Debates of Sept. 25th, 2020

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Madam Speaker, has the member opposite ever considered the role that his party has?

He said to look at the Bloc and look at the Conservatives who are concerned about invading provincial jurisdiction. When I came to Ottawa in 2011, the Bloc was five members. Why? It was because we had a government that actually dealt with Quebec honourably, gave respect to its areas of jurisdiction and worked with it co-operatively, while this government has created unity issues right across this great country. We see a resurgence of the Bloc. We see a resurgence of western separatism. I do not even want to get into the national debate on whether B.C.'s wine is better than Ontario's. That might just break this country.

However, the member should acknowledge his role and his party's role in the rise of concerns about an invasion by Ottawa into areas of provincial jurisdiction.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Madam Speaker, I really believe that, as a nation, we are very much unified. All one needs to do is to take a look at the participation and the amount of co-operation we have witnessed over the last six months.

I can appreciate that the Conservatives, for their own political purposes, want to try to cause more division within our great nation, and that is completely up to them. They have to take responsibility for that. Yes, they did lose a lot of seats in Quebec to the Bloc, and I recognize that.

At the end of the day, I believe that Canada is very much a unified country. We see that in terms of the take-up of interest in working with the national government, not only to fight the pandemic but also in terms of many of the other initiatives we have seen prior to the pandemic, whether it be reforms to the CPP, the Canada health accord or other initiatives that required co-operation from the different regions of our country.

All in all, there is a high sense of co-operation in the land. There may be a bit of division that is promoted—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

There has to be time for questions and comments.

The hon. member for Jonquière.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Madam Speaker, I just found out that I want to destroy Canada. I thought that I wanted to build Quebec, but I am being told that I want to destroy Canada.

I would just like to inform my colleague of a basic principle. I used to teach political science, and the first thing I told my students was not to fall into what is known as begging the question or a circular argument.

The best example is a famous ad for Hygrade hot dogs that was around when I was a kid. The slogan was, “More people eat them because they're fresher; they're fresher because more people eat them”. That is a circular argument.

Earlier, during question period, the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons said that we were picking a fight. That was a circular argument. If we say the opposite of what the Liberal Party says, then we are picking a fight. We cannot say that in the 1990s, the Liberal Party's cuts to health transfers were disastrous and undermined our health care system. We cannot say that, because if we do, then we are picking a fight.

Similarly, Mr. Legault, who found the throne speech unacceptable and said it does not respect provincial jurisdictions, is also picking a fight. The only valid point of view is that of the Liberal government.

Does my colleague think that Mr. Legault is picking a fight? Does Mr. Legault, the Premier of Quebec, want to destroy Canada?

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Madam Speaker, I am someone who has grown up in the Prairies and I have always had a very strong passion for Canada. My heritage a few generations ago, probably on both sides of my house, originates from the province of Quebec. I have always had a strong love for the province of Quebec, as many of my friends do. We see Canada as a wonderful nation that is made up of 10 provinces and three territories and of course our indigenous communities. These are things we treasure very much. The Bloc wants to divide and take Quebec outside of Canada. I think that would be a very sad thing for all Canadians, no matter what region of the country they live in.

If the member were to come to Winnipeg North and walk some streets, he would witness some constituents whom I represent who believe in a national health care system, who want to see a federal government play some—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Again, I have to interrupt because we should be able to get in at least five questions.

Questions and comments, the hon. member for Elmwood—Transcona.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Madam Speaker, it comes as a surprise to no member of the House that I am no fan of the Liberal government, and never is the Liberal vision for Canada less compelling than when articulated by the member for Winnipeg North. The Speech from the Throne came a close second. Indeed, for a while I thought maybe it had been authored by the member for Winnipeg North, because it was just a lazy rehashing of what we had heard so many times from Liberals before.

Meanwhile, this was being developed, we presume, over the course of time when the NDP was calling for Parliament to come and meet to deal with the replacement for CERB. We were told that was not possible because a new grand vision was nigh from the Liberals in the Speech from the Throne.

What exactly is it that was new in the Speech from the Throne that justified shutting down Parliament when we had a deadline for the end of CERB? Could he please point to something worthwhile that was worth suspending the work of Parliament just to come back and have Liberal campaign commitments from as far back as 1993 repeated to us as if they were news?

