Debates of March 20th, 2019

Ethics

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, one thing that the Conservatives have not learned, or forgot while in power for 10 years, is that committees and members of parliamentary committees are independent and make their own decisions. Naturally, this government, the Liberal Party, will always respect the independence of committee work, and we will always abide by the decisions of these committees.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, nobody is buying that. We all know that the Prime Minister sent in his members of that justice committee to shut it down. They allowed their preferred witnesses to speak more than once, but then when it came to listening to the former attorney general complete her testimony, they blocked the investigation.

They have also refused to allow Katie Telford, the Prime Minister's chief of staff; Mathieu Bouchard, the PM's special Quebec adviser; and the Minister of Finance and his chief of staff to appear.

Now that the ethics committee is launching an investigation, will those individuals be allowed to testify?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, it is not up to the Leader of the Opposition or the Prime Minister to decide what the committees will do.

Committees are masters of their own agenda and they will make their own decisions. For 10 years, we saw the Conservatives, under Harper, do all they could to control committees. However, on this side of the House we respect the independence of committees. We know that committee members make their own decisions.

That is a principle of our democracy that we respect but that they disregard.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, again, nobody is buying it. He can stop pretending. We all know that he sent his members in to block the investigation of the justice committee. He did so, knowing that there were more details to come out.

The former attorney general wrote, “These matters are still unfolding, and further clarity and information is needed.” For Canadians to hear the whole truth, they need to hear additional testimony and this investigation has to continue.

Once again, will he allow the ethics committee to conduct a full and public investigation into his corruption scandal?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, once again, we respect the committees. They will make their own decisions about what they want to do, and we will co-operate with them.

The Conservatives clearly do not want to talk about the economy or about the issues that matter to Canadians. Yesterday we presented a budget that shows we listened to Canadians. It shows that we know how to invest in the middle class and in the community. The Conservatives have no plan for the economy, which is why they are trying to distract Canadians and play politics.

We will stay focused on Canadians.

[Jagmeet Singh, Burnaby South, NDP]

Mr. Speaker, instead of listening to Canadians and bringing down the cost of prescription drugs, the Liberal Prime Minister gives powerful insiders special access to get what they want. When Canadians start asking questions about just where his priorities actually lie, he dodges and dismisses. He refuses to come clean. Now the Liberals have shut down the justice committee investigation to get to the truth. Maybe we will have an ethics committee look at it.

Will the Prime Minister guarantee that Canadians will hear from everyone involved before the next election?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I want to wish my hon. colleague a happy International Day of La Francophonie. I also want to remind him that the rules of the House allow for committees to set their own agendas and to decide what they will do. It is not up to party leaders to tell committees what to do. On this side of the House, we respect the independence of our committees and we always will.

As for pharmacare, we are very proud of the $500 million we have allocated to help families dealing with rare diseases pay for their medications.

Health

[Jagmeet Singh, Burnaby South, NDP]

Mr. Speaker, this proves once again why we need a public inquiry.

Canadians pay, on average, $1,300 for health care. The Prime Minister had an opportunity yesterday to reduce costs for Canadians by creating a universal public pharmacare program. What did he do instead? He decided to buy some time for wealthy drug companies.

Why did the Prime Minister decide to put rich corporations and their profits first, rather than Canadians and their pocketbooks?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, that is not at all what we did. We understand that no Canadian should be forced to decide between medicine and food.

With the budget we tabled yesterday, we are laying the foundation for a national pharmacare program. We are creating the Canadian drug agency. With the provinces and territories, the agency will negotiate drug prices for all Canadians, and this will reduce costs by as much as $3 billon a year.

We are also investing $500 million to create a national strategy for high-cost drugs used to treat rare diseases. We are helping Canadians.

The Budget

[Jagmeet Singh, Burnaby South, NDP]

Mr. Speaker, of course the Liberal budget does not reflect Canadians' housing and pharmacare needs. While people were looking for help, the Prime Minister spent the past year helping his rich friends and defending his own political interests.

Why is the Prime Minister working only for his friends rather than making the real changes people need?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to have an opportunity to talk about our historic investments in housing. We are making major investments to help Canadians find affordable housing.

Our new first-time home buyer incentive will make it more affordable for first-time home buyers to own their own home. It will lower their monthly mortgage payments.

We also increased funding for the rental construction financing initiative, which will help to build thousands of new housing units.

We knew that Canada required federal leadership on housing, and we have been living up to that challenge for the past three years.

Housing

[Jagmeet Singh, Burnaby South, NDP]

Mr. Speaker, this budget had the Liberals' powerful friends covered, but it was a missed opportunity to listen to Canadians who cannot afford a place to live. For people who are waiting, every delay hurts. Wait-lists for co-op housing are decades long. Hundreds of people are standing in line for new rentals when they become available. It is not too late for the government to do right by people.

