Debates of Oct. 27th, 2020

Public Safety

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, following one of the worst mass shootings in Canada's history, I had the sorry responsibility to speak with the members of families who lost loved ones, who had their lives and their communities shattered. I gave them a commitment that we would find out exactly what happened, what errors were made and who was to be held responsible for those errors; and demonstrate that we were committed to getting the answers all Nova Scotians, indeed all Canadians, want.

We proposed an inquiry that would be able to move quickly on that, but families said they wanted a national public inquiry. That is exactly what we are moving forward with, so that they get all the answers they need the way they need them.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, in the last week, the Minister of Indigenous Services and the grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations both called on the RCMP commissioner to resign. The Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness has been silent. The minister blamed CBSA officers for his failures, and now his own cabinet colleague is calling for the resignation of a chief under his watch. It is hard to believe that minister was once a chief himself.

My question for the Prime Minister is simple: Who is in charge of the RCMP?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, there is a long history of systemic racism in our institutions in this country, including in the RCMP. We have acknowledged, as has the commissioner, that throughout its history the service has not always treated racialized and indigenous people fairly. There is no question for anyone on this side of the House that systemic racism exists within the RCMP. We are therefore working with the commissioner, who will bring forward meaningful change to ensure police treat all people with dignity and respect.

Health

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, during the first wave of the pandemic, the government was slow to act on many fronts, including the border, emergency programs and rapid testing. Other countries are using a million tests a week, whereas Canada is using almost none.

Why did the Prime Minister not learn from the first wave, and when will he start actually doing his job?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, public health agencies started holding meetings in early January to look at what was coming out of China and to raise concerns about the arrival of the pandemic. As soon as the pandemic arrived in Canada, we provided the Canada emergency response benefit, or CERB, to millions of Canadians across the country. Our public servants worked extremely quickly to almost immediately provide the help people needed.

The Leader of the Opposition says that we were wrong to help families first and that we should have helped businesses. We did help businesses, but we helped families first.

Intergovernmental Relations

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister talks as though he is partnering with the provinces, but his minister blamed Quebec and the other provinces for the current situation. At the same time, the Prime Minister said that he would interfere in provincial jurisdictions.

Will the Prime Minister finally stop blaming others and get to work?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House, we respect and understand provincial jurisdictions, which means we recognize that long-term care homes, for example, are Quebec's responsibility.

However, we want to work with Quebec and all provinces to ensure that seniors across the country are protected and that there are standards of care in order to reassure families, seniors and all Canadians. We are taking care of seniors all across the country. The federal government is responsible for protecting all Canadians, and that is what we are going to do.

Indigenous affairs

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, when I asked about a University of Ottawa professor being deprived of her freedom, the Prime Minister replied that we are responsible for what we say. I imagine that we are just as responsible for the makeup we wear. I refused to define him as a racist during his blackface scandal.

In a similar vein, will the Prime Minister acknowledge that the Indian Act is racist and systemic and that the act's name, which contains the “I” word, is just as insulting to Canada's first nations?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Party has recognized for many years that the Indian Act is a colonial law that is part of systemic racism, which, incidentally, the Bloc does not recognize, and that it is a problem that must be resolved.

We are working with indigenous peoples at their own pace to move beyond the Indian Act. We have signed agreements with several communities, and we are working with all communities across the country to do away with this legislation. We will do it in partnership, not by decree like the Bloc Québécois wants.

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we are not living in a fantasy world where history can be rewritten. The Bloc Québécois supports a nation-to-nation relationship. I get the impression that the Prime Minister does not know what a nation is. The Prime Minister probably does not watch the news, because the Bloc Québécois publicly recognized the concept of systemic racism in March. I do not know where the Prime Minister was. Now, he is the sponsor and person responsible for the Indian Act. Matthew, chapter 7, verses 3 to 5 mention something about motes and beams. Does that mean anything to him?

Will he set a deadline for abolishing that act by agreement, via a nation-to-nation treaty between Canada and the first nations?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

If the leader of the Bloc Québécois would bother to spend some time talking to representatives of Canada's indigenous communities, he would see that many of them want to ensure that they will continue to have the protections and partnerships set out in this unfair colonial act before it goes away, while others want to do away with it more quickly.

We are working in partnership with them, and we will continue to respect this reconciliation process as partners, moving at their pace, not our own.

Pharmacare

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, today I met with FTQ leaders. They reiterated their demand for fully public universal pharmacare. They said that close to one million Quebeckers do not buy the medication they need because it costs too much.

Why is the Prime Minister dragging his heels instead of creating a fully public universal pharmacare program?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, nobody should have to choose between paying for medication and buying groceries to put food on the table and in the cupboard.

We will keep working with the provinces to reduce the cost of medication across the country. We have already made great strides, reducing drug costs by about $13 billion. We will continue to work closely with the provinces, while respecting their jurisdiction, to deliver a pharmacare system that costs Canadians less, so they can afford the medications they need.