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Madam Speaker, speechless I will never be.

At the end of the day, we have to put things in the perspective of what has taken place over the last six months. Whether or not members want to recognize it, COVID-19 has had a very profound impact on our society, where, literally, tens of billions of additional dollars were required. I believe that turning the page and coming forward with a new throne speech that is going to help set our tracks for the next couple of years is a positive thing and something that was well worthwhile. If people want to take the time to read the throne speech, I am sure they will agree with what I am saying.

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

Madam Speaker, I certainly enjoyed the question from the member for Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, given that he talked about how the former Conservative government had such a great relationship with Quebeckers. It certainly did not pan out that way in the election that followed. We would not have known that there was such a great relationship there.

The parliamentary secretary has been here longer than I have and he has more experience than I do in the House. My sense is that it would not matter what was put on the floor. No matter what, the Conservatives were going to be against the throne speech no matter what had been put in there. Can he think of a scenario in which the Conservatives would not be overly partisan and political about this, and actually vote in favour of a throne speech from a Liberal government?

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Madam Speaker, I must say to my friend and colleague that, to be completely honest, I would be absolutely shocked if the Conservatives were to vote in favour of the throne speech. They have been consistent from virtually day one. I have used the term “character assassination”. The Conservatives only have one issue, and that is to try to make the Prime Minister look as if he is some sort of evil person. Nothing could be further from the truth, but that has been their sole purpose virtually from the day they lost the last election.

I think they are frustrated because at the end of the day what we want to do is to spend less time on that sort of an issue and focus all of our time on serving Canadians and fighting COVID-19.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Madam Speaker, I note that the speaker from the government side was on a full 20-minute rant in support of the throne speech. Is that because there are no other Liberals on his side of the House who can stomach the speech or is it because of his ego?

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I would remind members to be careful with the language being used. They should not be attacking individuals.

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Madam Speaker, it is okay. Having been a parliamentarian for 30 years, I have a fairly thick skin. As they say, sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.

At the end of the day, I am sure many members of the House would like to address the throne speech. Many other Liberals would like to, so if any Conservatives would like to forfeit their spot, we would be more than happy to fill it.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Madam Speaker, for the last six months we have faced a global challenge that for many of us is the worst we have ever seen in our lifetime. However, one thing we can say with a lot of confidence is that Canadians can be proud of how they have come together. We have seen examples, in communities in every part of Canada, of Canadians coming together to take care of their neighbours. We have shown that in hard times we take care of each other.

The pandemic has also shown us that when government does not act, there is a cost to neglect and a cost to inaction. Many of the lives lost in this pandemic were in long-term care homes. It is shameful to think that our seniors, elders and loved ones, the people who helped build this country and sacrificed so much, could not retire and live their lives in dignity and respect. They bore the brunt of COVID-19, and that has scarred our country.

We all deserve to know that our parents and grandparents are safe. We were shocked and appalled to see that the military had to be called in to care for our seniors in long-term care homes.

The army had to be sent in to our long-term care homes. Conditions were so bad that soldiers felt obligated to write a report on the many deficiencies.

There is no question that there needs to be more funding for long-term care homes to care for our seniors. However, there is a problem. If that funding goes to for-profit, long-term care homes, then it will end up in the pockets of shareholders and it will not end up caring for seniors.

While the Bloc talks about transfers as the only path forward, if profit remains in long-term care and the federal government transfers money into long-term care, would it not be irresponsible for that money to end up in shareholders' pockets, instead of caring for seniors? I will say it again: Profit has no place in our health care system and it has absolutely no place in caring for our seniors.

What COVID-19, this pandemic, has exposed is that our health care system has some serious gaps. It makes no sense that the quality of care received in this country depends on whether one has a job with benefits in order to be able to afford dental care or medication coverage. That makes no sense.

We know the Liberals now talk in the throne speech about accelerating pharmacare. They are not going to break any speed records. The Liberals have been promising pharmacare for decades. Simply putting in the word “accelerate” gives no confidence to the families that cannot find the means to buy the medication they need to stay healthy. This gives them no confidence. This gives them no sense of relief. People need to be able to get their medication without a credit card, but with their health card. People need to get it with their health cards and that is what we believe in.

