Debates of July 21st, 2020

Seniors

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Speaker, many seniors are living in precarious financial situations, which is why the Bloc Québécois has been calling for an increase in the old age pension and the guaranteed income supplement for quite some time. The pandemic has compounded this economic insecurity, since seniors have been hit hard by the effects of the lockdown and higher prices on so many things, including medication, rent, groceries and transportation.

Just last week, seniors finally received some support for the pandemic. Seniors who receive just the old age pension got $300, while those who get the guaranteed income supplement will receive an additional $200. The only problem is that it is a one-time payment. That support should absolutely be made permanent. The government should take this as an opportunity to keep its own election promise and increase both the old age pension and the GIS.

The Bloc Québécois will stand by the government if it decides to go ahead with this. It is time the government understood that our seniors should not have to choose between groceries and medication.

Ethics

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

Mr. Speaker,The outlook wasn't brilliant for Canadians that day;
The debt stood at a trillion, too, and we lost our AAA;
And when democracy died at first and ethics did the same;
A sickly silence fell upon the voters of the game.
The PM took a holiday with a carefree wink and smile;
And treated family, friends and donors to billionaire isle;
And when the dust had settled and we saw the very worst;
The Ethics Commissioner said “Strike one, you may not go to first.”
With a smile of great charity, the PM's eyes did gleam;
He pressured the AG, he bade her to intervene;
And when she wouldn't do it, he said “That simply will not do”;
Lavalin means many votes and the commissioner said “Strike two.”
A few straggling Libs got up to go in deep despair;
The rest clung to hope in the Prime Minister's great hair;
Then the PM saw $900 mill, a way to help connected friends;
And we all knew the PM would not let opportunity pass by again.
Oh somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright;
The taxes are much lower and the government does what's right;
And somewhere there are pipelines and jobs are all about;
But for you and me and the greater we, our Prime Minister just struck out.

John Lewis

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to join my voice to the numerous tributes to the extraordinary life of American congressional representative John Lewis. Mr. Lewis died last Friday at the age of 80.

He first entered the public scene in the early 1960s as the founder and leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee at the tender age of 21. A lifelong practitioner of the Gandhian doctrine of non-violence, John Lewis and his colleagues put the brutality of racism in high relief by placing themselves at risk through non-violent actions.

Mr. Lewis was one of the original Freedom Riders in 1961. He took part in activities which he knew beforehand would lead to his being clubbed, beaten, gassed, arrested and run a much higher risk of being killed.

Mr. Lewis was one of the speakers at the March on Washington in 1963. He was on the front lines of Bloody Sunday, the 1965 march in Selma, Alabama.

Author, activist, politician, conscience of the U.S. Congress, John Lewis inspired generations of people around the world, including me. I thank Mr. Lewis for living the life worth living. May he rest in peace.

Housing

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my riding of Davenport will be home to one of the new modular housing initiatives being built across Toronto through a partnership between the City of Toronto and the federal government, with the goal of providing stable, affordable, high-quality housing and support services to individuals experiencing homelessness in Toronto.

The modular housing initiative will quickly create 100 modular homes by September 2020 and an additional 150 by spring 2021. At a total cost of almost $50 million, 40% will be supported by CMHC's affordable housing innovation fund. This project is a truly rapid, innovative and cost-effective way of tackling housing issues in our cities. Not only is it a dignified response to supporting people experiencing homelessness, but the cost of modular housing with social service supports is half the cost of providing a simple shelter bed.

Restarting the economy after COVID will take innovation and creative ideas, and modular housing should be a key addition to our infrastructure proposals as a model that could be multiplied across the city and country to house more of our vulnerable populations and supply affordable housing.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Before moving on, I want to remind everyone that the S.O. 31s are 60 seconds, not 65 seconds or 70 seconds. I wanted to point that out because they seem to be crawling up and I would not want to cut members off when they have something so important to them that they want to bring it forward. Therefore, if members would keep that in mind and time them so that when we come back next time, they will be ready.

