House of Commons Hansard #391 of the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was seniors.

Topics

Far Right ExtremismRequest for Emergency DebateRoutine Proceedings

7:10 p.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

Mr. Speaker, I thank you for giving me the opportunity to rise in the House to speak to this issue of vital importance.

Today I request that the House hold an emergency debate regarding the rise of white nationalism and far right extremism in Canada and across the globe.

Two years ago, Canadians, and especially Muslims, were devastated by the news that an act of terror had been carried out at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City. Six innocent lives were stolen from us, and 19 other people were injured, when a gunman indiscriminately opened fire at worshippers.

For those impacted, the healing process has been a long, slow, painful journey. They were shaken to the core. Their city and their place of worship were places they believed to be safe, and they should have been able to believe that. We would learn that the motives behind this act of terror were hatred of Muslims and opposition to immigration and multiculturalism. We would find out that he was radicalized online by far right extremist messaging.

On March 15, the healing journey for Quebec City's and Canada's Muslim communities faced a significant setback. A horrific act of terror was carried out in New Zealand. A far right white nationalist took the lives of 50 innocent people and injured 50 more. He, too, acted out of hatred and xenophobia targeted at Muslims. He, too, destroyed the sanctity of the places people come to worship. In this case, they were the Al Noor mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre, in Christchurch.

Since the Syrian refugee crisis, there has been a troubling increase in anti-immigrant xenophobic rhetoric, acts and policies, primarily targeting Muslims, by western nations. It has led to a significant growth in the popularity of far right and nationalist political parties and the implementation of anti-immigrant and anti-refugee policies.

As you may recall, Mr. Speaker, you granted my request for an emergency debate on January 29, 2017, when the newly elected President of the United States, Donald Trump, in one of his first acts in office, enacted a discriminatory Muslim travel ban. While the most recent events in New Zealand happened far from Canadian shores, we must recognize that Canada is not immune to this trend and the threat of white nationalism and far right extremism. We must recognize that these events are linked. The name of the perpetrator of the Quebec City mosque shooting was etched on the weaponry used by the New Zealand shooter.

Elected officials in this country have a duty to stand up and speak out against hate. We cannot continue to allow and implicitly support rhetoric and individuals that foster this hatred in our communities, online and abroad.

Should my request be granted, it would allow parliamentarians to address the situation before us. We must determine a way forward that deals with these troubling trends and events. We cannot sit idly by and allow our neighbours to no longer feel safe in our communities.

Far Right ExtremismRequest for Emergency DebateRoutine Proceedings

7:15 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

I thank the hon. member for Vancouver East. I should point out to members that requests for emergency debates should be brief. I do not find that it meets the strict requirements of the Standing Order.

The House resumed consideration from March 1 of the motion that Bill C-83, An Act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and another Act, be read the third time and passed.

Corrections and Conditional Release ActGovernment Orders

7:15 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

It being 7:15 p.m., the House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred recorded division on the motion at third reading stage of Bill C-83.

Call in the members.

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)

Vote #1006

Corrections and Conditional Release ActGovernment Orders

7:40 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

I declare the motion carried.

(Bill read the third time and passed)

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

Canada Revenue AgencyAdjournment Proceedings

7:40 p.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

Mr. Speaker, in November, I was alerted to two troubling cases in which Syrian refugee families were targeted by the CRA for Canada child benefit clawbacks. We have long known that the government has failed to provide proper access to language training for the Syrian refugee cohort. We also know that in the government's struggle to find Syrian refugee families affordable, long-term housing, many families were moved around numerous times. As a result, many Syrian refugee families entered month 13 without having had access to the settlement services they needed to integrate into Canadian society during their first year here.

Despite all of this, the CRA had apparently deemed it reasonable to target these families. In at least two instances during the summer, refugee families were given short timelines to respond to CRA demands to prove eligibility for the CCB. Despite it being the summer, one family had to prove that their children were enrolled in school, which is a difficult task on a tight timeline when school is out. This was made more difficult by the family's lack of technical English knowledge.

As a result, one family did not respond quickly enough, and the CRA billed them $27,000. Thankfully, the family's private sponsorship group found out and were able to help the family clear things up. This allowed the group to intervene in advance to prevent a second targeted family from being billed.

The CRA has long been accused of only targeting so-called “low-hanging fruit” for audits and clawbacks, but this is a new low.

The use of tax havens, tax-law loopholes and aggressive tax avoidance schemes result in fat cat CEOs and wealthy international corporations failing to pay their fair share every single year. The stock option loophole allows the wealthiest executives to drain over $1 billion from federal and provincial budgets. Federal and provincial governments lose an estimated $7.8 billion through wealthy corporations hiding their profits in offshore tax havens.