Over the last several months, we have seen millions of Canadians lose their jobs. We have seen millions of Canadians who cannot go back to work. Through no fault of their own, COVID-19 has stopped their ability to work because there are no jobs left in many areas, such as tourism, hospitality and the service sector.

The Conservatives want these folks to just have nothing, no supports or help, when it is clear they cannot get back to work. The Conservatives would rather these folks just fend for themselves and pull themselves up by their bootstraps. When one does not have a job to go back to, that is not good enough. It will not cut it. When someone is sitting at a kitchen table and has no job to go back to, that is when we take care of each other. Maybe the Conservatives do not believe that, but the New Democrats believe Canadians need to take care of each other when we are down and out, and that is what we are going to continue to fight for.

I want to remind folks that at the beginning of this pandemic, we were in this chamber and we knew that the pandemic was going to hit. We stood up time and again in this chamber and asked the Liberal government, and the Prime Minister directly, what the plan was to help workers who would lose their jobs. The response at the time was that they would waive some of the week's requirements so that people could apply for EI faster. I came back and said this was not good enough. The New Democrats said that EI only covers 40% of workers; the vast majority will be left behind. We fought and pushed, and we finally got the Liberals to agree to a program that helps all Canadians.

However, then they wanted to exclude people. We fought for a CERB that is universal. We got the CERB, but then they wanted to exclude people. The Liberal government's approach was designing a plan that excludes the people who do not need help, instead of trying to design a plan that does not leave the people who need help the most behind. That is the difference. Our focus has always been on getting help to people who need it and getting it to them as quickly as possible.

New Democrats fought and made a difference for Canadians throughout this pandemic. When the Prime Minister left out students, we fought for them and got them help. When the Prime Minister and the Liberal government forgot about and left out seniors, we fought for seniors and got them help. When the Liberal government left out people living with disabilities, we fought for them. When the government completely forgot and refused to provide paid sick leave, we fought for it and we are very hopeful we are close to achieving that now. Every time the Liberal government threatened to cut help to people, we fought back and told them not to cut help to people.

Even recently, the government was going to cut the help that families receive, families who cannot go back to work, by $400. Instead of the $2,000 that people are just getting by on, the Liberals were going to cut it to $1,600. We fought back and were able to maintain the $2,000. We fought for a wage subsidy that would ensure that workers would be able to stay at their jobs.

I want Canadians to know that we will keep fighting for them every step of the way.

The NDP has been fighting to help everyone in need. When the Prime Minister failed students, seniors, people with disabilities and workers, we fought for them. We fought for a wage subsidy so that people could keep their jobs and businesses could stay open. Every time he threatened to cut off the assistance people needed, we fought back.

We are now seeing numbers increasing. We are up against a second wave of the pandemic, and a lot of people are worried about potential shutdowns. If, in order to keep us safe, shutdowns happen again, it could mean more job losses. In the context of a second wave and the fear of a potential lockdown, people need to know that there will be help for them when and if they cannot work. Despite knowing this, and despite the government having shut down Parliament for almost two months, we still do not have a clear plan in place to make sure that we have a permanent safety net to support people when they need help.

Our employment insurance should have always been designed in a way that it covered all workers. That is what we are going to continue to fight for. This is not just temporary. We need an employment insurance program. We need safety nets to help all Canadians at any time they need help.

The Conservatives and others believe that to help people get back to work we have to make them desperate to go back to work. People want to work. People find dignity in work. If we make it safe to return and give people paid sick leave so they know they can take the time off they need to get well instead of going to work sick, people will work.

One of the best ways we can create jobs is to make investments that will help build a more sustainable economy, help create local jobs and help to fight the climate crisis. That is a New Democratic vision of how we can invest in an economy that works for everyone.

One of the most important things we can do with respect to investments, which I will continue to ask the Liberal government to do, is to invest in housing. We know this is a massive crisis in the country. Canadians cannot find a place to live. People could not find a place to live before the pandemic and now during the pandemic, this crisis has only become worse. We need to build housing.

The Liberals continue to make announcements about building housing, but the announcements do not make people better off. They do not give people a roof over their head. We need to see the dollars flowing for affordable housing. We know that if we build affordable housing that has a low carbon footprint, we not only help create jobs locally and ensure people have a place to call home, but it also helps fight the climate crisis.