Ethics

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, this is the third time the Prime Minister has been embroiled in a scandal. Once again, he thought the rules did not apply to him and rewarded an organization that paid members of his family $300,000 and gave him a huge political platform.

Canadians have had enough. They want to know the truth.

My question is simple. Will the Prime Minister appear before the Standing Committee on Finance, yes or no?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we have received the invitation and are considering it. However, I am very happy to be here in the House today to answer questions, as I will tomorrow, when opposition members can ask me all the questions they want.

As I noted, the public service completely independently recommended the WE Charity to provide opportunities to students. I should have recused myself from the decision. I did not, and I am sorry about that.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, this is not about just a simple recusal. Here we have an organization that has paid cash to the Prime Minister's family and given him and other senior Liberals a massive political platform. That organization got in trouble after gobbling up millions of dollars' worth of prime Toronto real estate and breaking its bank covenant. It then lobbied the government for a tailor-made program that it would be able to take an administration fee for managing. The government did it even one better and came up with an even bigger program and gave it a sole-source contract, and the Prime Minister would have us all believe this is a massive coincidence.

Will the Prime Minister do the right thing and show up to testify at committee?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, during this unprecedented pandemic we put out billions of dollars to support Canadians young and old, workers, employers and entrepreneurs to make it through this particular challenge that is hitting us all extremely hard. We put forward a $9-billion package for students that included deferral of student loans, direct support through jobs, the Canada summer jobs program and jobs in COVID-affected sectors. We have continued to look for ways to encourage volunteerism. We will continue to stay focused on the things that matter to students and to all Canadians.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, it is so gross and disgusting that the Prime Minister keeps using the pandemic as an excuse for his corruption. The very first act the Prime Minister did when the pandemic hit was try to give himself unprecedented power and eliminate the role of the opposition in Parliament. Now we know why, because when the Liberals are pushing $300 billion worth of deficit out the door, they will stop and take the time to reward their friends. That is the essence of the Liberal Party under the current Liberal Prime Minister. I do not even have a question. It is just disgusting.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, one would think that, when the House of Commons is about to pass legislation worth over $50 billion to help businesses with an extension of the wage subsidy, there might be a question from the opposition on that or on anything it wants to bring forward.

The fact of the matter is we remain focused on giving Canadians the support they need to get through this challenging pandemic. We will look creatively and carefully at different ways of supporting students and elders, and we will keep doing that for all Canadians.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, that is right, there is nothing to see here. Just move on. Do not ask any of the tough questions about the relationship with an organization that paid members of his family cash, that took administration fees for running sole-source contracts after breaking its bank covenants and having members of its board resign.

Now the Prime Minister is trying to hide behind the public service on this one, but I would like to ask him a very simple question. On what basis would the public service have made its recommendation that WE was the only organization that could deliver this program?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, when we came forward with the idea of supporting young people who would want to be involved and serve their communities across the country, we as a government came forward and looked to see young people serving their country. The public service took a look at the ways it could deliver that program and determined that the WE organization was the only one that could deliver that program, as ambitious as it was, for this summer. That was the recommendation made by the non-partisan public service.

Of course, as I apologized for, I should have recused myself because of the connection with my family, but that does not take away from the fact that the public service recommended that organization.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, here is what the watchdog Charity Intelligence said about that claim: “I'm not sure how you would assess the charity's track record or capability to do this if it had not previously done such work in the past”. The Prime Minister's explanation just does not hold up.

There are two camps developing in the Liberal Party. On the one hand we have the foreign affairs minister, who wisely took a barge pole and separated himself from the scandal, saying that it was a mistake and he did not know anything about it. Then we have the deputy prime minister, who had no problem showing Liberal faithful that she was willing to defend her leader.

I would ask the deputy prime minister what it would take for her to lose confidence in the scandal-plagued Prime Minister.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, every step of the way our government has been looking to support Canadians through this unprecedented pandemic. Yes, we have put tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars into the pockets of Canadians, workers, families, entrepreneurs and people working all across the country who are challenged with this pandemic.

