 jobs have been lost in northern Alberta since the government took office, and the parliamentary secretary says that we should not worry, because 55,000 have come back.

The government's actions have led to the cancellation of countless energy resource projects. The government said that the Trans Mountain pipeline is on the top of its list; it is the only thing left on the list. It is the only thing.

What other project does the government have? Energy east is gone. Northern gateway is gone. Keystone XL is in jeopardy. Petronas LNG is gone. Shell's Carmon Creek project is gone.

What other projects are on the list, other than Trans Mountain?

Natural ResourcesAdjournment Proceedings

7:30 p.m.

Liberal

Yvonne Jones Liberal Labrador, NL

Madam Speaker, our government's objectives have been very clear in this country: to develop the vital infrastructure that is critical to getting Canadian resources to global markets, something that the former government failed to do.

We are also restoring public confidence. We are advancing indigenous reconciliation, something the former government did not do as well. We are enhancing environmental protections.

We really believe that all of these things are critical to a strong economy in Canada. We also believe the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is a part of that. That is why we have been supporting this project.

The Minister of Finance has initiated formal financial discussions with Kinder Morgan as we also pursue our legislative options for asserting the Government of Canada's jurisdiction to see this pipeline built.

We are determined to grow the economy in Canada. We are determined to find solutions to economic and environmental resource development.

Employment InsuranceAdjournment Proceedings

7:30 p.m.

NDP

Brigitte Sansoucy NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC

Madam Speaker, the Social Security Tribunal of Canada is a real disaster. We waited months for the KPMG report, and it is damning. Every case referred to the tribunal, which the Conservatives created in 2013 for the stated purpose of saving $25 million per year, has ended up costing more than under the old board of referees system, not to mention taking longer. It costs close to $2,400 now, compared to $720 before.

The Conservatives claimed their system would be more efficient, but the tribunal has a backlog of cases. Simply put, the tribunal takes five times longer to handle cases than the old system did. I would like to congratulate the FTQ, the CSN, and the Mouvement autonome et solidaire des sans-emploi, MASSE, for their amazing work on this file. Wait times for employment insurance appeals have gotten longer and longer ever since the tribunal was set up. It was 109 days by the end of the first year, and it is now 219 days. Imagine waiting nearly a year for an appeal.

The status quo is no longer tenable. It is time for the government to keep its word and reform the Social Security Tribunal, as it promised to do.

Speaking of promises, the office of the minister responsible for social development has admitted that the tribunal is inefficient, saying that the backlog has been growing since 2013, and Canadians are waiting. His staff also said that the tribunal's decisions have an impact on people's lives and that it is important to restructure the tribunal to make it more efficient and more productive, so that people get decisions within a reasonable time frame.

As for the Prime Minister, he promised to “create new performance standards for services offered by the federal government” by reforming the appeals process at the SST so that Canadians receive “timely access to needed services”.

Nearly two and a half years later, however, we are still waiting for the promised changes. I would therefore like to know why the government is not doing more on this issue.

In 2013, the Conservative government made the mistake of ignoring warnings from my colleagues, unemployed workers' groups, and unions and carried out this reform without doing any consultations.

As Gaétan Cousineau, the coordinator of Mouvement Action-Chômage de la Gaspésie, has said, many people get discouraged and decide not to appeal due to the backlogs, whereas under the old system, appeals used to be made in person, in our regions, before boards of referees. Representatives of Mouvement Action Chômage de Saint-Hyacinthe have made similar comments.

I will therefore ask my question in clear terms. When will the Liberals finally decide to take action and get rid of the Social Security Tribunal once and for all? I am asking this question on behalf of all the unemployed workers who, as I said, may have to wait almost a year for their appeals to be heard.

Employment InsuranceAdjournment Proceedings

April 18th, 2018 / 7:35 p.m.

Spadina—Fort York Ontario

Liberal

Adam Vaughan LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot for requesting this adjournment debate. As the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development said, the delays that Canadians are experiencing at the tribunal are unacceptable.

Simply put, as the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development has stated several times in the House that the delays Canadians are experiencing at the tribunal are unacceptable.

Last year, on March 7, our government announced that the tribunal would undergo a comprehensive review process to improve its appeals process. This review was a response to the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities and of the employment insurance service quality review. We released that report publicly in January.