Retrofitting homes is something we have campaigned on before, something we have long called for, and this could be a way for us to have a just recovery. If we, as a country, decided to invest in retrofitting all buildings and homes, we could lower the cost of heating and cooling them, which would make life more affordable. We could create jobs locally in communities across the country. We could do our part to fight the climate crisis. That is a vision of how we could move forward.

Many of our colleagues have raised this concern when we have talked about housing. They have talked about the impacted communities across our country, people from all walks of life who cannot find housing. We have to highlight our indigenous communities in particular, urban and on reserve, and our northern communities. These are some of the hardest hit communities that have seen the least investment in housing and whose situation right now is so critical. These are people who cannot find a place to live. There is overcrowding and that means the lives of people are being impacted. It hurts their health. We have to do better.

When it comes to housing, the Liberal government and previous Conservative governments have failed indigenous people. Here is an opportunity to turn that around. Let us make the right investments now and lift people up. Let us build quality housing across our country, particularly recognizing the historic injustice faced by indigenous people. Let us build housing for indigenous people in the north, Let us support leaders who have solutions for their communities. They need an ally and partner. Let Ottawa be a partner to support the building of affordable housing.

While we are dealing with this pandemic crisis, we still face a number of crises. Despite the fact that we are really focused on COVID-19, as we should be, there are still other crises surrounding us. One of the most prevalent, the most pressing is the climate crisis.

We see climate fires in B.C. They have made the air quality in the Lower Mainland, in my riding of Burnaby South and in surrounding cities in Vancouver and Surrey, so bad that it is among the worst of all major cities in the world. People were faced with the dilemma of opening windows for better ventilation or closing windows because the air coming in made it hard for people to breathe. This is COVID-19 and the climate crisis meeting each other at the same moment. While we fight COVID-19 crisis, we cannot forget the climate crisis.

What has been the Prime Minister's response to the climate crisis? He bought a pipeline. His government has not yet reduced emissions. It has not taken any concrete action to meaningfully reduce emissions nor meet any of the targets. It is meaningless to set targets just to miss them. What is the point of setting a target if no accountability is in place to ensure we actually meet those targets?

We know that for a lot of families one of the biggest concerns in this pandemic is their children. They are worried about their kids. They are worried about them being safe. If we want a recovery, if we want to be able to invest in our economy in a way that people can return to work, then we need to invest in child care. There can be no recovery without child care, particularly given the fact that COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted women.

People have referred to the recession and the loss of jobs as a “she-cession”, and the fact that we need a focused “she-covery”. It has to be a recovery that acknowledges the gendered impact of COVID-19, and that means investing massively in child care. It does not mean another empty promise.

Those who were kids the last time the Liberals promised child care have now grown up and are having kids of their own, and there is still no child care. There have been consecutive Liberal governments, majority Liberal governments, that have had the opportunity to do this time and time again. To show members the cynicism of the Liberals, they will cry out and say that they had one chance to make it, and try and blame it on someone else, despite the countless majorities that they have had. Despite the fact that they just recently had a majority government, they will try to blame others. It is the height of Liberal cynicism.

The reality is that people do not want to hear this government blaming others. If the Liberals are in power, it is their responsibility to get it done. Families want to know that they can count on affordable, quality child care that is universally accessible across the country. That is what we need.

Quebec has felt the impact of the Liberal and Conservative cuts to health transfers. During this pandemic, we saw how these cuts created a long-term care system in which many private facilities are cutting corners to make a profit. Hundreds of seniors have died as a result.

Women have borne the brunt of this pandemic. Desperate people are struggling to make ends meet while the rich get richer. Small businesses are shutting down while the Amazons and Facebooks of the world are making record profits. This needs to change, and it needs to change now.

Now is not the time for jurisdictional squabbling. It is time to work together to fix these problems once and for all. While people are dying, the Bloc Québécois is going on about petty squabbles and choosing not to work together to solve problems.

If the Prime Minister's Liberals are willing to stop putting their friends and the ultra-rich first, we are willing to work with them to rebuild a better, fully public health care system in which the government pays its fair share and Quebeckers have access to fully public pharmacare; to create a society in which safe, affordable housing is available to all; to create a future in which young people have employment and career prospects that are just as bright as their parents had; and to have a federal government that tackles the climate crisis with a will to win, instead of buying pipelines and subsidizing big oil.

That is the NDP's fairer and more egalitarian vision.

