Debates of Feb. 5th, 2020

Procedure and House Affairs

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The House has heard the terms of the motion. Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

(Motion agreed to)

Taxation

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Madam Speaker, I have two petitions to table today from my constituents.

The first petition is regarding increasing taxes. The petitioners are calling on the Liberal government to stop raising taxes on the middle class. They are specifically asking for a rejection by the Government of Canada on all new tax increases and to leave more money in the pockets of the people who earn it.

Natural Resources

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Madam Speaker, the second petition comes from more of my constituents.

The petitioners are asking for the repeal of Bill C-48 and Bill C-69. They draw the attention of the House of Commons to the fact that Canada has lost 7,000 kilometres of proposed pipeline. Well over 125,000 jobs and $100 billion in investments have been lost.

The petitioners are calling upon the Government of Canada to immediately repeal Bill C-48 and Bill C-69, the anti-tanker ban bill and the anti-pipeline bill.

The Environment

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Madam Speaker, it is an honour to table e-petition e-2322 on behalf of residents of Nova Scotia.

The petitioners are calling on the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard to require a portion of the existing Windsor causeway be removed to return free tidal flow to the Avon River, like the restoration of the Petitcodiac River in 2010. This would allow recovery and protection of the inner Bay of Fundy's Atlantic salmon, COSEWIC-listed American eel and their critical habitats. It would be in accordance with species at risk legislation and the precautionary approach as recommended by DFO science.

The petitioners are concerned that the Government of Nova Scotia is twinning Highway 101 and is looking to create a second aboiteau. They want to return that area back to a natural fish habitat. This is something they are urgently calling on the government to pay attention to and address.

Public Transit

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to table petition e-2297, signed by residents from across metro Vancouver. They are calling on the federal government to support traffic congestion relief through a permanent annual allocation of $3 billion across Canada, with $375 million per year allocated to our region.

This petition was initiated by John Aldag, who continues to work for the people of Cloverdale—Langley City, whom he represented in the last Parliament.

Metro Vancouver is always prepared with shovel-ready projects that will maximize the economic, environmental and quality-of-life benefits from all our federal investments. Our west coast ports are Canada's biggest, so anything we can do to improve the transportation network in metro Vancouver improves the productivity of our ports which has benefits right across the country.

Human Organ Trafficking

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Madam Speaker, I have two petitions to table today.

The first is on the issue of forced organ harvesting and trafficking. It was signed in support of bills that went forward in the last Parliament, Bill C-350 and Bill S-240. Bill S-240 received unanimous support in both Houses of Parliament. Unfortunately, it was not the same version so it was not adopted. Petitioners no doubt hope that a similar bill will be passed and finally make it into law in this Parliament.

Human Rights

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Madam Speaker, the second petition that I am tabling today highlights the particular challenges of Pakistani Christians in terms of the persecution they face and the challenges of Pakistani Christian asylum seekers in Thailand.

The petition calls on the Government of Canada to take up this matter urgently with the Government of Thailand. It urges the protection and humane treatment of Pakistani asylum seekers, saying that these asylum seekers must be provided the opportunity to apply for refugee status with the UNHCR, and for resettlement without being arrested, detained or deported.

Climate Change

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

Madam Speaker, I have the honour to rise today to present a petition about the Teck Resources Frontier oil sands project.

The petitioners ask the House of Commons to take note of the enormous greenhouse gas contribution that would occur if Teck Resources Limited's Frontier mine were approved. It would produce 260,000 barrels of bitumen a day. Environment and Climate Change Canada's submission to the environmental review panel pointed out that this project would be 24% more carbon intensive than the lowest carbon intensive oil sands projects. The petitioners note that this would violate Canada's climate commitments.

The petitioners call on the House of Commons and Parliament assembled to reject Teck.

Nine Mile Point Lighthouse

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Madam Speaker, I have a petition today signed by 148 residents in my riding of Kingston and the Islands who are bringing attention to Nine Mile Point Lighthouse, the oldest operating lighthouse in the Great Lakes that was built in 1833 on Simcoe Island, which is off of Wolfe Island in my riding. The petitioners are drawing the attention of the government to the need to preserve this lighthouse.

The petitioners are asking that the government halt the divestiture of Nine Mile Point Lighthouse on Simcoe Island. They call upon the government to engage with the local Nine Mile Point Lighthouse Preservation Society to set up historical plaques, fencing and other minimal tourism amenities so that its ongoing ecotourism, educational and cultural celebrations can continue for many years to come and to highlight this very important lighthouse on the Great Lakes.

Climate Change

[Jenica Atwin, Green, Fredericton, NB]

Madam Speaker, I have the honour to present a petition about the climate crisis.

The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to support Motion No. 1, a made in Canada green new deal, the first initiative before the House of Commons, which calls on Canada to take bold and rapid action to adopt socially equitable climate action to tackle the climate emergency and address worsening socio-economic and racial inequalities while at the same time ending fossil fuel subsidies, closing offshore tax havens and supporting workers impacted by the transition and creating well-paying unionized jobs in the shift to a clean and renewable energy economy.

Questions on the Order Paper

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.

The House resumed from February 3 consideration of the motion that Bill C-4, An Act to implement the Agreement between Canada, the United States of America and the United Mexican States, be read the second time and referred to a committee.

Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement Implementation Act

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Madam Speaker, on a point of order, when the hon. parliamentary secretary asks that all questions be allowed to stand, typically the question will be put to the House, for us to provide that unanimous consent. I believe that did not occur.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

Is it agreed that all questions be allowed to stand?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. member for Niagara Falls has three minutes left on his speech.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Madam Speaker, as I indicated in the House on Monday, it is indeed an honour for me to be taking part in my first debate here on the floor of the House of Commons.

In the short time available to me, I would like to resume debate and provide my concluding remarks on Bill C-4, an act to implement the agreement between Canada, the United States of America and the United Mexican States.

As I had indicated previously, Canada's Conservatives support free trade with our North American trading partners. What we do not support is rushing blindly into an agreement to implement a deal whose details have not yet been shared. I am confident when I say that members on this side are prepared to work with our Liberal colleagues to ensure that this agreement is ratified; however, we need them to be open and transparent about what those impacts will be. We know they have done financial modelling and analysis of how this new free trade agreement will affect Canada's economy, both overall and broken down by sector. Will the Liberals commit to showing all the members of this House these financial models?

We already know that dairy concessions in the agreement will negatively impact the industry. By allowing an agreement to be inked that opened our supply management system, the government will now be using taxpayers' dollars to compensate our dairy farmers, because of their loss in market share. We need to know if there are other industries that we will have to compensate with taxpayers' dollars, because these industries are going to be negatively impacted by this new NAFTA.

As it is, the wine industry in my riding of Niagara Falls is facing an uncertain business environment because of Australia's WTO challenge that would change our current federal excise exemption for 100% Canadian-made wines. This is another important sector in my riding that is waiting and wondering what the government is going to do. We are about eight weeks away from the World Trade Organization's interim report on this trade challenge, and the Liberals are missing in action on this important trade file.

Meanwhile, 700 wineries and 9,000 Canadians are wondering about the future of their jobs. That does not include the thousands of other local spinoff jobs supported by the wine industry, including accommodations, dining establishments and tour companies.

These are a few of my concerns that I have about the new NAFTA.

Parliamentarians need to know the details of what has changed from the existing agreement, who will be impacted and what can be done to provide stability to those impacted business sectors. I think it is certainly imperative that the official opposition be allowed to do our job of examining the signed agreement, not just the Liberals' talking points on the agreement.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Madam Speaker, I will pick up where the member left off. In the member's concluding remarks, he talked about talking points and suggested that they were just Liberal talking points on this. Yet, I cannot help but wonder if that is exactly what we are hearing from the other side.

The talking points have changed throughout the entire dialogue. The member talked about “rushing blindly” into this. I will give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe he was not around to hear the discussions a couple of years ago. The leader of the opposition was, at times, basically saying, “You need to just make any deal and take any deal that Donald Trump will give you. We need to a get deal on the table and signed now.”

The reality of the situation is that we fought hard for the protection of Canadian workers. We fought hard for a good deal, and what we have seen come out of this is exactly that.

I wonder if the member can explain why it is that he is now suddenly talking about rushing blindly into this, when the Conservatives' position at every stop of the way has been “Why aren't you getting us a deal? You need to make a deal right now.”

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

I remind members that we do not call each other names in the House.

The hon. member for Niagara Falls.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Madam Speaker, it is a privilege and an honour for me to take part in my first debate. I am absolutely thrilled to be here. It is an incredible responsibility representing the constituents of Niagara Falls.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet with dairy farmers in my riding. They came to my office and indicated some of the difficulties that they were facing and the changes and the challenges that are going to be brought on because of this new NAFTA. They told me they are going to be impacted and they want to know what solutions the government is going to provide to them. They are quite concerned about this agreement and what it will do in terms of abrogating our responsibility and our sovereign right to seek out further international trade agreements for their products. We need to know more about what the government proposes to do.

We need to know the economic impacts so that we can see what other industries we need to work with and how we can work together to ensure that they are provided with some stability as a result of this agreement.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Madam Speaker, Windsor has seen a decline in the auto industry as a result of the original free trade agreement. Canada went from being second in the world in automotive assembly to now being 10th. We have lost thousands of jobs. This new agreement only mentions some auto parts.

I am wondering what the Conservative Party's position is with regards to a national auto strategy. Without a strategy, we will continue to lose more jobs and investment. It has been over a decade since Canada had a greenfield production plant. The General Motors plant in Oshawa closed down but the company recently announced a battery facility plant in Michigan.

With regards to the auto industry, do the Conservatives think that there should be some more work for that industry? If so, what would there be in the way of support? If they do not, that is their opinion. What we see is an erosion quite frankly. Detroit alone received upward of $16 billion in auto investment in the last few years whereas Ontario only received $6 billion over the last six years, most of that being retooling, and that was under the previous Conservative government.

I would ask that Conservative member whether or not his party believes the auto sector deserves more than just a trade deal.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Madam Speaker, I look forward to working with the hon. member on not only this matter but other matters as we proceed.

The auto sector is an important component and aspect of our regional economy. I was fortunate enough when I was a university student to work at our local St. Catharines factory for four summers. It put me through university. During that time, and the member probably already knows this, we had three auto manufacturing plants in the St. Catharines area, all doing three shifts and working with full employment. Today we are down to one plant and it probably employs about 1,200 workers. At one time, it probably had 5,000 workers.

This agreement is a great concern. I worry about the aluminum situation and—