Debates of Dec. 7th, 2020

National Defence

[Leona Alleslev, Conservative, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Madam Speaker, when I was at the Royal Military College, less than 10% of the students were women. We were not welcome, and we were given every incentive to drop out. Little has changed in the 30 years since. Women are still under-represented in the forces, and there is still discrimination.

When will this government take action to retain more women in the Canadian Forces?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Madam Speaker, the Canadian Armed Forces are working extremely hard to promote more women in the Canadian Armed Forces. In fact, we have designated that 25% are to be included in the Canadian Armed Forces. We will continually assess the progress and make changes as necessary. We will not stop at 25%. We will continue until we have reached full parity.

[Claude DeBellefeuille, Bloc, Salaberry—Suroît, QC]

Madam Speaker, the interpreter says the sound is really bad.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I remind members that they need a headset with the boom down to ensure the interpreters are able to translate. Headsets are a must for all goings on in Parliament.

I will have to go to the next question, since the minister does not have his headset.

The hon. member for Churchill—Keewatinook Aski.

Health

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

Madam Speaker, the back-and-forth between the Liberals and the Conservatives on the vaccine shows what is wrong with our politics. They are blaming each other while leaving Canadians in the lurch.

It is rare that I say this, but they have a point. When the Liberals say the Conservatives privatized and ravaged our national capacity for production, they are not wrong. When the Conservatives point to the decades of Liberal austerity that got us here, they are also not wrong. However, it is Canadians who are paying the price.

Lives are at stake. When will the government invest in the publicly owned national production of the vaccine so that Canadians get what they need?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Madam Speaker, we are very proud of our innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers and scientists. That is why we made significant investments in made-in-Canada solutions. We invested $35 million in VIDO-InterVac, in Saskatoon. We invested $173 million in Medicago, in Quebec City. We also supported the National Research Council's facility in Royalmount with $44 million.

We will continue to support made-in-Canada solutions and support local manufacturing capabilities.

Taxation

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Madam Speaker, the banks are making record profits, and big corporations and their CEOs have gotten richer during the pandemic. Instead of going after the ultrawealthy, instead of implementing a wealth tax and instead of shutting loopholes for offshore tax havens, the Liberals are now making the self-employed pay back the support they received in good faith through the CERB.

It is weeks before Christmas. Instead of taxing the ultrawealthy, why are the Liberals acting like the grinch and stealing Christmas from those who can afford it the least?

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

Madam Speaker, let me correct the record. When it came to supporting low-income and middle-income Canadians through the course of this pandemic, we were there for them. Nine million Canadians took advantage of the CERB to help keep food on their tables and a roof over their heads. When it came to supporting small businesses, we did the same thing.

If the hon. member is so concerned about taxing the wealthy, I suggest she talk to her NDP colleagues in the last Parliament who voted against the Canada child benefit, which is putting more money into the pockets of nine out of 10 families, and voted against our plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest 1% so we could cut them for the middle class.

Women and Gender Equality

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Madam Speaker, 50 years ago today, the report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women was tabled in this place. The report called for many measures to help achieve gender equality, something our government continues to work toward.

Could the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development please share some of the progress we have seen made for women in Canada since that report was tabled 50 years ago?

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development]

Madam Speaker, 50 years ago today, there would not have been enough women in the House to ask the question and then answer the question. Here we are, 50 years later, and there are 100 of us in the House.

Our job is to honour and thank those whose shoulders we stand on, to protect the fragile progress that has been made, to protect the hard-won gains we have all made and to commit to focusing and staying united to complete the unfinished business of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women report.

Indigenous Affairs

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Madam Speaker, on December 8, 2015, the government launched an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. Fast forward five years and it still has yet to deliver its promised action plan. The government, at best, has instituted a lack of action plan that can be seen in the most recent updated economic statement, which was really just a patchwork of spending that should have been targeted.

When will the government share a proper plan?

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations]

Madam Speaker, I have always had difficulty, because this was rejected by the former government and was for decades fought for for the families and survivors and by the families and survivors. We will not let them down.

We launched the first-ever national public inquiry and now have over 100 indigenous women and two-spirited people working together for an effective plan that will be accountable for its results. I believe the investment last week of almost $800 million is adding to all of the work we have been doing for the last five years. We will get there.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Madam Speaker, the Conservatives have always put a priority on an action plan for murdered and missing indigenous women and girls. However, this government has a history of not delivering on its promises. Last week, it was about not delivering on clean drinking water. This week, it is about failing to address violence against indigenous women and girls.

Instead of establishing a real plan, the minister is simply throwing money at the tragedy. When will the minister announce a national action plan with the dollars targeted toward that plan?