The paradise papers and the Panama papers provide the compelling details of the aggressive tax avoidance that is well entrenched in Canada, yet the CRA has done little to address the issues presented there. Instead, it goes after refugee families.

Whether it is ignoring the issues of aggressive tax avoidance by the wealthiest among us, paying billions for a 65-year-old leaky pipeline to bail out a Texas oil company or putting backroom pressure on the former attorney general to go easy on SNC, this Liberal government has made it abundantly clear whose side it is on: the rich, the powerful, the well-connected.

The Liberals are not here to make life better or more affordable for average everyday Canadians. The Liberal government gave the CRA $1 billion to tackle tax fraud and avoidance, and this is how it is being spent.

Budget 2019 gives the government one last chance to live up to its own rhetoric. Will the government use this opportunity to finally ensure that the wealthiest in this country pay their fair share, or will it be more of the same, where working-class and middle-class Canadians, including recently settled refugees, are targeted by the CRA to fund more corporate cash giveaways?

Canada Revenue AgencyAdjournment Proceedings

7:45 p.m.

Sean Fraser Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Lib.

Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to ensuring that Canadians receive the benefits and credits to which they are entitled. This commitment includes seeing that new Canadians have the information they require to understand the benefits and credits for which they may qualify as well as their tax obligations. The CRA is working hard to deliver services that make tax filing accessible and to ensure that the system is fair.

Members can appreciate, I am sure, that for newcomers to Canada, there is a lot to learn as they get settled in a new country. It is with this understanding that the CRA is part of a multi-departmental effort to provide information to refugees on tax filing and benefit entitlements upon their arrival in Canada. The CRA works closely with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to ensure that all benefit-related questions are answered and also aims to quickly resolve any problematic cases that arise. I know that some of the most rewarding work we do in our constituency office is helping those who have been wrongfully denied the benefits they are owed.

The CRA's work does not stop there, though. It is important to ensure that newcomers know about the benefits they may be eligible for, such as the Canada child benefit, the goods and services tax/harmonized sales tax credit, and provincial and territorial programs. However, it is most important that newcomers understand that it is by filing their tax returns, even in cases where they have no income, that they can access credits and benefits for which they may be eligible. This is why the CRA actively promotes the awareness of benefits to newcomers through various information materials and in-person outreach activities.

The community volunteer income tax program is a CRA program that supports community organizations and their volunteers in hosting tax preparation clinics, where modest-income individuals, including newcomers, can have their taxes done for free. Indeed, we offer this service. One of my staff members, Betty MacDonald, in Antigonish, actually does this as part of the CRA volunteer program.

The CRA has produced a number of promotional and information materials for newcomers in various languages that are digital and paper based. Designed for a broad audience, these products include a newcomers fact sheet, a newcomers promotional card, a newcomers poster and an eight-part video series entitled “Newcomers to Canada and the Canadian Tax System”.

Having the materials available is one thing, but making sure that the information reaches the people who need it is another. It is why the CRA works with Canada's vast immigrant services network, including outreach through national, provincial, regional and community organizations, to share products and information.

Budget 2018 provided additional funding to the CRA to increase its outreach activities and the reach of the program I described earlier to help more vulnerable individuals access the benefits and credits designed to support them.

In addition to making sure that people have access to the services they need, the CRA is supportive of Canadians seeking to comply with their tax obligations. It provides newcomers with information, in a multitude of languages, to understand what is required of them and to help them settle into a new life in Canada.

I will note, in particular, that the hon. member raised certain concerns about tax loopholes for wealthy corporations. We have put forward a number of measures, particularly in our last federal budget, to combat this kind of activity to ensure that our tax system is fair, helps those in need and makes sure that those who are eligible for certain benefits receive them in a timely way.

Canada Revenue AgencyAdjournment Proceedings

7:45 p.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

Mr. Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary for his comments, but he misses the point. The point I was raising was that the CRA was targeting refugee families who lack the language capacity to respond quickly enough for the CRA to address the issue.

The issue was raised in the middle of the summer, when the children were out of school, and they were required to provide proof that their children were in school, for example. They had to go back and provide tenancy agreements, within a very tight timeline, when they had had to move multiple times, to prove that they actually lived here in Canada. No provisions were made to address these concerns. Even when their sponsorship families would say that they were prepared to verify that these families were here in Canada and that the children went to school here in Canada, and so on, it was not good enough.

