Debates of June 17th, 2020

Supplementary Estimates (A)

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

Mr. Speaker, the failure to condemn human rights abuses and stand up against anti-gay laws confuses the world and does not show that we are principled with values. What about the failure to behave appropriately in India? Can the government outline how that contributed to our loss of a UN security seat?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to outline that the bedrock of our feminist foreign policy and our feminist international assistance policy is taking a human rights-based approach to the work that we do everywhere in the world.

I would also reiterate that right from the beginning of this pandemic, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and I issued a statement calling on governments to respect human rights in their responses to COVID-19, recognizing that this is—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The member for Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill.

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

Mr. Speaker, it is not those values that we have seen represented. The government committed to peacekeeping and to putting Canada back on the world stage, and yet the one peacekeeping mission that the United Nations asked us to do, we have already withdrawn from.

Can the government outline why that would have contributed to the loss of the UN security seat?

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

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to peacekeeping, we are working with the United Nations and also multilateral organizations on how to bring proper support. Working with the United Nations on its reform is about modernizing peacekeeping when it comes to smart pledges.

We are very proud of the work that our troops have done.

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

Mr. Speaker, our allies cannot count on us to be there for peacekeeping missions.

What about our failing diplomatic relations with China, to the extent that we have a situation where China will not buy our canola, will not buy our ginseng and is failing to buy our soybeans and other products? This, too, has contributed.

Could the government outline why we have a failed diplomatic relationship with China and its impact on our UN security bid?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Canada has a complex relationship with China and many other countries around the world, but we will continuously stand up for human rights and the values that are important to Canadians. Our top priority is the safety and security of the two Michaels, making sure they have access to consular support and ensuring that they do come home.

Canada will continue to engage, will continue to speak on behalf of Canadians and to seek out and support Canadian interests in all of our relationships.

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

Mr. Speaker, what about the concessions that this country has made with respect to the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement and the national security tariffs that were imposed on Canada for steel and aluminum? Is that a contributing factor to our loss of the UN Security Council vote as well, because our allies do not depend on us to be there when they need us and do not trust our national security stance?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I am quite certain that Canadians and our allies admire the work that we did as a country in renegotiating the new NAFTA. Canada is today the only G7 country that has a trade agreement with every other G7 country. At a time of rising protectionism, at a time when our economy is going through a crisis created by the coronavirus, the fact that we have secured—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

We will now hear from the hon. member for Mégantic—L'Érable.

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

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill for her efforts.

This is a terrible day for Canada. The Prime Minister bet his reputation, and Canada's as well, on pulling out all the diplomatic stops to get a seat on the UN Security Council, but he lost. After spending millions of taxpayer dollars, after trying to convince dictators around the world to support Canada, and after setting aside the vital Canadian values of protecting rights and freedoms and protecting homosexual people, the Prime Minister has shown the world how little influence he had on the outcome of this vote.

Most unfortunately, the Prime Minister must take personal responsibility for this failure. I do not want Canadians to bear the blame for this failure, because Canadians are well regarded around the world. Canada is a good country that everyone can be proud of. Unfortunately, through his actions and his deeply flawed foreign policy, the Prime Minister created today's outcome, which was the result of all the years of embarrassment he has caused us on the international stage.

I can cite several examples. He managed to mix up Japan and China at a very important meeting. The Prime Minister embarrassed our allies at the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. I remember the pictures vividly. The leaders of all of the TPP signatory countries were waiting for the Prime Minister of Canada to attend a crucial signing meeting. The Prime Minister of Canada never showed up. He failed miserably at representing Canada’s interests in China.

At the time, I was the agriculture critic, and I can say that it was utterly tragic to see how little energy Canada was putting into finding a solution. We were working very hard, we were creating committees, but the Prime Minister himself would never defend the Canadian farmers caught in this predicament. Should I take a moment to remind everyone of his disastrous trip to India?

It got the whole world talking. People everywhere were talking about our Prime Minister and his trip to India, but for all the wrong reasons. That was the beginning of the end for the Prime Minister of Canada’s brief flirtation with international diplomacy. When they saw how he acted in India, several countries decided to turn their backs on this Prime Minister, who is more concerned about his image than his own country’s interests and values.

