Debates of May 15th, 2019

Violence against Women

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise today to present a petition from many members of my constituency, who are concerned with the fact that we still have a crisis of violence against women in the country, that it particularly and disproportionately affects indigenous women and girls and that we still have unanswered questions in the tragedy of missing and murdered indigenous women.

The petitioners call for a full program to address the threat of violence against women, including shifting cultural attitudes toward women and gender minorities, requiring structural changes in education and socialization.

Physician-Assisted Dying

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise and present 22 petitions on behalf of hundreds of residents from British Columbia, who believe that the fundamental conscience rights of doctors and health workers are not being protected by the government in relation to participation in assisted suicide.

The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to enshrine in the Criminal Code the protection of conscience for physicians and health care institutions from coercion or intimidation to provide assisted suicide or euthanasia.

I trust the government will faithfully deal with the concerns of these citizens.

Vision Care

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present petitions containing the signatures of literally hundreds of British Columbians, who urge the Government of Canada to commit to acknowledging that eye heath and vision care are a growing public health issue, particularly among Canada's most vulnerable populations, children, seniors, indigenous people and those with diabetes. They want the government to do this through establishing a national framework for action to promote eye health and vision care.

Agriculture

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I bring a petition forward on behalf of a number of my constituents, who call on Parliament to recognize the inalienable right of farmers and other Canadians to freely save, reuse, select, exchange, condition, store and sell their seeds. They do not want restrictions put on farmers' rights and/or farmers' costs by restricting or eliminating this privilege that farmers have.

Employment Insurance

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to have the opportunity to table this petition, which was signed primarily by Quebeckers, in particular those living on the North Shore, and calls on the Government of Canada to provide universal access to employment insurance.

We know that approximately 38% of the people who pay into the EI fund are eligible for benefits. When we look at the statistics by gender, the situation is even worse because only 35% of unemployed women who pay into EI are eligible for benefits compared to 52% of unemployed men.

The petition calls for the enhancement of the current employment insurance system to ensure universal access to it by lowering the eligibility threshold to 350 hours or 13 weeks, establishing a minimum threshold of 35 weeks of benefits and increasing the benefit rate to 70% of salary based on the best 12 weeks of salary.

Those are some of the measures being proposed. I am pleased to table this petition.

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, if a revised response to Question No. 2178, originally tabled on March 18, and the government's responses to Questions Nos. 2347 to 2361 could be made orders for return, these returns would be tabled immediately.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, Anthony Rota]

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

Question No. 2178

[Karine Trudel, NDP, Jonquière, QC]

With regard to federal spending from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2018: (a) what expenditures were made in the following municipalities (i) City of Saguenay, (ii) City of Saint-Honoré, (iii) Municipality of St-Ambroise, (iv) Municipality of Saint-Fulgence, (v) Municipality of Sainte-Rose-du-Nord, (vi) Municipality of Saint-Charles-de-Bourget, (vii) Municipality of Bégin, (viii) Municipality of Saint-Nazaire, (ix) Municipality of Labrecque, (x) Municipality of Lamarche, (xi) Municipality of Larouche, (xii) Municipality of Saint-David-de-Falardeau; and (b) what are the particulars of all grants, contributions and loans given to any group, broken down by (i) name of recipient, (ii) date of funding, (iii) department or agency that provided the funding, (iv) amount received, (v) program under which the funding was granted, (vi) purpose of the expenditure?

(Return tabled)

Question No. 2347

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

With regards to the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot program by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada: (a) what is the projected cost of administering the program; (b) what were the estimated benefits of this program to rural and northern communities predicted by the Government of Canada; (c) what is the expected financial benefit in quantifiable terms to the Canadian economy from this program; (d) was there an analysis conducted by the department of the negative impact of proposed government policies, including Bill C-68, Bill C-69, Bill C-88, as well as the carbon tax on the economic opportunities of newcomers to these regions?

(Return tabled)

Question No. 2348

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

With regards to the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada Case Processing Centre in Vegreville Alberta: (a)(i) how many employees requested an extension on the time limit to sell their homes under Section 8.2 of the National Joint Council Relocation Directive (NJCRD), (ii) how many employees have received an extension on the time limit to sell their homes under Section 8.2 of the NJCRD, (iii) how many applications for these employees took longer than the 10-day deadline for the department to respond to the request for an extension on the time limit to sell their homes under Section 8.2 of the NJCRD, (iv) what measures is the department taking to accommodate employees because of the depressed housing market conditions in Vegreville, (v) what steps is the department taking to ensure that the National Joint Council Relocation Directive is followed for these members; (b) of the employees that did not move to Edmonton, (i) how many current and former employees are potentially affected by the adjudication decision in August 2018 by the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board (Citation: 2018FPSLREB74) that the department failed to offer voluntary programs to employees who were not relocating, (ii) what is the maximum liability to the federal government for the potential cost of transition support measures and education allowances for these employees; (c) what is the current cost of the closure of the Case Process Centre in Vegreville Alberta, broken down by (i) costs related to relocating staff, (ii) costs related to surplus staff that chose not to relocate, (iii) costs related to closing the physical facility in Vegreville, (iv) fit-up costs for the workspace of employees that relocated to Edmonton, (v) fit-up costs for employees that relocated to other locations, (vi) costs related to any grievances and adjudications related to the closure, (vii) all other costs related to the closure, including salary costs of employees outside of the Vegreville Centre (management and internal services, headquarters staff, etc.) that advised, planned and oversaw the closure of the Centre; (d) what steps were taken to follow the “good neighbors policy” through the closure process; and (e) with the inclusion of the potential liabilities of the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board, what was the initial projected total cost of the closure of the Vegreville Case Processing Centre when the decision was taken to close the centre and what is the current projected total cost of the closure of the Vegreville Case Processing Centre?