We looked for ways to support students as well through summer jobs, through creating new jobs in various industries, but also through encouraging volunteerism and service to this country. We will continue to look for ways to support Canadians right across the country through this difficult time.

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

Mr. Speaker, some time ago, there was a fairly entertaining exchange with the Prime Minister about the Liberal Party's difficulties and its need for the wage subsidy.

Yesterday, in committee, a Liberal member indicated that the Liberal Party is indeed in trouble. I believe it. Finances are likely not the reason, but I think this is true because the Prime Minister is too busy dealing with matters that have nothing to do with managing the Canadian government.

Could we start by not giving the wage subsidy to the Liberal Party?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I want to assure the hon. member that our government remains 100% focused on Canadians.

Our government will remain focused on the work we need to do for Canadians every day, and that includes the $19-billion safe restart agreement that we signed with the provinces and territories last week and the $50 billion we are approving today in the House for the wage subsidy.

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

Mr. Speaker, they cannot buy their way out of a crisis, and just because they are spending a lot does not mean they are spending wisely.

The Prime Minister is obviously busy, very busy, probably much too busy with many other things to manage the COVID-19 crisis.

Without making assumptions about the result of the investigations, exchanges, discussions and committees, should he not temporarily, because his mind is on other things, let the Deputy Prime Minister stand in for him?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as I just said, last week we signed a historic agreement with the provinces for assistance to safely restart the economy as we deal with COVID-19.

This very day, we are providing more assistance to entrepreneurs and businesses with $50 billion in wage subsidies.

At every step, despite the opposition's preoccupation with one particular issue, we have been working on matters of concern to Canadians and we will continue to provide assistance to Canadians every day.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has close ties to the WE Charity; that is quite obvious.

Why did the Prime Minister not recuse himself when the decision was made to give the WE Charity nearly $1 billion?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as a government, we are there to support young Canadians. We are there to support seniors, workers and families during this crisis.

We wanted to help students by giving them opportunities to serve. The public service recommended choosing the WE Charity to provide youth across Canada with tens of thousands of opportunities. We accepted that recommendation, but yes, I should have recused myself from that decision because of the ties with my family, and I apologize for not doing so.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, apologizing means nothing if the Prime Minister keeps on breaking the rules to help his wealthy friends.

Here are the facts. The Prime Minister's family has earned over $300,000 in speaking fees from this organization. WE officials have said that they do not normally pay speakers a fee. On top of that, giving a billion dollars to create a brand new program makes no sense when there are so many existing ways to help students that are faster and that are proven. Will the Prime Minister admit that this was never about helping students, and that it was always about helping his wealthy friends?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, it is a shame to see such cynicism from the NDP in regard to supporting students. We had put forward a $9-billion package for students. It included the deferral of student loans, the creation of new jobs in sectors affected by COVID, the enhancement of the summer jobs program, and many other things to support students and student organizations.

On top of that, we saw an opportunity to encourage service and volunteerism and to create opportunities for the tens of thousands of young people who want to step up during this pandemic. This is something we believe in deeply and something that this government will continue to work on.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, what is disgusting about the WE scandal is that the Prime Minister's wife, mother and brother were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by WE, and, knowing this, the Prime Minister did not recuse himself from the decision to give WE $912 million.

I am sure the Prime Minister is grateful that the Deputy Prime Minister proclaimed she still has confidence in him, while another minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, is doing everything he can to distance himself from the PM's latest ethical scandal. Will the Minister of Public Services and Procurement tell us which cabinet camp is she in?

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth]

Mr. Speaker, what is clear is that our government is focused on delivering for Canadians. We know that this is an unprecedented and challenging time. We know that Canadians are struggling. We know that COVID-19 has impacted all Canadians. Certain communities have been impacted disproportionately, and students are no exception.

When it comes to the investigation from the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, we will be working with his office.