Although he promoted Canada far and wide, saying that we would play a major role in the UN's efforts to protect people and countries in difficulty, Canada has already withdrawn from a peacekeeping mission in Mali that it had been asked to join. We do not know why.

With respect to our relations with the United States, need I remind the House of the concessions that were made, to the detriment of the dairy industry, and the government’s inability to find acceptable solutions for softwood lumber? The government was not able to include that. It set the issue aside, and we are still having problems today. It was unable to resolve that situation. During the negotiations, the government failed to reach a proper agreement that would protect Canadian aluminum workers. It is one failure after another. Canada lost the vote, but not because Canada is Canada. I certainly do not want Canadians to think that this failure is their fault. It is the fault of the Prime Minister himself. He is the one who channelled all his efforts, all his influence and Canadian taxpayer money and brushed aside Canadian values to speak with dictators in Qatar, Oman, Rwanda and Uganda during the pandemic, rather than defending Canadian values.

It is good to want a seat on the UN Security Council, but it is also good to stand up for Canadian values. We have seen what it costs when the government sets aside those values and everything we believe in and uses Canadian taxpayer money to promnote itself. Our allies turned their backs on Canada. That is what happened.

We want to be able to build a relationship of trust with other countries on the international stage. However, some countries hoping to negotiate on the international stage and trying to push the boundaries a little further try to do it with Canada first, because they know that Canada will not react. We saw this with China, with Italy in the case of durum wheat, and with India. This was the Prime Minister's failure, and we are extremely disappointed that today's loss is tarnishing Canada's international reputation.

Does the Minister of International Development regret jeopardizing Canada's reputation, abandoning Canadian values and making it so that, today, Canada is no longer seen as a country worth consulting? She pulled out all the stops to get a seat on the UN Security Council. Today we are seeing the result: Canada came in third.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Minister of International Development]

Mr. Speaker, I completely disagree with my hon. colleague. We acted in accordance with our values. I will give my hon. colleague a few examples.

With regard to women's rights, we created new programs that seek to recognize a woman's right to choose, unlike the opposition. With regard to LGBTQ2 rights, we created a specific program to help people—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

We will now go to the Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be here today to talk about the work being done by Canada's six regional economic development agencies and what they have done to support Canadian businesses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic is having a huge impact on Canadians from coast to coast to coast. Because of the lockdown, a big part of our economy has had to be put on hold. Everyone's lives have been turned upside down, and that is especially true for the owners and employees of small and medium-sized businesses.

Since the crisis began, I have spoken, mainly virtually, with thousands of business and association leaders from across the country. They all talk about different day-to-day realities, but there is a common thread. They are working very hard for their employees, their communities and their families. After several weeks of lockdown and, for many of them, after temporarily closing their businesses, they are now reaching their limit. These businesses provide good local jobs and are a source of local pride. They form the foundation of a strong middle class. They are the backbone of our economy and, above all, our communities.

Our government realized very quickly that it was important to help businesses through the crisis, and we quickly implemented measures. We launched the largest economic assistance program in Canadian history. The measures we implemented include the Canada emergency wage subsidy, which helps businesses retain workers and rehire the ones they had to lay off. We also allowed businesses to defer GST/HST and customs duty payments. We created the Canada emergency business account, which basically provides $40,000 loans. This measure includes a $10,000 subsidy if the loan is repaid within two years. We remained responsive to needs, and we adjusted and improved the assistance to ensure that it would help as many Canadians as possible. In short, we expanded the social safety net.

However, one thing I heard from business owners is that despite the scope of the economic and social safety net in place, the situation remains difficult for small businesses. We asked ourselves two questions. Number one, how can we help businesses that are slipping through the cracks? Number two, what tools can we use to provide that help, knowing that, as they said, business owners prefer to turn to institutions close to home, ones that they trust?

To address those two concerns, we developed a special assistance program delivered by our six regional economic development agencies. These agencies are on the ground. They are in the best position to help the workers and SMEs at the heart of our communities. They know them.