(Return tabled)

Question No. 2349

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

With respect to the government’s answering of access to information requests, broken down by year from January 2011 to date : (a) how many times did the government fail to answer an access to information request within (i) 45 days, (ii) 90 days, (iii) 135 days, (iv) 180 days, (v) 225 days, (vi) 270-plus days; and (b) for each question which took over 180 days to answer as identified in (a)(iv), (a)(v) and (a)(vi), (i) what was the question, (ii) how much time did it take to provide an answer?

(Return tabled)

Question No. 2350

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

With regard to the government's plan to implement a comprehensive Border Enforcement Strategy as outlined in Budget 2019: (a) when will the details of the strategy be finalized; (b) will the government publicly release the details of the strategy; (c) of the proposed $1.8 billion investment (i) what is the breakdown of the funding by department or agency, (ii) what percentage of the funding will be dedicated to managing irregular migration, (iii) what percentage of the funding will be dedicated to discouraging irregular migration, (iv) what percentage of funding will be dedicated to preventing irregular migration; (d) what specific legislative changes is the government considering to "better manage, discourage and prevent irregular migration"; and (e) what is the government's timeline for introducing the changes identified in (d)?

(Return tabled)

Question No. 2351

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

With regard to federal spending to improve connectivity in Manitoba from November 4, 2015 to present: (a) what are the details of all expenditures made to projects through the Connect to lnnovate program including (i) recipient of funding, (ii) name of project, (iii) project start date, (iv) projected project completion date, (v) amount of funding pledged, (vi) amount of funding actually provided to date; (b) what are the details of all other expenditures intended to improve connectivity, including (i) recipient of funding, (ii) name of project, (iii) project start date, (iv) projected project completion date, (v) amount of funding pledged, (vi) amount of funding actually provided to date (vii) department or agency that provided the funding?

(Return tabled)

Question No. 2352

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

With regard to federal spending in Manitoba from November 4, 2015 to present, broken down by year: (a) what expenditures were made in the following electoral districts (i) Brandon—Souris, (ii) Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, (iii) Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, (iv) Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, (v) Elmwood—Transcona, (vi) Kildonan—St. Paul, (vii) Portage—Lisgar, (viii) Provencher, (ix) Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, (x) Selkirk-lnterlake-Eastman, (xi) Winnipeg Centre, (xii) Winnipeg North, (xiii) Winnipeg South, (xiv) Winnipeg South Centre; (b) what are the details of all grants, contributions, and loans given to any business, group, municipality, or organization including (i) name of recipient, (ii) date of funding, (iii) department or agency that provided the funding, (iv) amount received, (v) program under which the funding was granted, (vi) purpose of the expenditure; (c) for infrastructure projects in each of the electoral districts identified in (a), what are the details of each projects including (i) recipient of funding, (ii) name of project, (iii) project start date, (iv) projected project completion date, (v) amount of funding pledged, (vi) amount of funding actually provided to date?

(Return tabled)

Question No. 2353

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

With regard to federal spending in Manitoba from November 4, 2015 to present, broken down by year: (a) what expenditures were made in the following municipalities (i) Rural Municipality of De Salaberry, (ii) Rural Municipality of Emerson, (iii) Rural Municipality of Hanover, (iv) Rural Municipality of La Broquerie, (v) Rural Municipality of Montcalm, (vi) Town of Niverville, (vii) Rural Municipality of Piney, (viii) Rural Municipality of Reynolds, (ix) Rural Municipality of Ritchot, (x) Rural Municipality of Springfield, (xi) Village of St. Pierre-Jolys, (xii) Rural Municipality of Ste. Anne, (xiii) Town of Ste. Anne, (xiv) City of Steinbach, (xv) Rural Municipality of Stuartburn, (xvi) Rural Municipality of Taché, (xvii) Rural Municipality of Whitemouth; (b) what are the details of all grants, contributions, and loans given to any business, group, municipality, or organization including (i) name of recipient, (ii) date of funding, (iii) department or agency that provided the funding, (iv) amount received, (v) program under which the funding was granted, (vi) purpose of the expenditure

(Return tabled)

Question No. 2354

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

With regard to contract employees, per diem employees or other similar compensation arrangements for all government departments, agencies and Crown corporations, since November 2015: how many people have worked for rates equal to or more than (i) $300/hour, (ii) $400/hour, (iii) $500/hour, (iv) $700/hour, (v) $1000/hour?