That is the point, and that is what I am calling on the government to address to not target these individuals in that way. They are already—

Canada Revenue AgencyAdjournment Proceedings

7:45 p.m.

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Lib.

Sean Fraser

Mr. Speaker, over the past three years, the CRA has made significant changes to its services, including to the benefit validation program.

To the member's point about people potentially being targeted and not responding quickly enough, the CRA has simplified its letters, expanded the list of eligible documents and is now proactively communicating with those who do not even respond to the initial request.

The fact is that there is a serious effort being made on the part of the CRA to ensure that those who are entitled to benefits know how to apply and what they are entitled to and that they, in fact, receive those benefits. During my initial remarks, I listed a number of programs the CRA uses to make sure that those who are entitled to benefits receive them. This includes newcomers to Canada.

FinanceAdjournment Proceedings

7:50 p.m.

Conservative

Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be rising during adjournment proceedings to follow up on a question I asked the Minister of Finance on February 4, specifically on his plan to raise taxes and raise additional revenue to pay for the exorbitant spending that the Government of Canada had embarked on for the last three and a half, almost four years. I have been told many times it is better to ask 10 times than to go astray once, which is a Yiddish proverb, and members know I am a great fan of Yiddish proverbs. Therefore, I will go back to the same well and ask the same question of the parliamentary secretary, which has to do with the series of spending mistakes we have seen by the government.

Originally, Canadians were promised in 2015 there would be a $1 billion surplus come 2019. We are on the cusp of a new federal budget being tabled tomorrow, although it might be delayed a little. Canadians, especially in my communities, want to know whether the budget will be balanced sometime in the near future. They have long realized that any promises made by a Liberal government are not promises it intends to keep, and a repetition is happening here. A series of policy mistakes has happened and has cost the government dearly. Because it costs the government dearly, it is costing Canadian taxpayers dearly.

One of the ones I want to highlight right now is the stress test introduced on first-time home buyers, introduced on new Canadians, introduced on anyone obtaining a mortgage as of 2018. We know that mortgage origination is down 20% by young people. It is a policy mistake introduced by the Government of Canada, imposed on young people and on first-time home buyers. We know that 50,000 Canadians were unable to purchase a home last year, and 50,000 Canadians were forced to refinance with their lender. They could not move to a new lender because of the decisions made by the Government of Canada.

These types of policy mistakes accumulate, policy mistakes like enforcing and forcing a carbon tax on provinces that do not want one. We have an Alberta provincial election coming very soon where we fully expect the current government to be replaced by a common-sense government, a government looking to reduce the cost of living on Canadians, Albertans specifically, and it knows that just getting by is not enough. We want Canadians, and Albertans especially in my case, from my home province, to get ahead.

I am going to ask the parliamentary secretary again. What taxes is the government expecting to raise tomorrow in the new federal budget, when will the budget balance itself and how much more debt can we expect the government to burden future generations of Canadians with?

FinanceAdjournment Proceedings

7:50 p.m.

Sean Fraser Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Lib.

Mr. Speaker, while I am always entertained by the hon. member's Yiddish proverbs that he works into his comments, I am less entertained with the argument he puts forward.

The fact is that from the very beginning of our government's mandate we put people at the heart of our plan for economic growth for Canada. Since coming into office, our government has invested in things that actually matter to people like those I represent. These investments reflect the choice that Canadians made to invest wisely in strengthening the middle class and helping those who were working to join it.

One of our first actions was to raise taxes on the wealthiest Canadians in order to cut taxes for the middle class. I note that the entire Conservative caucus voted against that. The fact is that over nine million Canadians are benefiting from this tax cut today. We also introduced the Canada child benefit. Compared to the old system of child benefits it replaced, it is simpler, it is more generous and the benefits are targeted to those who need them most.

Nine out of 10 families are receiving more under this program than they did under the previous system. As a result of this tax cut and the Canada child benefit, a typical middle-class family of four is receiving about $2,000 more in support today than they were in 2015. If we look at the Canada child benefit, in my riding and across Canada, families that received the benefit received, on average, $6,800 tax free to help with the high cost of raising kids. This benefit amount is going to continue to rise with the cost of living since it was indexed to inflation as of July of last year, two years earlier than we initially committed to.

The fact is that we have a plan to invest in and strengthen the middle class and to grow our economy, and the results are showing that this plan is working. Our unemployment rate is at the lowest level in 40 years. Canada has been among the leaders in economic growth in the G7 in the last three years. During this period, more than 900,000 people have a job today who did not have one in 2015. This includes strong employment gains by women, with the pace of job gains for women in Canada more than doubling since November 2015 compared to the previous three-year period.