I will wrap up by saying that we have a lot of priorities in front of us, a lot of problems in front of us, but one of the things I want to make clear is that, in the recovery and rebuild, once we get past this pandemic and past the second wave, it cannot be working-class families, small businesses and everyday people who pay the price of the recovery. It has to be the wealthiest, those who have profited off of this pandemic, those at the very top, who pay for the recovery. That is what New Democrats are going to fight for.

The Liberals are afraid to say the words. The throne speech says the Liberals will “tax extreme wealth inequality”. I do not know how one taxes inequality, but I certainly know that we can tax wealth. New Democrats are committed to making sure that the wealthiest pay their share, that there is a wealth tax, that we ask those who have fortunes of over $20 million to pay their fair share, that we end offshore tax havens, and that we make sure the recovery is paid for by those who have profited and those who have the means to do so. That is what New Democrats believe in.

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

Madam Speaker, I thank the leader of the New Democratic Party for his intervention today, and, more importantly, for how the New Democrats have been interested in making lives better for Canadians all along the way. It was indeed throughout this process that reiterations of a number of different programs were changed on the fly. The CERB, for example, was a program that at any other time probably would have taken 12 months to 18 months to create given the complexity of it, yet it was created in less than seven days. A lot of that came from all members of the House.

In light of the member's speech, I would like to reference a quote. It is from a U.S. politician, but I think it is extremely germane to this discussion. Harry Truman once said, “It's amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” In this regard, and I see my Conservative colleagues are in agreement with that, I want to thank the New Democrats for the work they have done in working with the government to make sure the CERB program and all programs were the best they could be for all Canadians.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Madam Speaker, I acknowledge that together we have achieved a lot, but I have to point out that it was not as a result of a collaborative approach. We had to fight every step of the way. While we were able to fight and achieve some victories for people, it did take a fight.

I acknowledge that after fighting and forcing the government, the government did support us in bringing in a more compassionate response to COVID-19. However, it did take a fight, and we are going to continue that fight because Canadians deserve that. They deserve someone on their side.

I want to thank people for supporting the New Democrats so that we can be here for them, fight for them and focus on them every step of this pandemic.

[Paul Manly, Green, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Madam Speaker, I echo the hon. member's concerns about the lack of targets established for climate change in the Speech from the Throne. We need definitive targets. We need to know that we are going to meet our international commitments under the Paris accord to ensure a liveable future for our children and grandchildren.

Would the hon. member support a ban on gas fracking in Canada? It is one of the most destructive practices for destroying our climate. It releases methane emissions into the atmosphere, which are 85 times more potent than CO2.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Madam Speaker, we know the climate crisis is one of the major crises of our generation, and we can look to immediate impacts. We see that families and young people are worried; they are facing climate anxiety. They see the impacts all around us. We also know it has impacted our way of life, from people who rely on the oceans and the rivers for their sustenance to farmers. They are feeling the impacts. Everyday families are feeling the impacts.

We know we have to do everything possible so we can look young people in their eyes and say that we were there for them and we fought for them. That means making massive and serious commitments to reducing emissions.

That is why we laid out a vision to do that. We cannot set targets unless there is some accountability. We pushed for some accountability so that young people know we are there for them. That means making sure we make the right investments in a future where we reduce our emissions and create jobs that help us fight the climate crisis. We can move forward, but we need to have the commitment to do so.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Madam Speaker, in his speech, the hon. member outlined the struggles Canadians are facing. I do not think any community is facing greater struggles than what we are facing in Hamilton. We have some of the highest levels of child poverty and some of the highest concentrations of people struggling through disabilities, yet at every step along the way the government has continued to leave out the most vulnerable.

We have also seen beauty. We have seen beauty in communities coming together to support one another through mutual aid, the Disability Justice Network and caremongering. All of these groups are fighting to ensure that their neighbours, friends and families do not get left behind.

In talking about a just recovery, how would the hon. member suggest to the rest of Canada that we take care of all Canadians regardless of their ability to work and contribute in this economy?

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Madam Speaker, I want to acknowledge the member for Hamilton Centre for his work in organizing with the community to fight for the folks who need help the most.

