Debates of Oct. 29th, 2020

Official Languages

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the situation is particularly problematic in a pandemic. I am not the one saying so. I am quoting the Commissioner of Official Languages, who said that the government must address the matter and ensure that it can communicate in both official languages simultaneously, adding that it was crucial to the safety of Canadians.

The president of the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada goes even further. He says that with the current situation, citizens are being placed at risk.

When will the President of the Treasury Board address the situation in all departments?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, it goes without saying that the President of the Treasury Board and I agree. We always need to do more. We must also protect the health and safety of Canadians. There must be respect for the letter and the spirit of the Official languages Act. That is why it is a priority and we work on it every day.

We know that we are in the midst of a pandemic. We also know that this is an extraordinary situation. We have made adjustments and fine-tuned our approach.

Under the circumstances, I thank the commissioner for his excellent work. We will follow his recommendations.

Intergovernmental Relations

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the federal government had no justification to invoke the War Measures Act in 1970. It had to come up with some kind of James Bond plot to get it approved. The Liberals claimed that there was an insurrection brewing in Quebec; that a provisional government was prepared to overthrow the rule of law; and that 3,000 terrorists armed with machine guns, shotguns and dynamite were just waiting for a signal to take down the government. The government lied to invoke the War Measures Act and it did so against the advice of the RCMP.

Fifty years later, will the government finally admit that it made a mistake and apologize?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, we have the privilege of living in a society that stands for democracy, dialogue and respect for differences, a society in which conflicts are resolved through politics, not violence. That is who we are. That is our history, but if we are talking about our history, we need to talk about all of it. We need to talk about all of the facts and not just the ones that suit us.

[Caroline Desbiens, Bloc, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the federal government did not arrest terrorists during the October crisis. The federal government arrested our national poet Gaston Miron. It tried to silence the great Pauline Julien. Ottawa had poet Gérald Godin arrested.

Will the Minister of Heritage and member for Plateau Mont-Royal, the riding of Godin, the home of Miron and Julien, acknowledge that the federal government tried to intimidate Quebec by caging up its culture?

Will his government finally apologize for the abuses of the October crisis?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, on Saturday, October 10, 1970, at 6:18 p.m., Pierre Laporte was playing with his nephew in front of his home. That was the last time his family saw him alive.

Why does the Bloc motion fail to mention that? Why does it ignore the kidnapping and murder of this man who was an MNA, a minister, but above all a father, son and husband? Why?

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the 497 arrests during the October crisis were not just immoral and violent, but also illegal.

That is what the IRAI demonstrated in a study published this morning. After the order that enacted the measures written in English only, the legislation would be illegal and in violation of at least 12 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1970, what we saw were not arrests so much as abductions and confinements.

Why refuse to apologize for such dangerous abuse?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I love my Quebec and I love it as deeply as I am sure all Bloc Québécois MPs love it, but when we love Quebec that much we must not try to divide it, but instead try to unite it. That is what we must do. It is the responsibility of each member of the House and that includes all Bloc Québécois MPs.

COVID-19 Emergency Response

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I asked the Prime Minister two questions, and he could not answer me. Today, I will direct my question to the minister responsible for the file.

The first vaccine development contract that was signed was awarded to a Chinese company called CanSino Biologics. The contract failed, in reality, because the Chinese communist regime cannot be trusted.

Now that the government has made this mistake, we want to know how many millions of dollars have been lost because of this failed deal.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.

Let me clarify that the company and government in question did not receive any funding from the Government of Canada. We will continue to actively pursue all promising options for a vaccine against COVID-19.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, that is what I call an answer. He might want to share that with the Prime Minister, who did not seem to be aware of it yesterday. We would like to get the same kinds of answers to questions about WE Charity and Frank Baylis and the $237 million.

Things did not work out with CanSino Biologics, so we are falling behind. We know that seven companies were contracted, but we want to know how far behind Canada will be in getting COVID-19 vaccines.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for giving me this opportunity to speak.

It is important to have a vaccine strategy. That is why we will keep working with all the companies to find solutions for all Canadians across Canada. That is an absolute priority for our government.

Health

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the minister might want to update his notes for next time.

