Debates of May 16th, 2019

Finance

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

Mr. Speaker, this government will do anything to avoid accountability. We have seen them try to cover up interference in prosecution in the case of SNC-Lavalin and Mark Norman. Now the Auditor General says that his office cannot fulfill its mandate because it did not receive the funds it needs. As a result, the Office of the Auditor General has cancelled five important audits.

For 140 years, the Auditor General has helped hold governments accountable. Will the government commit today to end its culture of cover-ups and fully fund the Auditor General's office?

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board and Minister of Digital Government]

Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to supporting the important and ongoing work of our Auditor General. When an officer of Parliament such as the Auditor General identifies the need for additional resources, we consider such requests very carefully to ensure that the office can continue its important work for Canadians efficiently and effectively.

Natural Resources

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, with gas prices soaring, nothing protects Canadians from being gouged. A gas price monitoring agency was being established, until it was destroyed by the previous Conservative government. Meanwhile, Canadians keep getting ripped off.

Gas pumps routinely charge people the wrong amount of money, but when Canadians pump their gas, they want to know what they are getting and that they are paying the correct amount of money. To make things worse, the pumps are rarely inspected. All the while, the industry racks up record profits and continues to get subsidies from the Liberals. Canadians are fed up.

Why did the government not finally protect consumers and restore the price monitoring agency?

[Joël Lightbound, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I would remind the House that we are very serious about protecting consumers across the country. We are very concerned about these issues. In so many areas, including financial matters and consumer affairs, we want to ensure that Canadian consumers are properly protected, and that is what we will continue to do.

Canadian Heritage

[Pierre-Luc Dusseault, NDP, Sherbrooke, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Facebook and Google generated total advertising revenues of more than $5 billion last year, yet neither of those two multinationals paid a red cent in taxes to Canada.

The Minister of National Revenue says she wants to focus on the big fish. Hello! They are not called web giants for nothing. While her government sits on its hands, our artists, retailers, media and broadcasters are the ones paying the price for the government's willful blindness and rather subjective enforcement of the law.

When will she end the privileges given to the web giants?

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance (Youth Economic Opportunity)]

Mr. Speaker, we have been working hard with international partners to deal with web giants to ensure that they pay their fair share. This is not a uniquely Canadian problem. That is why we are working with our international counterparts and with groups like the OECD to come up with a consensus-based approach. We want to ensure that the tax system is fair and that it works for everybody.

I want to point out the consistent inconsistencies when it comes to the NDP in closing tax loopholes—

[An hon. member]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Order. I would ask the hon. member for Longueuil—Saint-Hubert not to be yelling when someone else has the floor.

The hon. member for Mont-Royal.

Health

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Mr. Speaker, 45,000 Canadians die of smoking-related issues each year. This amounts to one out of every five deaths in this country. Smoking-related illnesses cost the health care system approximately $6.5 billion every year. As such, I would like to ask the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health what steps the government is taking to reduce the use of tobacco products here in Canada, particularly among our young people.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague, the member for Mount Royal, for his work on this important issue. Tobacco kills one Canadian every 12 minutes. That is why our government kept its promise to better protect Canadians, particularly youth, by introducing plain packaging and new regulations on vaping, with more to come.

The Canadian Cancer Society calls our new regulations the best in the world. We will continue to protect our youth and all Canadians.

Justice

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Mr. Speaker, when the Minister of Finance's chief of staff became directly involved in the SNC-Lavalin corruption scandal, the Liberals did not admonish him. They rewarded him and gave him a promotion.

Now we learn that he threatened the staff of the former attorney general and tried to subvert the rule of law.

Why does this Prime Minister reward those who do his dirty work and fire those who stand up to him?

