House of Commons Hansard #319 of the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was health.
Lawrence MacAulay LiberalMinister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Mr. Speaker, I can indicate to my hon. colleague and the House that we are the party that fought to implement supply management. We knew the value of supply management and we are the government that is going to defend supply management.
The Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and other ministers, including myself, have indicated quite clearly that we are going to defend supply management.
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
Mr. Speaker, this summer I met Pat, a woman in her eighties, who ended up homeless after battling a life-threatening illness. She ended up in a hotel, which cost $2,000 a month. It costs more than her monthly pension. Her loved ones did everything they could to help with medication, with food and essentials, but what she needed was a home she could afford on her pension.
When will the Liberals actually do something to ensure that seniors like Pat do not go through something like this again?
Jean-Yves Duclos LiberalMinister of Families
Mr. Speaker, I am proud and pleased to be able to answer this question.
We have invested resources that seniors have long waited for in our last budgets. We have invested in the guaranteed income supplement, we have moved the age of eligibility for old age security back from 67 to 65, thereby preventing 100,000 seniors from falling into severe poverty. We are investing over $40 billion in a housing strategy, which is going to give safe and affordable homes to hundreds of thousands of Canadians in the next 10 years.
I invite my colleague to get in touch with me so I can demonstrate to her how effective our policies have been and will be.
Julie Dabrusin Liberal Toronto—Danforth, ON
Mr. Speaker, we all have a responsibility to keep our children safe and to protect them from becoming victims of child sexual abuse and exploitation online. When this imagery is posted online, it continues the victimization of the most vulnerable members of our society.
Can the minister please tell us what he is doing to help victims and to remove this horrendous imagery from the Internet?
Ralph Goodale LiberalMinister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Mr. Speaker, online sexual exploitation is an absolutely horrific crime. We are fighting it on many fronts. For example, we are investing $4.1 million in the Canadian Centre for Child Protection to help identify victims, improve support services, and develop high-tech tools to shut criminals down. A further $19 million is strengthening the RCMP's National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre, and we are working through the G7, the Five Eyes and Internet service providers to get dangerous offensive material off the Internet as rapidly as possible and keep it from going on in the first place.
Gérard Deltell Conservative Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal carbon tax will be a kick in the teeth to all Canadian families. However, the government refuses to admit it is on the wrong path. The Ontario government has decided to take a step back, and now it is being sued by the Liberal government. Alberta has pulled out of the plan, yet the federal Liberal government is sticking to its guns. The federal government is doing absolutely nothing to help SMEs, which will also be hit hard by the Liberal carbon tax.
Why is the Liberal government continuing to take direct aim at our SMEs and at all Canadian families with the Liberal carbon tax?
Catherine McKenna LiberalMinister of Environment and Climate Change
Mr. Speaker, we have a plan for growing our economy while protecting the environment. Working with Canadians, we have created over 500,000 jobs, and our greenhouse gas emissions are falling. We are taking concrete action, and I would again like to ask the Conservatives what their plan is for tackling climate change and growing a greener economy.
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister promised that his deficit would be tiny, temporary, and $10 billion. It was none of those three things. In fact, it is now three times what he promised and according to his own finance department, it will continue into the year 2045.
The Prime Minister has failed to keep his promise and he has failed to indicate when the budget will finally be balanced. Will he tell us today?
Bill Morneau LiberalMinister of Finance
Mr. Speaker, we promised Canada that we would move forward on a plan to invest in Canadians, to invest in Canadian families and to invest in the middle class. That is exactly what we have done. Coming on three years, what has happened as a result of that plan? Those investments have put more money into Canadians' pockets. An average, middle-class family of four in 2019 will be $2,000 better off than it was in 2015. That is the kind of impact we have made on families, which has made a measurable impact on our economy in a positive way.
We will continue to invest in Canadian families. We will continue to have confidence in our future.
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
Mr. Speaker, that is not true. We know that the average Canadian family is paying $800 more in income tax and that is even before the carbon tax and the higher payroll taxes take effect.
The question was about the deficit. In fact, by 2021, only three years from now, the government will be spending more on debt interest than we currently spend on health transfers. That means higher taxes in exchange for absolutely nothing.
Will the finance minister tell us when the budget will be balanced?
Bill Morneau LiberalMinister of Finance
Mr. Speaker, I will continue to tell Canadians that we know it is critically important to invest in a positive future in our country. Those investments have made an enormous difference for Canadians.
As I said, the facts are clear. We put in place measures that not only lowered middle-class taxes but helped families, such as the Canada child benefit, which has made an enormous difference. That measurable difference is making a difference for our economy. That is going to allow us to continue to be effective in terms of helping middle-class families. That will continue to be our agenda.
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
Mr. Speaker, the government's agenda is not only higher taxes on the middle class today, but it is also higher taxes down the road to pay the wealthy bondholders and bankers that own Canada's out-of-control national debt. There is already $60 billion in additional debt under the Liberal government and another 25 years of deficits according to the Minister of Finance's own department.
Will his full economic update include a deadline for a balanced budget and will he tell us today what that deadline is?
Bill Morneau LiberalMinister of Finance
Mr. Speaker, we will not take any lessons from the party that left us with the lowest growth rate since the Great Depression.