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations]

Madam Speaker, as the member well knows, this is a national action plan. It requires all of the provinces, territories and indigenous governments, all of the partners, to work together to make sure that there will be a national action plan.

Yukon will be coming forward with its approach this week. We will get there together, and it will be effective and accountable, as we have been with the $30 million going forward over the next five years to make sure the plan is working.

Justice

[Jag Sahota, Conservative, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Madam Speaker, recently a Financial Post article on MindGeek detailed a well-known 2015 case in the United States involving one of Pornhub's partner channels. It was successfully sued by 22 victims of sex trafficking whose videos were published on Pornhub. These videos received over 670 million views.

The victims pleaded to have their videos removed, yet as recently as last week, MindGeek was still allowing these videos to be uploaded.

Why has Canada become a tech haven for online exploitation of women and girls?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Madam Speaker, online platforms are central to our everyday communications and allow us to connect with the world. However, we are extremely concerned that they are used to endanger the safety of individuals, including vulnerable persons and children. This is why our government is actively working to create new regulations that would require online platforms to eliminate illegal content, including hate speech, child sexual exploitation and violent extremist content.

I hope that the official opposition will work with us and vote in favour of this legislation when we bring it forward.

[Jag Sahota, Conservative, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Madam Speaker, the minister's mandate letter instructs him to ensure websites remove illegal content and online harms such as hate speech, incitement to violence and exploitation of children.

Canada's MindGeek is a big tech monopoly that owns the vast majority of the world's online explicit sites.It profits off sexual exploitation and racism. The minister indicated that he wants to take on big tech companies. Will he start in Canada's own backyard with MindGeek?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Madam Speaker, we intend to introduce these regulations as early as the beginning of the session in 2021, and we have already started tackling online platforms. I tabled Bill C-10 just a few weeks ago.

I hope Conservative Party members will vote in favour of the bill to start tackling online platforms. I hope they will also vote for the bill that we will be bringing forward to tackle online hate and child pornography.

Public Services and Procurement

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Madam Speaker, inexplicably, the government has not yet awarded the contract for the John G. Diefenbaker icebreaker to Davie. That ship should have been built three years ago. Ottawa even had to take the contract away from the company that had won it because it could not start construction. To this day, the feds stubbornly refuse to give the contract to Davie.

As the Liberals well know, Davie is the only shipyard in Canada capable of starting construction now. Davie has the capacity to do it.

Will the government finally announce that it is giving the John G. Diefenbaker contract to Davie?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Minister of Public Services and Procurement]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question.

The Davie shipyard is a strong and reliable partner for our government. We have worked with Davie on several occasions in the past.

As for her question, we have been working hard with Davie, and we will continue to do so over the coming months and years.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Madam Speaker, Davie has received less than 3% of the contracts to date. Ottawa withdrew the John G. Diefenbaker contract from Seaspan because it was unable to complete it. In exchange, the government awarded Seaspan a contract for 16 small vessels.

Davie can fulfill this contract now, but Ottawa would rather give the contract back to the company it took it away from. That makes no sense. It is doing everything it can to squeeze out Quebec.

Why is Ottawa so bent on depriving Quebec of 2,000 jobs and $1 billion in investments?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Minister of Public Services and Procurement]

Mr. Speaker, as I have already said in the House, all Canadian shipyards had the opportunity to respond to a request for information that expired on March 13, 2020.

The responses received by Public Services and Procurement Canada and the information collected through this process will enable the Government of Canada to determine the best practices for the coming months and years.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Madam Speaker, the Liberals boldly promised to bring in over 400,000 new permanent residents into Canada next year. Meanwhile, there are over 10,000 permanent residents abroad who were approved to come to Canada. They sold their homes, quit their jobs and pulled their kids out of school, yet they have been stranded in their country of origin for over nine months. They have had little to no communication of when they can finally come to Canada, as promised by the Liberal government.

How on earth is the government going to process and bring in hundreds of thousands of new immigrants next year when it cannot even give dignity or certainty to the thousands it has approved this year?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Madam Speaker, I am happy to take the question.

The answer is simple. We have a plan that is focused on jobs. We have a plan that is focused on economic recovery, and we have a plan that is focused on long-term prosperity. We are investing additional resources. We are leveraging technology. We have a plan that is going to drive this country forward.

International Trade

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Madam Speaker, exporting businesses need certainty and stability, yet exporters have no idea what January 1 will look like for them, regardless of whether the government signs an agreement with the United Kingdom or not.

We were told at the trade committee by exporters that this does not make them feel comfortable, and customs brokers are saying that small businesses are coming to them looking for advice, and they have no idea what to say.

The U.K. is our third-largest export market, so when will the minister disclose to businesses what the plan is? There are only 16 days left.