Not only are there more jobs, but wages have increased, rising in 2018 at one of the fastest paces of growth seen in the past years. Coming tomorrow, if the Conservative Party does not seek to interfere with procedural games, in the 2019 budget, the government is going to unveil the next step in its plan to strengthen the middle class and to grow the economy to give more people real and equal opportunities to succeed. That has been our mission from day one and it has not changed.

I would be remiss if I failed to point out that despite the rhetoric built into the hon. member's question, when the Conservatives were last in government, over 10 years they added $150 billion to that and saw the worst rate of economic growth since the Great Depression.

FinanceAdjournment Proceedings

7:55 p.m.

Conservative

Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB

Mr. Speaker, with respect to some of the points the member brought up, that is not an answer. It is partially the same answer I got from the Minister of Finance.

With regard to the first part, the Liberals promised a middle-income tax cut conditioned on raising more revenue from the top 1%. Canada Revenue Agency statistics show that they lost $4.6 billion. They collected less money by increasing taxes on the top 1%. The middle-income tax cut, because of our progressive income tax system, actually gave a tax break equivalent to around $800 to every single member of Parliament. However, Canadians earning $45,000 or less got zero. In fact, they got hit with a carbon tax, higher payroll taxes and higher EI premiums. At the end of the month, they have less in their pockets, which is why I am asking these questions again. What taxes do they intend to raise tomorrow? What new revenue are they wanting to extract out of Canadian taxpayers?

FinanceAdjournment Proceedings

7:55 p.m.

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Lib.

Sean Fraser

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's question would be good if it relied on facts that have any sort of basis in truth.

The fact is that families are better off today than they were three years ago. I know the hon. member has difficulty accepting that, because he seems to prejudge any action that a Liberal government takes, but the fact is that with the Canada child benefit, families are better off. With the Canada workers benefit, families are better off. Families living in poverty have access to our national poverty reduction strategy, affordable housing and a number of other measures.

I see that I am running out of time. I would be happy to carry on this conversation when time allows.

The EnvironmentAdjournment Proceedings

March 18th, 2019 / 7:55 p.m.

Green

Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC

Mr. Speaker, I rise in adjournment proceedings this evening to revisit a question I put to the government on November 2 of last year. At that point, we were a month away from the opening of the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. I hoped at that point that the very serious warnings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the 1.5° special report would result in the Government of Canada, at long last, yanking the Harper target under which the current government still developed its inadequate planning for climate disaster, a target that is the weakest in the industrialized world. I hoped that by looking at the IPCC report and its call for urgent action, its clear warning call that if we fail to hold global average temperatures to a 1.5° Celsius global average temperature increase, the risks are high of a trajectory toward runaway, unstoppable, irreversible climate disaster and catastrophic impacts, of which the end of civilization is not even the worst. Extinction of humanity and other species on this planet with us is where we are headed if we go above 2° Celsius to 3°, 4° and so on.

We really do not have time to continue to talk about this, but I will finish the point about the IPCC report and what happened at COP24.

I was horrified to attend COP24, because no country, except Fiji and the Marshall Islands, had improved their targets.

Young Greta Thunberg from Stockholm was there. She looked at the delegates and asked if they had any intention of ever acting. Then she said she did not expect them to act because they had been a disappointment for so many years and that it was the children who were leading. She went on to say they did not have the courage to tell it like it is, and to quote her exactly, “Even that burden you leave to us children.”

Here we are, months later, with no change to Canada's climate target. We are still holding to Harper's target to extinction. Greta Thunberg, on the other hand, has mobilized, and last Friday, March 15, 2019, over a million and a half children marched to demand that governments finally do what they have been procrastinating on, with politicians kicking it down the alley to the next government, maybe hoping someone else can pick up the challenge or that no one will remember that they are responsible for doing nothing when the clarion call was clear.

We do not have 12 years, as some would take it. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said we have to reduce to 45% below 2010 levels and that we have to do it by 2030.

That does not mean we have 12 years. We only have now. We do not have years.

Let us take it in months. When the panel report came down on October 8 of last year, we had 144 months. We now have 139 months.

The clock is ticking, and without action, we in this place and legislators all around the world will be culpable for bequeathing to our children an unlivable world. We must set legislated targets to cut fossil fuel use, such that it is cut in half before the end of the next decade and completely eliminated by the year 2050.

At the same time, we must ramp up efforts of adaptation. We must plant trees. We must plant gardens. We must do everything within our grasp and anything beyond our grasp, anything in our reach, because we, this generation, must not give up on our children.