The report was very clear. It explained the reasons why the tribunal was not functioning as it should. It also provided seven recommendations on how the tribunal could better fulfill its mandate, each supported by a range of more specific options, from making changes within the current legislation and governance and appeals structure to proposing foundational changes to the tribunal.

We intend to implement all recommendations of the report in addition to assessing all options presented. We will also consider options that go beyond those recommendations. Our government will release an action plan that will focus on both short and long-term improvements, with the aim of making the recourse and appeals process faster, simpler, and more client-centric. We will also provide new support to assist people with their appeals.

As we are implementing changes to the tribunal, we will work closely with unions, employers, and other stakeholders. On that note, we will ensure that the EI commissioners and stakeholders play a key role in shaping this renewed system. We have already asked them to give us their insight on potential improvements that go beyond the report's recommendation and options. During the development and implementation of our action plan, we will need the expertise and views of these key partners to improve the system. We want to ensure they have their say on renewing the appeals process. That is why we are working with the commissioners to establish a group of partners that we can connect with regularly when we have issues and questions as we move forward.

We want to build upon the relationship that exists between our government and the organizations that represent employers and workers, and invest in fruitful discussions to arrive at the right system for Canadians.

It is through working together that we will achieve real success, which is creating an appeal system that will be more efficient, fairer, more transparent, and more responsive to the needs of Canadians.

Employment InsuranceAdjournment Proceedings

7:40 p.m.

NDP

Brigitte Sansoucy NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC

Madam Speaker, I am sure that unemployed workers are eager to find out what is meant by going beyond the recommendations.

It is high time the government put words into action and established a system that truly meets Canadians' needs. Many unemployed workers have had to wait over a year before their employment insurance appeal was heard by the tribunal. That is completely unacceptable. Unlike that of the Liberals, the NPD's position has not changed. We are calling for the government to abolish the Social Security Tribunal and to bring back the boards of referees, which have proven to be effective in the past. People felt that they received fair rulings, and I think that is the only solution.

Employment InsuranceAdjournment Proceedings

7:40 p.m.

Liberal

Adam Vaughan Liberal Spadina—Fort York, ON

Madam Speaker, we agree that the system set up by the previous government has failed Canadians, and we do not contest the complaints as presented to us today.

Our government has reviewed the recommendations that were part of the report of the Social Security Tribunal and we are committed to improving the appeals process to ensure we deliver high quality, client-centric services to all Canadians.

Our past efforts, combined with further transformative actions, will result in a tribunal that will be more efficient, more fair, and transparent, and where partners will have a role in shaping its renewal through continued engagement as changes are explored and implemented.

By working together we can achieve real and lasting success with a system that will be more efficient, fair, and transparent for Canadians.

We remain determined to do better and to establish a recourse process that meets the needs and expectations of Canadians.

Indigenous AffairsAdjournment Proceedings

7:40 p.m.

NDP

Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC

Madam Speaker, yesterday was Equality Day, and the 33rd anniversary of the coming into force of the equality provisions in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

By great coincidence, or probably great planning on the part of some of our NGO partners, yesterday I had the great honour of being at a reception to honour six women who fought for equality for indigenous women in Canadian law. Last night we honoured Ms. Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, Ms. Yvonne Bedard, Senator Sandra Lovelace-Nicholas, Dr. Sharon McIvor, Dr. Lynn Gehl, and Senator Lillian Dyck, six women who were described in this way by the Ontario Native Women's Association:

The Famous Five fought to gain recognition for the equal personhood of women in 1929. So too, the Famous Six are fighting for recognition of the equal personhood of Indian women. But 88 years after the Privy Council ruled in favour of the Famous Five, the Famous Six, and the many thousands of Indian women and their descendants whom they represent, still do not enjoy equality with their Indian male counterparts under the Indian Act. This is an embarrassment to Canada, and a contravention of our human rights obligations.

Last night they were honoured, including Yvonne Bedard on her 80th birthday. It was so good to be able to thank them for fighting so hard. For 40 years, these women fought in court to regain Indian status for themselves and their children, which the Indian Act said they would lose if they married a white man, which is completely discriminatory. Of course, that is not mirrored for indigenous men who marry white women. Only the women were discriminated against.

I was very moved to hear the speech in particular by Sharon McIvor. She described how she now considers the 45,000 indigenous kids who regained their first nation status as a result of her court case her grandchildren. However, she said that 300,000 are yet to be included because the Liberal government has continued to resist full human rights being restored to all indigenous women in the Indian Act.

