Debates of May 10th, 2018

Marijuana

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, the problem of drug-impaired driving exists today. It is not a problem that will spring to life next week or next month or next year; it exists today. That is why it is so very important to pass Bill C-46. I am glad to hear the official opposition is now fully in support of Bill C-46, and I hope it will join us in encouraging the Senate to deal with it expeditiously.

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Mr. Speaker, obviously, there is no plan, but that is no surprise.

While the Liberals made it clear that they want to have pot legalized by the summer, the Minister of Justice has always said that when marijuana is legalized, there would be laws to protect Canadians on the roads. That is why they are bringing in new ones. Why will the minister not delay the legalization of pot until these protections are in place?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, the Criminal Code already has provisions to deal with drug-impaired driving. Those provisions have been in the law for many years. What we are trying to do is to enhance and strengthen those provisions with what we are adding in Bill C-46. There are new offences, new technology, and new procedures to add to what is already in the Criminal Code.

Again, I thank the opposition for officially endorsing Bill C-46. We are anxious for those members to join with us in encouraging the Senate to pass it promptly.

Natural Resources

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the plot thickens in the Kinder Morgan saga. Not only are shareholders asking for more information about the project's environmental standards, but we have learned that Kinder Morgan had direct access to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Natural Resources to move their project forward. What a surprise.

Kyle Marsh, a lobbyist for Kinder Morgan, attended at least three Liberal Party fundraising activities even though all Liberals agreed to not let lobbyists attend their fundraising activities.

The question is simple. Will the Liberals finally tell the truth and admit that Kinder Morgan had direct access from the beginning?

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

Mr. Speaker, our party recognizes that the environment and the economy go hand in hand. TMX is vital to Canada's strategic interest. The Conservatives do not recognize that the environment is important and the NDP does not recognize just how important the economy is. What we do every day is protect the environment and ensure that our natural resources go to market.

Ethics

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it seems more like the economy and money go together.

I do not think the Liberals understand how serious this is. Canadians are losing confidence in them. Is a donation or a fundraising dinner what it takes to get the attention of the Prime Minister and his government? Is that what companies have to do to get favours from the Liberal government?

How are people supposed to trust this government? Can the Prime Minister explain the difference between what he is saying and what he is doing?

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, the NDP has never understood that the economy and the environment go hand in hand. In this case, the project is important to the national interest. When I say “national interest”, I mean the interest of the entire country, not just Alberta and British Columbia. We know this is an important project, and as we move forward, we will ensure compliance with all 157 of the conditions attached to it.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, does anyone remember the Liberal promise to end the cash for access fiasco? The minister said at the time that it was always possible to raise the bar. No kidding. The only question in this game of Liberal ethical limbo is how low will the Liberals go.

It turns out that after banning lobbyists from attending Liberal fundraisers, lobbyists from Kinder Morgan attended three Liberal fundraisers for the Prime Minister and finance minister. Why would the Liberals take a bunch of money from a Kinder Morgan lobbyist and how can they expect Canadians not to believe this is simply buying access to the Liberal Party?

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

Mr. Speaker, our party understands that the environment and the economy go together. We understand that the TMX project is a good project. There are 157 conditions attached to this project. We are also taking serious action on climate change.

We get it. Unfortunately we have one party that does not understand how important the environment is, the Conservative Party, and another party that does not understand how important the economy is. They go together, and we are going to continue going forward.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the only thing Liberals understand is how access and cash go hand in hand.

From the very start, all right-thinking people understood that the review of this pipeline was a cruel joke, everyone except the Liberals of course, who broke their promise to redo the process.

Kinder Morgan shareholders passed a motion about first nations rights and concerns about the environment, and that these concerns were raising questions about the progress and prospects of the long-term viability.

Taking money from Kinder Morgan lobbyists, breaking their promises on the environment, how bad has it gotten for Liberals that Kinder Morgan shareholders are more concerned about first nation rights and the environment than the Liberal government who swore to uphold them?

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

Mr. Speaker, this project went through a full review. We added additional consultations with indigenous peoples. More than 40 indigenous communities have signed impact benefit agreements with the proponent. There are 157 conditions attached. We understand that the project is an important project and that it needs to go ahead.

It is interesting that we have the NDP in Alberta working very hard on this project. It was supported by the previous government in British Columbia.

We need to provide certainty to the market, and this project will go ahead.

Justice

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to invite the Minister of Environment to apologize for repeatedly asking the official opposition leader to stand and answer questions. Today, he is attending the funeral of one of our long-time colleagues, and a friend to so many on all sides of the House, Gord Brown. I hope she will apologize.