The EnvironmentAdjournment Proceedings

8 p.m.

Sean Fraser Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Lib.

Mr. Speaker, as always I would like to thank the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands for her passion for defending our environment.

The fact is that we all see the very real impacts of climate change across our country. There are floods in New Brunswick, droughts and forest fires in the west, a melting Arctic, and rising sea levels on the east coast where I am from. We understand the need to take action to ensure a sustainable planet for future generations. We understand the importance of limiting the temperature increase globally to 1.5°C, as examined in the IPCC report. That is why Canada supported this goal during the Paris Agreement negotiations and why we were one of the first countries to ratify the agreement.

At the same time, the government was working to establish the pan-Canadian framework on clean growth and climate change to reduce our emissions in line with our Paris commitments. This was a landmark achievement. The framework is the first climate change plan in Canada's history to include joint and individual commitments by provinces and territories to have been developed in consultation with indigenous peoples in Canada. This plan will grow the economy while reducing pollution at the same time and building resilience to a changing climate.

We know that pollution is not free, and one aspect of our plan is to put a price on pollution. It is a central feature to it, but it is not the only thing we are doing. This is going to be the most efficient way to reduce GHG emissions while maintaining a strong and growing economy: putting a price on pollution in all jurisdictions in Canada in 2019 either through provincial and territorial systems, adapted to their specific circumstance or through the application of the federal carbon pricing pollution system.

We are making significant progress on implementing our plan and it is starting to work. Our most recent emissions production, published in December of last year, show a widespread decline in projected emissions across all economic sectors, reflecting the breadth and depth of the pan-Canadian framework. When our plan is fully implemented, it is going to position Canada to meet the 2030 target, and, importantly, to continue to achieve carbon pollution reductions well beyond 2030.

I agree with the member that the time to act is now. We have to take this threat seriously. I note that the strategy, which focuses on meeting climate change objectives and enabling growth in the longer term, describes various pathways consistent with limiting the global temperature increase to as little as possible by 2050, as called for in the Paris Agreement. The agreement calls for countries to routinely update their ambitions.

We are working to ensure that we are doing all that we can as fast as we reasonably can to help prevent the dire circumstances that the member outlined in her question. The fact is that our government is committed to working with all partners in tackling climate change. We understand the huge economic opportunity of clean growth, and we want to leave a cleaner and healthier planet for our kids.

As someone who grew up in a different generation than many members of this House, it kills me when people throw up their hands and say that we cannot do more, that we cannot do it. We do not have an option. We are moving forward with a plan that is going to have meaningful emissions reductions in our country. It is the right thing to do and it is the smart thing to do.

The EnvironmentAdjournment Proceedings

8 p.m.

Green

Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC

Mr. Speaker, it is neither right nor smart to deal with a climate emergency as though incremental half measures will cut it. Incremental half measures may be better than parties that want to do nothing. However, when incremental half measures have the same impact as doing nothing, in other words, setting us on a trajectory above 2°C , above 3°C, above 4°C, if every country on earth had Canada's target—and this has been studied by the scientific community—the world would go to 5.1°C.

We are not leaders now. We could be. We are laggards now. It is time for the government to act, with people of goodwill and good minds, like the hon. parliamentary secretary, who understands this issue well enough to know that half measures are just about as good as no measures. The era of incrementalism and procrastination is over. What matters now is that we act to reduce emissions and end fossil fuel dependency.

The EnvironmentAdjournment Proceedings

8:05 p.m.

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Lib.

Sean Fraser

Mr. Speaker, I expect that with our limited time, the hon. member and I may have to have follow-up conversations, as we often do.

The fact is, we are starting to make very serious progress in implementing our plan. To date, this includes the adoption of new legislation that provides the authority to implement the federal carbon pricing pollution system. It involves extensive engagement on the development of this federal system and confirmation of where it will apply and where the proceeds are going to be directed.

However, that is not the only thing we are doing. We have adopted new regulations to reduce methane emissions by 45%. I have benefited from the expertise of folks like Dr. David Risk at StFX University to fully understand these myself. We are accelerating the phase-out of coal-fired electricity by more than 30 years, and we are looking to reduce emissions from heavy-duty vehicles. We have established the low-carbon economy fund. We are seeking to have, by 2030, 90% of our electricity in Canada generated from clean resources.

The fact is that we know this threat is serious. We are taking actions as quickly as we can to reduce emissions in an effective way, and we can get there together.

The EnvironmentAdjournment Proceedings

8:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

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 8:06 p.m.)