The help that people need is multi-faceted. People need help in all areas of life. We need to make sure we invest in housing, so that housing is affordable. We need to make sure that health care is there for people, so that people's access to dental care or medication coverage doesn't depend on their job or their benefits. We need to make sure there are income supports going directly to people, so that no one has to worry about how they are going to put food on the table.

We need to make sure we create opportunities for people to work with dignity. We need to re-imagine an economy that is actually centred around people, that creates jobs and opportunities based on people, and that creates opportunities across this country. Then we need supports around people, so they do not have to depend on a benefit at a job to get the health care they need.

That is the vision we have for the future of Canada, where we have a health care system and a social safety net that is there for everyone.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Madam Speaker, I remember the last time I was in this House, the NDP had a chance with the Kelowna accord for indigenous people, the Kyoto accord for the environment, and the landmark child care agreements that Ken Dryden brought forward with all 10 provinces and the territories. At that time, the NDP chose to work with the Conservatives and we lost all three.

Now is another opportunity to work with the Liberal government. Is the leader of the NDP willing to support this throne speech to help those individuals, the million people who lost their jobs, with the base subsidy and all the help we are giving to small and medium-sized business owners to restore jobs? Is the NDP working with the Liberals, or is the NDP working with the Conservatives to bring the government down?

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Madam Speaker, I want to ask this of the people of Surrey. They have a Liberal government that has been a majority so many times. The Liberals promised them child care. Have they received universal child care? Do the people of Surrey, who have been given promises again and again by the Liberal government, have the ability to afford their medication?

The Liberal government has promised them so many things, and they have broken those commitments time and again. Is their life better off when it comes to accessing medication, getting child care and affordable housing? Is their life better when it comes to those three things? They are probably going to answer no. That is because the Liberals will say whatever it takes to get elected. In Surrey, the Liberals will say whatever it takes to get elected, but they will not deliver for them and their families. The only reason that their families have received help in this pandemic is because we have fought for them, and we will continue to fight for them.

[Alex Ruff, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

Madam Speaker, I have a simple question for the hon. member. I think I know what his answer will be.

Did the member hear anything in the Speech from the Throne that would rationalize the government choosing to prorogue Parliament for the last six weeks? Was there anything new?

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Madam Speaker, with great reluctance and a lot of trepidation, I have to agree with the member. There is nothing that justifies the government shutting down Parliament for a throne speech. There was nothing in that throne speech that merited the Liberals shutting down Parliament.

As our member from Manitoba pointed out earlier, there is no reason why the Liberals would have done that and timed the throne speech so that it would fall just days before CERB ends and have those families who have no other way to work and no other way to go back to a job, again at the 11th hour, wondering when they would know if there is help on the way. To put families through that again was cruel and completely unnecessary.

For the member who raised the question, it made no sense in that context for the Liberals to have shut down Parliament, giving up the day that we had in August to try to find a solution for families, rather than waiting until two days before their cut-off was going to happen. Absolutely, there was no reason for this throne speech.

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

Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Saint-Laurent.

As we safely restart our economy in the midst of a global health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to transform Canadian society. Since a vaccine is probably still a few months away, the fight against this virus is far from over, and we simply cannot afford to lose any ground. The Speech from the Throne clearly stated that the federal government's number one job is to keep Canadians healthy while building a more resilient economy. Those two priorities go hand in hand.

As the Speech from the Throne indicated, our government's first priority will always be the health and well-being of Canadians. We must crush COVID and breathe life back into the health of our economy.

Our government continues to focus on limiting the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis by maximizing our chances of defeating the virus and to do this, we need Canadians to be ever more disciplined, to be even more respectful of public health guidelines. We all have a role and we are all key players in the team Canada approach.

We need our government to keep doing what we are doing: supporting Canadian research and biomanufacturing, working closely with researchers and scientists to better understand the COVID-19 virus, investing in the development of several promising vaccine candidates and ensuring that we can manufacture and distribute enough vaccine to as many Canadians as possible, as quickly as possible. This is what we have been doing and that is a key focus of the Speech from the Throne. We have signed agreements in principle with so many leaders in vaccine development, following the recommendations from the non-partisan COVID-19 vaccine task force.

The late John Turner once said that life is like a trust and everyone has a fiduciary obligation to give back what one has received from it. Our government knows that now is the time to give back to Canadians, to give back to Canadians particularly who are suffering. It is our fiduciary obligation to secure access to safe vaccines for Canadians, vaccines that will be subjected to rigorous Health Canada assessment and approval processes. We are fulfilling this fiduciary obligation to Canadians.