Will the Liberal government build half a million new affordable homes now?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we have been investing in housing for three years now, including through our $40-billion national housing strategy.

We are building housing in co-operation with indigenous communities. We are building and renovating housing in urban areas. We are helping people by creating more affordable rental housing.

We know that there is still work to be done. That is why we proposed an innovative measure to help first-time home buyers.

Investing in housing is exactly what we are doing.

Justice

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, what has become abundantly clear with this cover-up is that the Prime Minister is nothing but a fake feminist. This all started when the good old boys at SNC-Lavalin were caught bribing and spending money on prostitutes and then the Prime Minister and his good old boys said to them, “Don't worry, we'll take care of it.” However, then a woman, the former attorney general, said no to the good old boys and she was promptly fired and silenced.

Why is the Prime Minister silencing women of principle while covering up for the actions of his corrupt friends?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we have nothing to learn from the Conservatives about standing up for women's rights in this country. We have been investing in women's equality from day one, with our gender-balanced budget and our unequivocal defence of women's reproductive rights. Investing in women, in equality and in pay equity will always be a priority for us.

The Conservatives are still against abortion, whereas we will always defend women's rights.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is really good at yelling and screaming at women, as the member for Whitby knows. He is also a very good actor. However, he is a fake feminist. We know that after the principled resignation of the former president of the Treasury Board, another good old boy, the Minister of Finance, said she just quit because she was good friends with the former attorney general and that is just what girls do.

Why is the Prime Minister and his friends thinking it is so much easier to silence women and—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Order.

Members will know that members have 35 seconds to ask a question and the same to answer it. Members know there is much too much talk in the House, particularly during answers, and occasionally there is a bit during questions, but there should not be either. Neither should occur. Members on both sides should show respect for the rules and traditions of this place. I appreciate very much the hon. members' interest in the question of decorum.

The right. hon. Prime Minister.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, it is pretty rich for the Conservative Party to be lecturing us about standing up for women's rights. That party still refuses to defend a woman's right to choose. That is yet another outdated position they will have to reconsider.

We will always stand up for women's rights. We will always invest in the advancement of women, not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because it is smart economics. We are going to build a stronger economy with women, instead of putting them in a corner.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, we know that the Prime Minister likes to just say that women have experienced interactions with him differently. Boy, where have we heard that one before? However, we know what the Liberal member for Whitby said. She had an experience where the Prime Minister phoned her and screamed at her so loudly her husband could hear it through the phone.

Why is it that the Prime Minister cannot see that when he silences women, yells and screams at them and says that their experiences are just different perspectives, he is demeaning all women and showing what a fake feminist he is?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I would love to see the Leader of the Opposition try to prove he is a better feminist than I am. It would be great for our democracy if the Leader of the Opposition decided to stand up for women and stop voting against budgets that help women and against investments in organizations that support women in need.

If the Leader of the Opposition wants to prove that he is a better feminist than I am, I say go ahead. It would be great for our political system.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, here is the problem for the Prime Minister. He asked for strong women and this is what they look like: women who will not sacrifice their principles to cover up his corruption scandal, women who stand up every day and refuse to back down against his abuse of our judiciary and parliamentary committees. More importantly, his use of the term “feminist”: fake.

I will ask one more time. If the Prime Minister is such a feminist, why is he muzzling the former attorney general?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to serve alongside strong, extraordinary women, not only in my gender-balanced cabinet, but also within our caucus.

These are extraordinary women who work hard every day and are helping to build a stronger Canada, a country where gender equality prevails and where indigenous peoples are given opportunities as partners in everything we do, a country where we have lifted 825,000 people out of poverty in the past two years, because we are investing in the middle class and those working hard to join it.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, it seems the only women that the Prime Minister is proud of are those who use their reputations to do his dirty work. That is wrong. That is not a feminist. There is a reason why he used “they experienced things differently” both in the Creston groping scandal and in Lav scam. It is because he wants women to think and take the message that if they accuse him, a powerful man of wrongdoing, then they are to blame, and that is wrong.

Why is the Prime Minister only letting his good old boys do all the talking?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to talk about everything this government is doing to protect and promote women's rights.

We are currently providing sexual and reproductive health services to Rohingya families and girls who have fled Myanmar. We created the position of ambassador for women, peace and security. We are supporting women through the Elsie Initiative, for women in peace operations. We are standing up for women by defending the rights of women in Saudi Arabia, something the Conservatives are too gutless to do. We are working closely with our G7 partners on education for women and girls in developing countries—