Members will remember the vote in the House on June 21, when my colleague, the member for Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, moved, in tandem with the amendments that were proposed in the Senate, to bring full gender equality for indigenous women into the Indian Act. To our great shame, the Liberal government voted those amendments down. The Liberals said there were unintended consequences. The Liberals voted to revert to discriminating against indigenous women. This was the “6(1)(a) all the way” amendment, which these famous six indigenous women warriors were asking the government to restore.

Madam Speaker, through you, I ask my counterpart on the other side of the aisle why indigenous rights for women should have to be the subject of consultation. Are they not full human rights?

Indigenous AffairsAdjournment Proceedings

7:45 p.m.

Labrador Newfoundland & Labrador

Liberal

Yvonne Jones LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs

Madam Speaker, first of all, I would like to acknowledge that we are gathered on the traditional territory of the Algonquin people. Second, I would like to congratulate all of those women who were recognized last evening, and many other women across Canada who have fought, and continue to fight, hard for gender-based equity in our country, including those within the House of Commons.

I also want to reiterate that our government is absolutely committed to ensuring gender equity for all women in Canada. That includes ensuring sex-based equity for indigenous women regarding the Indian Act registration. The government is pleased that Bill S-3, which finally eliminates all sex-based discrimination from registration provisions in the Indian Act, has now received royal assent. This is a tremendous step forward in this country for reconciliation, for indigenous women's rights, and for respect and equity in Canada. This includes circumstances prior to 1951, and in fact, the bill remedies sex-based inequities dating back to 1869.

While the balance of Bill S-3 was brought into force immediately after royal assent, the clause dealing with the 1951 cut-off will be brought into force after the conclusion of the co-designed consultations. The government has made it clear that consultation and partnership are essential prerequisites for any major changes involving first nations. We have set that out from the beginning. This approach is in keeping with its commitment to a renewed, respectful relationship, a partnership based on the recognition of rights, and to the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The effective removal of the 1951 cut-off will require extensive consultations with communities, affected individuals, and experts to ensure we get this right. The government is committed to ensuring that this measure is implemented in the right way, both in terms of first nations communities and individuals who will become entitled to registration. As Senator Sinclair noted in his speech and in other places regarding Bill S-3, while he is somewhat reluctant that he sees us delaying the implementation of the charter right, he can also see the need to do so because of that competing constitutional obligation to consult. He said that he was prepared to support the legislation because it enshrines the right, and we would ask that members of the House of Commons do the same.

Consultations will be focused on identifying additional measures and resources required to do this right, and on working in partnership to develop a comprehensive implementation plan. This is a responsible and prudent way to proceed as a government. We will ensure that the government implements these measures in a way that will eliminate or mitigate any unintended negative consequences for communities and individuals.

Indigenous AffairsAdjournment Proceedings

7:45 p.m.

NDP

Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC

Madam Speaker, how could there be unintended consequences of restoring full human rights to indigenous women? Three hundred thousand remain affected by the fact that the government did not restore full gender equality to the Indian Act. With respect, the six women who were at the foundation of the court case that forced the government to take this step are not happy with what the government has done, and the parliamentary secretary heard the government get called out on that last night.

I ask for a fourth time why a so-called feminist government needs to consult on whether indigenous women have human rights.

Indigenous AffairsAdjournment Proceedings

7:50 p.m.

Liberal

Yvonne Jones Liberal Labrador, NL

Madam Speaker, we are the first government in this country to recognize the very need to change the legislation that currently exists in Canada, which has been there for hundreds of years. We are restoring rights to indigenous women with respect to gender-based equality in this country, and that cannot be denied as it is clear in the legislation.

We are the first government in the history of this country to ever do so, and we have been committed to this process since the very beginning. We are determined to do this. We are determined to do it right, and with royal assent of Bill S-3, much of that process has already begun as I speak today.

We are also committed to changing the relationship that Canada has had with indigenous people in this country, and in changing that relationship we have agreed to do so in a respectful way to work together as partners. I would ask the member opposite to understand and accept that.

Indigenous AffairsAdjournment Proceedings

7:50 p.m.

NDP

The Assistant Deputy Speaker NDP Carol Hughes

The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m. pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 7:51 p.m.)