What we are continuing to focus on is how we can grow our economy. We know that it puts us in a better position for tomorrow. We know that our debt as a function of our GDP is going down over time, so we are doing in a fiscally responsible way what we promised we would do: make life better for middle-class Canadians and put more money in their pockets so they can raise their families and have a successful and optimistic view of the future.
Murray Rankin NDP Victoria, BC
Mr. Speaker, I have been getting calls from so many Canadians and constitutional experts who are deeply concerned about the reckless erosion of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. These people are outraged that a premier has casually promised to repeatedly use the notwithstanding clause to override our constitutional rights whenever he disagrees with the courts.
Will the Liberals support my motion in the justice committee to meet and discuss how we can end the reckless erosion of our charter? Will the Prime Minister commit today to never use the notwithstanding clause?
Dominic LeBlanc LiberalMinister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs and Internal Trade
Mr. Speaker, obviously committees are free to determine their own agenda.
Our government believes that Canadians expect all orders of government to uphold their rights and freedoms as guaranteed by the charter and respect the rule of law. The rights and freedoms guaranteed by the charter are of utmost importance in our society, and our government will always stand up and defend them. The notwithstanding clause is an extraordinary part of the Constitution that should only be used in the most exceptional of cases, and the Government of Ontario's decision to use this clause is disappointing. We think Ontarians will ultimately decide on the actions of their provincial government.
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
Mr. Speaker, like hundreds of pyrrhotite victims trapped in limbo, Myrabelle Chicoine has no access to financial assistance. This is because the Conservatives and the Liberals have been refusing to fix the problem and fund a scientific study on pyrrhotite. As a result, like the many other families that have tried to sell their home, Ms. Chicoine's is at risk of losing their life-long investment.
Are the Liberals going to play politics at the expense of victims, or will they announce a solution to this scourge right now?
Navdeep Bains LiberalMinister of Innovation
Mr. Speaker, we recognize the importance of ensuring consistency in design and construction in buildings in Canada.
The National Research Council of Canada, in partnership with the University of Laval, is leading a Canada-wide research, development and technology transfer project to resolve the outstanding issues raised by the member opposite. The project will really look at issues to ensure Canadians' safety and minimize future economic impact of the issues raised by the member opposite as well.
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's summer of failure included his close childhood friend and most trusted minister being found guilty of breaking ethics laws. The Prime Minister stood in the House time and again telling Canadians how proud he was of his friend's decision to award a lucrative contract to close Liberal friends and his own family.
Now that the Ethics Commissioner has found his good friend guilty, will the Prime Minister continue to turn a blind eye or will he set aside friendship, do the right thing, and fire his morally challenged friend?
Dominic LeBlanc LiberalMinister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs and Internal Trade
Mr. Speaker, as public office holders, all of us have an obligation to follow the act and when there is uncertainty about the interpretation of the act, it is our responsibility to work with the commissioner's office to get that clarity.
While the commissioner found in this case that there was no financial benefit and no preferential treatment given, he said I should have consulted his office prior to making the decision. I accept the commissioner's finding and obviously I will work with his office on any future action.
Peter Kent Conservative Thornhill, ON
Mr. Speaker, in their summer of failure, the Liberal government and its ministers reminded us that they are just as willing to break their own rules as the Conflict of Interest Act. Caught in big-ticket cash for access fundraisers, the Prime Minister promised strict new rules, but today we learned that registered lobbyists are still buying their way into exclusive Liberal fundraising events to mingle with ministers and PMO power brokers.
Why does the Prime Minister not stop the double talk and simply order an end to this highly unethical practice?
Karina Gould LiberalMinister of Democratic Institutions
Mr. Speaker, we are taking concrete action to improve our already strong and robust rules around political fundraising events. We are proud the Liberal Party is already disclosing more information about its fundraisers. However, what we do not know is who is attending high ticket cost fundraisers from the other side. What about the $1,000 fundraiser that was held on February 28, 2018, by the Conservatives? How about the $1,550 fundraiser that was held on May 25, 2017, by the Conservatives? Who attended those fundraisers?
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île dOrléans—Charlevoix, QC
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals broke their own fundraising rules. They allowed lobbyists to pay for access to ministers on more than one occasion.
Ministers and the Prime Minister are being caught by the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, they keep rolling out the red carpet for lobbyists, who keep influencing their decisions, and I could go on. The laws are for everyone else, but never for them.
Why are the Liberals so corrupt? Why are they carrying on with their summer of failure?
Karina Gould LiberalMinister of Democratic Institutions
Mr. Speaker, as I said, we are proud of having already disclosed more information about fundraisers than members on the other side of the House.
What we do not know is who is attending Conservative Party fundraisers. Many events are held in secret, and we do not know who attends them.
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
Mr. Speaker, we know that more than two-thirds of more than 90 indigenous languages still spoken in Canada are in danger of being lost. The loss of these languages was the intentional result of past government policies, like residential schools. I was pleased to see the Prime Minister and the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism are following through on their promise and have put in the mandate letter instructions to deliver an indigenous languages act, co-developed with indigenous peoples.
Could the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism please update the House of Commons on the government's progress on this file?
Pablo Rodriguez LiberalMinister of Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism
Mr. Speaker, as the member for Niagara Centre knows, no relationship is more important to our government than the one with indigenous people, and we continue to engage with first nations, Métis, and Inuit people on this important issue.
This bill will allow us to preserve, promote and revitalize indigenous languages. It is an absolute priority for me, for the Prime Minister and for the entire government.