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said many times, on this side of the House, we respect our institutions, and we know that they operate independently of government. We know that we must let them do their work, but that is not how the Conservatives do things. They continue to play petty politics, but we will continue to work for Canadians. That is why we are here, and that is exactly why we brought forward an agenda that is working very well for Canadians. As for the Conservatives, they do not have a plan.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister fired his attorney general when she had the audacity or the courage to stand up to him. However, Ben Chin, a key actor in the SNC-Lavalin scandal, has been promoted as senior adviser to the now Prime Minister.

Let me get this straight. Under the current Liberal government, if people stand up to the Prime Minister, they get fired; if people help the Prime Minister do his dirty work, no problem, they get a big promotion.

My question is very simple. Does no one over there see the injustice, or what is wrong?

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, in Canada, the country I am proud to have been born and raised in and to be representing, we have officers of Parliament and we have an independent court system. They are functioning.

We know that the rule of law is intact in Canada, and this has been said on numerous occasions. Canadians can have confidence in their institutions. We, on this side, have confidence in those institutions, which work independently of government.

The Conservatives have always been used to undermining our institutions, and used to making their patronage appointments. That is why they cannot tell that the institutions are working. If Conservatives want to mislead Canadians, that is, unfortunately—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Order. The hon. member for Barrie—Innisfil.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, at the height of the SNC-Lavalin scandal, Ben Chin threatened the former attorney general's chief of staff saying, “your boss spoke to [the finance minister] yesterday, and said that me and Elder were 'mucking around' on this file. Be careful when using my name, Jess.” I guess he wanted her to use code names. By “mucking around on this file”, what the former attorney general meant was that Ben Chin was working to undermine our rule of law.

Instead of firing Chin, as he did with the former attorney general, the Prime Minister promoted him. How is that right?

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, what is right is that we have a rule of law that is intact in Canada. What is right and appropriate is to have confidence in our institutions. What is right and appropriate is to have confidence in the officers of Parliament.

That is exactly what we do on this side. The Conservatives, under 10 years of Stephen Harper, always continue to undermine the work of officers of Parliament. They did question, and continue to question, the independence of our judicial system. That is very unfortunate. What is even more clear is that, here, we discuss government business, but the Conservatives continue to smear names because they know those individuals cannot be in here to defend themselves, and they are taking advantage of their privilege.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Chin was so aggressive to insert himself into the independence of our judicial process that the former attorney general went to the finance minister. She said, “I told him that engagements from his office to mine on SNC had to stop, that they were inappropriate.”

“They did not stop”, she said, adding that her chief of staff subsequently received calls from Ben Chin on SNC-Lavalin and the need for a deal.

What message does it send when someone who actively worked to undermine our rule of law is promoted, and those who defend it, like the former attorney general, are fired and kicked out of caucus?

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, from the beginning, what we have always said is that Canadians deserve to know the truth, and that is exactly why the committee was able to work independently of this place. That is exactly why the Prime Minister waived solicitor-client privilege, as well as cabinet confidence.

This is the first time that this has happened. It is unprecedented. People should be able to speak for themselves. We live in a country where we have a rule of law that is intact. Unfortunately, that member cannot handle having people speak for themselves, because he feels that he needs to speak for them. I think the former attorney general is more than capable.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Order. The hon. member for Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek and others will come to order.

The hon. member for Trois-Rivières.

The Environment

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Cusson, president of the Union des municipalités du Québec, had a message for federal leaders: “We will ask them to choose effective ways to fight climate change”.

The Liberals have responded with a motion devoid of commitments, whereas the NDP is proposing to stop the expansion of Trans Mountain, eliminate subsidies to oil companies and bring back Jack Layton's climate change accountability act, among other things.

Will the Liberals recognize the merits of our position and vote for the NDP motion?

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

Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that the NDP motion was only moved after our motion was announced. They are playing politics with their motion.

Our motion is clear and non-partisan. Together, we must recognize three things: first, that there is a climate emergency; second, that the science behind climate change is clear; and third, that we must meet our international obligations.

I urge everyone in the House to vote for action on climate change. It is an emergency.

[An hon. member]

Oh, oh!