Child Care

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Tunney's Pasture has a day care centre in Ottawa that is not for profit. Its landlord recently increased its rent to $14,000 a month, forcing this day care to close. However, here is the clincher. Guess who the landlord is. It is the Government of Canada. It is unbelievable that the government would allow this to happen. It really sucks when someone's day care centre shuts down in the middle of a pandemic.

Will the Prime Minister admit that his words on child care were, again, just empty promises?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we will be looking into this situation because it is indeed alarming. I thank the leader of the New Democratic Party for bringing that up.

I also want to highlight that we have been working closely with the provinces on moving forward on child care. We know child care is not just a social necessity, but an economic necessity. This pandemic has shown the cost to women who are having to make impossible choices between caring for their kids, or seeing their kids cared for and getting back to work. This needs to come to an end. That is why we are moving forward on child care.

Official Languages

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, there are reports this morning that bilingualism in the public service has been put on the back burner during the pandemic. When public servants on the same team cannot understand one another, it leads to bad decisions and complete chaos, as evidenced by how some of the support measures were implemented.

I have a very simple question. Has the lack of bilingualism in the public service caused any problems in the implementation of support measures?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, as a francophone from Quebec myself, I am very pleased to be able to answer this very important question.

I think we all agree that French in the public service is essential, not only to ensure that public servants can do their jobs, but obviously to properly serve Canadians in their preferred language. We will continue to work very hard with the public service to ensure that everyone understands that the right to work in French is an essential right.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure if we are talking about the same thing, but video conferences are in English only and the documents are never translated. In the COVID-19 era, francophones in public health are feeling increasingly isolated.

It is not as though the government did not know. The Commissioner of Official Languages raised the problem, but again, the Liberals did nothing. That is quite a message to send to francophones in public health, who are being left to fend for themselves.

Why did the government ignore the Commissioner of Official Languages?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague again for the opportunity to speak to this extremely important issue.

Like him, I share the sentiment that the right to work in French in the public service is an absolutely essential right.

However, unlike him, I recognize that we are working very well and very productively with the Commissioner of Official Languages. We will continue to do so because he is vital to ensuring that the public service always completely respects freedom of choice of language and the ability to work in the language of one's choice.

Foreign Affairs

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

Mr. Speaker, I am sure that the Prime Minister gets hundreds of requests to meet with Canadians from right across the country. I am sure that, because the Prime Minister's time is precious, he must make deliberate decisions on who he meets with and why.

With that mind, why did the Prime Minister choose to meet with multiple Chinese Communist Party elites who have apparent links to gangs, illegal casinos and organized crime here in Canada?

[Rob Oliphant, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to answer that question. As we all know in the House, the relationship between China and Canada is an intricate, difficult and complex relationship, which we are managing carefully, particularly in light of the fact that we have Canadians who have been arbitrarily held in detention.

We will continue to do everything we can to ensure that human rights are protected and Canadian lives are protected. We will continue to speak up, strongly and forcefully, on all issues that affect us in that relationship with China.

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

Mr. Speaker, we know that some of these bad actors are also big donors to the Liberal Party and the Trudeau Foundation. We are known by the company we keep, and the Prime Minister seems quite comfortable hanging out with Chinese Community Party officials.

It begs the question: Does the Prime Minister's fear of Communist China and his refusal to, for example, ban Huawei from Canada's 5G or stand up for Canadians who are being held hostage in China have anything to do with his being compromised by his cozy relationship with CCP officials?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, we will take no lessons from the Conservatives when it comes to standing up to China. We were the very first country in the world to suspend our extradition treaty after the imposition of a national security law. We suspended the export of sensitive equipment. We have updated our travel advisory.

We have been a leading voice in the world when it comes to defending human rights. We will continue to defend the rights and interests of Canadians around the world and stand up against anyone who would go against our interests.

Poverty

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this government is waging a war on work and keeping poor people poor.

According to a Department of Finance report obtained by journalist Jordan Press, a single mother earning $30,000 would lose almost 70 cents on every additional dollar earned. If she earned $55,000, she would lose 80 cents on every additional dollar earned. The least fortunate lose the most.

Why is the government penalizing people trying to work their way out of poverty?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance and to the Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I have heard of a wolf in sheep's clothing, but I never thought I would see one on the floor of the House of Commons.

The reality is, when we put forward measures to actually cut taxes for the middle class and raise taxes on the wealthiest 1%, that member voted against it. When we changed the Canada child benefit to put more money in the pockets of middle-class families and stopped sending child care cheques to millionaires, that member voted against it.

With respect to the measures we put forward in this pandemic to ensure that middle-class and low-income families could keep food on the table and a roof over their heads, that member stepped up to the microphone and said that an approach of big fat government programs would not help Canadians. Those workers deserve to know that their government will have their backs and that is precisely what we will do.