That is how we came up with the regional relief and recovery fund, or RRRF, which has a total budget of $962 million. This fund is administered by our economic development agencies, either directly or indirectly through key partners such as CFDCs or the PME MTL network, as I recently had the opportunity to announce in Montreal. We made sure to be where businesses need us to be.

The purpose of this fund is to support businesses that are central to their local economy, that do not qualify for existing federal programs and that have needs that are not covered by these programs. It offers SMEs and organizations that are having cash flow problems emergency financial support to help them stay in business, including by helping them pay their employees and their fixed costs.

We must protect our main streets and our local businesses, and this new fund gives us the means to do that.

As I mentioned, the challenges faced by small businesses are not felt equally in all regions. This is particularly true in our Canadian northern territories. That is why in addition to the regional relief and recovery fund, $15 million was allocated for the creation of the northern business relief fund. With this fund, we target further needs for immediate relief for SMEs and ensure the stability of businesses and sectors that are vital to the recovery of our northern economy.

As members know, main street businesses are the lifeblood of a community. COVID-19 hit them hard. Many businesses responded by broadening their offerings and complementing traditional storefronts with online shops to attract new customers and reach new markets. This created an opportunity.

We have a unique chance to help them now, and moving forward, to not just recover but come back stronger and better equipped to compete in tomorrow's economy. This is why we launched a new “Digital Main Street” platform, which will support almost 23,000 businesses across Ontario, helping them not just survive in the new economy but thrive. Thanks to over $42 million in federal funding through FedDev Ontario, this innovative program will help businesses go digital.

We also know that challenges do not stop at main street. That is why we also provided $7.5 million for the recovery activation program delivered by the Toronto Region Board of Trade. This program will provide customized training for more than 1,000 small and medium-sized businesses to digitize their operations and bring their business online.

Our response to the challenges small businesses are facing in the current crisis would have been incomplete without acknowledging that certain sectors have been more directly weakened and require special attention.

The tourism sector, which employs 1.89 million people in Canada, has been hit hard, and we are working tirelessly to mitigate the impacts on the Canadian economy. While the sector can benefit from the strong support measures the government has put in place, we knew that additional efforts would be required as the summer season approached and the economy was reopening.

On May 31, I announced an investment of over $40 million in the tourism sector. This investment will directly support more than 30 high-potential projects, such as the Point Grondine eco park development, which will offer visitors a new indigenous tourism experience in northern Ontario, a region you know very well, Mr. Speaker. The $40 million will also support more than 100 tourism organizations in southern and northern Ontario, as well as in western Canada, to help them adapt their operations to this new reality and drive visitors back into local communities as the economy reopens.

We know that the indigenous tourism sector is particularly vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic. To bolster this industry, our government has also announced a new stimulus development fund that will provide $16 million to support the indigenous tourism sector.

We continue to work with economic stakeholders in the tourism industry in Quebec, the Maritimes and Atlantic Canada to make a real difference in the tourism sector in eastern Canada as well.

Investments and initiatives like the ones I have presented today are crucial to the success not just of our businesses but of our communities. The decisions we make now will have a major impact on future prosperity, and we choose to invest.

Our message to workers and businesses is clear: We have been here for them with measures and support, and we will get through this together.

I encourage businesses and organizations to make use of the measures that the Government of Canada has put in place to help employers, workers and individuals across the country.

I also invite my fellow MPs to tell business people in their ridings about the wide range of support programs available and encourage them to apply.

We are working with you, and we will keep working with you to create good local jobs and build a stronger economy in our communities and greater prosperity for everyone despite these difficult times.

[William Amos, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for her comments and her hard work for our regions and their small businesses.

MPs who represent regions like mine, the Pontiac, can see exactly what kind of damage the COVID-19 pandemic is doing to our small businesses. We need to help our SMEs and our regions. The recovery fund that our government created is certainly very important, and I am grateful to our minister for creating it.

In addition, everything that the government has done to invest in our CFDCs is very important. Pontiac has three, namely the Vallée-de-la-Gatineau CFDC, the Pontiac CFDC and the Papineau CFDC. We have worked hard to make this a success, and I credit our minister with fostering collaboration between the entire CFDC network and Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions. It goes to show that, from the very beginning, our government has always been there for our regions, worked with our regions and cared about our regions.