Now let us talk about rapid tests, another complex file for the Liberals. The first time I asked the question, the minister was proud to answer that the government had 200,000 rapid tests for Quebec. Then she backtracked in the media and said there were 30,000. Yesterday, the Prime Minister said there were 200,000.

Can we get an accurate number? Do we have an update?

How many rapid tests are ready for Quebec, and when will we get them?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is actually correct. I made an error. In fact, 453,000 tests have been shipped this week to Quebec, and we look forward to supporting the province of Quebec with future shipments as they arrive.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, families are sharing appalling stories of the treatment of their loved ones at Parkview Place. Yesterday, CBC reported that this federally owned, for-profit care home did not even separate COVID positive residents from other residents. Their beds were simply pushed apart.

This is unacceptable. We know reducing crowding saves lives. The tragedy at Parkview and other long-term care homes has happened under the watch of the Liberal government. Will the government immediately end for-profit care and implement national standards before families lose more precious lives?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I share the deep dismay of the member opposite at the conditions many people have to live in in long-term care homes. Let me be clear. All long-term care home operators must be held accountable for providing care that protects the lives and dignity of the people for whom they are paid to care for.

We must do better, as the Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister have said. Every step of the way we have been there for provinces and territories, including $730 million in the safe restart program to ensure better infection prevention control measures. We will continue to be there as we develop standards for every Canadian across the country.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians across this country are deeply concerned about their parents and grandparents in long-term care. Shamefully, seniors living in for-profit homes are four times more likely to become infected and die from COVID-19 than those in non-profit homes. That is unacceptable and it shows what happens when profits, instead of quality care for seniors, are the priority. Every dollar must go to the well-being of patients.

Will the government commit to getting profits out of long-term care to ensure seniors are safe in these centres?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I share the member opposite's deep concern about the outbreaks of COVID-19 in long-term care facilities. This is a national tragedy. We have worked closely with our provincial counterparts to ensure that provinces and territories have guidance for facilities on how they can protect their residents from COVID-19. I believe that all long-term care operators must be held accountable to keeping their obligations to protect the people whom they are paid to serve.

Under the safe restart agreement, we have provided $740 million to support, control and prevent infections, including for those in long-term care. We are going to work with provinces and territories to set new—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The hon. member for West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country.

Official Languages

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Mr. Speaker, as the only francophone university west of Manitoba, Campus Saint-Jean is a source of pride for Franco-Albertans and all Canadians who believe in supporting Canada's official language minority communities. I know that because I was proud to attend the Pauline Johnson French immersion school in West Vancouver. However, the proposed education cuts by Jason Kenney's Conservative government is threatening vital institutions like Campus Saint-Jean.

Could the Minister of Official Languages tell the House that this government will continue to support Campus Saint-Jean and the community—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Order. The hon. Minister of Official Languages.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, our government understands that Franco-Albertans and all Albertans need to have access to post-secondary education in French. We have always supported Campus Saint-Jean, which is currently under threat of budget cuts by Alberta's Conservative government. We know that institutions such as Campus Saint-Jean are key to the vitality of our official language minority communities.

Will the Conservative leader who is right in front of me today join us, join his voice with ours and denounce the cuts currently being made in Alberta and talk to his friend Jason Kenney?

Employment Insurance

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, many thousands of unemployed Canadians, after claiming EI benefits, negotiated severance packages with former employers, either individually or through lawyers, but now they are stuck with no income at all. That is because Service Canada is not issuing notices of debt, leaving severance packages frozen in trust accounts while EI has been cut off pending back payment of portions of those packages.

Does the minister realize what is happening?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Minister of Employment]

Mr. Speaker, we worked really hard to make sure that severance earnings did not impact workers' entitlement to EI under the new, more generous EI system, which we temporarily have in place. I can promise this House to look into the exact issue the member is raising. Between me and my colleagues, we will make sure we address it.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, even before COVID, notices of debt were often delayed for many months. Now, they are not going out at all. This does not involve deep mathematical computation. The employer knows the severance package amount, the government knows how much EI has been paid, and simple subtraction should release the balance.

Why will the Liberals not act to ensure that more Canadians are not pushed into poverty?