The Prime Minister also announced funding for the creation of a new biomanufacturing facility at the Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre in Montreal. As the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, I am delighted that this will guarantee our country's ability to produce enough supplies of vaccine for Canadians who need them, such as front-line workers, those working in long-term care and the most vulnerable.

A COVID-19 vaccine is vital if we are to put an end to this pandemic, fully restart our economy and build our resilience. We will move forward by adopting a sustainable approach to our economic recovery. We will work tirelessly to achieve our goals.

Many Canadians have gone back to work, but others are struggling and do not know whether they will keep their jobs if the crisis continues. We understand these fears and we are determined to help Canadians keep their jobs while addressing the many inequalities faced every day by people of colour, indigenous populations and other vulnerable groups.

This is exactly why the Speech from the Throne makes clear our intention to extend the Canada wage subsidy until the summer of 2021 and to reform the employment insurance system to protect all Canadians. We must, we are and we will continue to support all Canadians through this dual health and economic crisis. This is precisely what the Speech from the Throne states.

We must govern with a laser-like focus on the present every day for Canadians, but we also owe it to present and future generations, especially to our children, to the youngest generation, to govern through COVID-19 and rebuild with a view to the reality of climate change. Our government's Speech from the Throne does just that.

We will not fall victim to what some have called the tragedy of the horizon by losing sight of that other global crisis: climate change. We can, and will, govern with both eyes focused simultaneously on the present COVID-19 crisis and on building back a cleaner, more competitive and inclusive Canadian economy. As the Prime Minister recently commented, just because we are in a health crisis does not mean we can neglect an environmental crisis: a climate crisis for which we all know there is no vaccine.

Canadians are looking to our government to build back in a way that considers human and economic health in light of the impacts of climate change. As the Speech from the Throne clearly indicates, we are doing just that. We are building on important measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions, maximize efficiency and energy conservation, and we are driving the transition to a clean economy, offering job opportunities for Canadian workers and businesses in every region and every industry. For five years, while public debate was consumed with polarized, partisan rhetoric on carbon prices and pipelines, our government implemented many low-carbon industrial policy shifts and ramped up clean technology investments by 50% at Sustainable Development Technology Canada. It is one of our government's most positive climate action stories that no one seems to have heard about. From phasing out coal-fired electricity and moving toward banning single-use plastics to preparing national building code reforms and offering a $5,000 electric vehicle rebate, more changes are on the way to deliver a path to net zero emissions by 2050.

Of course we need to do more, and we will. We will continue to invest historic amounts in both basic and applied scientific research, including COVID and climate science, within the federal government and post-secondary institutions. As the Speech from the Throne clearly commits, in the upcoming parliamentary session we will deliver on our commitments to enact climate legislation with binding five-year targets to meet and exceed our Paris targets for 2030. We will also legislate Canada's goal of net zero emissions by 2050. This is climate action. We will also table legislation to tighten federal regulation of toxic substances.

I look forward to the right to a healthy environment being enshrined in Canadian law once and for all. We will keep putting a price on pollution while putting that money right back in the pockets of Canadians. It cannot be free to pollute. The government will ban single-use plastics, as previously mentioned, and we need to make sure we have the best science behind it so the decisions to do so will not be overturned in Canadian courts. All of this will drive market opportunities and job creation in the green economy, further enabling our economic recovery.

As part of the plan we announced in the throne speech, the Government of Canada will take the following measures: It will create thousands of jobs retrofitting homes and buildings, cutting energy costs for Canadian families and businesses; invest in reducing the impact of climate-related disasters, like the floods that affected my constituents in Pontiac, to make communities more resilient; help deliver more public transit and active transit options, which will help the tourism and recreational tourism industries in the Outaouais and across Canada; make zero-emission vehicles more affordable and accessible; invest in more research infrastructure across the country; and support investments in renewable energy and next-generation clean energy and technology solutions.

Our government will ensure Canada is the most competitive jurisdiction in the world for clean technology companies.

In conclusion, the Speech from the Throne has charted a solid path forward. We will protect Canadians' health, preserve jobs and focus on the crisis of COVID here and now, while not losing focus on the climate crisis we must tackle for the future.