I would like to invite the minister to tell us more about what she has done with CFDCs across Quebec.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the member for Pontiac. He is a strong advocate for regional economic development and the CFDC network.

When we started looking at what was happening on the ground, we realized just how much of an impact the pandemic was having on our businesses and our workers. We wanted to work with the best networks, the best professionals, to be sure we could provide assistance.

That is why we turned to the CFDC network, which has expertise and experience on the ground. It is a reliable network. It deserves our trust. That is why we invested $71 million in CFDCs in Quebec. We basically doubled the budget of these CFDCs, which are present not only in the beautiful Outaouais region, in the Pontiac riding, but also in the ridings of many members who come from rural and remote regions.

We will continue to support our CFDC network to provide direct assistance to businesses, as well as loans to our business owners who really need our help during this difficult period.

[William Amos, Liberal, Pontiac, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for that comprehensive answer.

I know that our CFDCs really appreciate the $71 million. That means over $1 million for each CFDC. In concrete terms, this means there are businesses in every sector that might not otherwise have gotten any assistance from the federal or provincial governments and that were able to ask for help from our CFDCs. As the minister noted, our CFDCs understand our regions very well. For example, the Vallée-de-la-Gatineau CFDC has been serving the public for 40 years, which means it has been working with our SMEs for 40 years.

I would like to know more about the intent behind the investment in CFDCs.

How can it provide assistance if other programs are not available to our SMEs?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we have invested $71 million in our CFDCs in Quebec. When we include the Community Futures Network outside of Quebec, we have invested $267 million.

These are good investments because entrepreneurs in the regions often have difficulty accessing a bank or financial institution. Sometimes, the bank or credit union branch may be hundreds of kilometres from where the business is located. That is why we wanted to find a way to reach them. The CFDCs have a strong presence in the field.

I had the opportunity to speak with Hélène Deslauriers, the executive director of the Quebec CFDC network, and all board members of network last Friday. We can be proud of their efforts. They are changing the lives of entrepreneurs and our rural areas every day, especially in these times.

[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]

Mr. Speaker, I know the minister has been a very strong advocate for the western economic diversification fund, something that has been of great value to the prairie provinces in particular. I am wondering if she could indicate her sense of commitment to that program from this government.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, who is a strong advocate for western economic diversification and for the Prairies in general.

Definitely, we wanted to help entrepreneurs and business owners all across the west. We know they have been hard hit by the pandemic and the economic crisis, but also by the drop in oil prices. That is why we doubled the budget for western economic diversification. Of all the $962 million of funding, we are giving the biggest allocation to—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The hon. member for Edmonton Mill Woods.

[Tim Uppal, Conservative, Edmonton Mill Woods, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the members for Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek and Edmonton West.

The Liberals have shut down the regular proceedings of Parliament. They refuse to fully fund the Auditor General, which has resulted in fewer audits of their spending, and now the Liberals are only allowing four hours of scrutiny to review $87 billion in spending. As my colleague pointed out, that's over $360 million to review per minute, and that does not even include $70 billion of spending that is not included in these estimates.

Why is the government trying so hard to avoid scrutiny on its spending?

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member as this allows me to try to clarify some level of confusion on his part. I do not think it is deliberate, but I certainly want to clarify the confusion.

Out of the $87 billion in the estimates, 90% has already been debated, voted upon and approved unanimously by the House.

[Tim Uppal, Conservative, Edmonton Mill Woods, AB]

Mr. Speaker, even the Parliamentary Budget Officer said that four hours to scrutinize $87 billion is certainly not what one would expect in exceptional times.

The government is spending $200 million and has allocated it to Citizenship and Immigration Canada as a grant for the interim housing assistance program.

How much of that money is being used to pay for housing for illegal border-crossers?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am glad to be able to answer this question. As the member knows, our country has a reputation and ability to welcome people from across the world. We are stronger because we welcome these immigrants. Our economic growth, reputation and ability to be stronger together depends on these investments.