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

Mr. Speaker, my thoughts are with the family of Gord Brown. He was an amazing member of the House of Commons. However, we are entitled to raise important issues. I think that is what everybody expects. That is what Canadians expect.

I will ask once again. Will the party opposite stand and confirm that it stands for a woman's right to choose?

Democratic Reform

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Mr. Speaker, that is pathetic to not apologize.

The Prime Minister has infamously stated that he admires China's dictatorship, and that is quite evident in how he operates. Every time he faces opposition, whether it is in the House or from Canadians, he takes away the tools that opposition parties have to hold him to account. Now he is proposing to limit how and when political parties can spend money that Canadians have freely contributed to support them.

Will he impose those same restrictions on ministerial travel and on government advertising in this newly established pre-election period?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, leading up to the last election, Canadians were justifiably fed up with the Conservative government's misuse of tax dollars for partisan advertising. That is why we moved quickly in 2016 with our new advertising policy to ban partisan government ads and establish third-party oversight. We also banned government advertising in the 90 days that preceded a fixed election and for any government program that had yet to be approved by finance minister by Parliament.

By focusing government advertising on Canadians' needs instead of partisan objectives, we have been able to cut the government's advertising budget by almost half. We will continue to serve the taxpayers of Canada, and be transparent.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I guess we will take that as a no. Therefore, we will try another topic, because clearly he does not want to try and deal with the actual problem here.

Getting young people over 18 out to vote is a thing that everyone in the House agrees is a good thing, but what is not right is invading the privacy of children. The Prime Minister's new law will establish a future register of electors for children between the ages of 14 and 17. Yesterday, the Prime Minister disagreed with us when we raised this concern about political parties targeting children.

Again, will the Prime Minister commit that the information about children will not be distributed to political parties or political candidates?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, on the member's opening comments, we dealt with the problem in the last election. We defeated the Harper Conservatives.

Beyond that, the Conservatives need to understand that what we are doing with the future voter registry is engaging more young Canadians in the political process, such that they can develop their citizenship and be ready to participate in Canada's electoral system fully.

I can confirm for the member across that as a current practice, only the list of eligible voters will be shared with parties and candidates.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals, and especially the Prime Minister, have absolutely no credibility when it comes to electoral reform, because they broke a key election promise. What is worse, they now want to create a register of future electors for children or young people between the ages of 14 and 17.

I have a very simple and serious question. Will the Prime Minister assure all Canadians that this register will not be accessible to political parties, to ensure that they cannot have access to information regarding Canadian youth?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, the current practice will continue.

Under this practice, only the list of actual electors will be shared with political parties. That will not be affected by the establishment of a youth future voting registry, the objective of which is to encourage more young Canadians to participate in the process.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Mr. Speaker, to put it mildly, the government is not being very clear. What is clear, however, is that government broke its key election promise on electoral reform. There is something else that we are concerned about, and that is the fact that political parties will not be able to spend the money given to them by Canadians as they see fit before the election campaign.

Will the minister assure Canadians that the ministers will follow exactly the same rules and will not spend any money before the election campaign?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, in leading up to the last election, the Conservatives used quasi-partisan advertising tax dollars to pay for government advertising that was highly partisan. That was one of the reasons why we changed our advertising policy to ban this kind of partisan government advertising and beyond that, to extend 90-days before the actual election the writ period to have the same rules that apply during the writ period, which are very robust rules, to political parties and the government leading up to the writ period.

We are doing exactly that, which—

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

The hon. member for Calgary Rocky Ridge.

Natural Resources

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

Mr. Speaker, earlier today Al Gore stated, “The Kinder Morgan pipeline carrying dirty tar sands oil would be a step backward...”. Does the government agree with Al Gore, who calls our natural resources dirty and wants to kill the Trans Mountain expansion?

[Kim Rudd, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, our government has initiated formal financial discussions with Kinder Morgan, the result of which will be to remove uncertainty overhanging the project. We are confident in our jurisdiction in this matter. We are also actively pursuing legislative options that will assert and reinforce the federal jurisdiction in this matter, which we know we clearly have.

Hundreds of thousands of hard-working Canadians depend on this project being built.

Indigenous Affairs

[Georgina Jolibois, NDP, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

Mr. Speaker, in April the government told us that the murdered and missing indigenous women and girls inquiry must put families at the centre of its work. However, it continues to ignore the calls from at least 500 families, many from remote and northern communities, that have not had a chance to speak at the inquiry. In order to heal, the families must be heard.

When will the government extend the mandate of the inquiry so all families can be heard?