Debates of Nov. 30th, 2021

The House resumed consideration of the motion for an address to Her Excellency the Governor General in reply to her speech at the opening of the session, of the amendment and of the amendment to the amendment.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The hon. member for Carleton has three minutes remaining for questions.

Questions and comments, the hon. member for Louis-Saint-Laurent.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Mr. Speaker, like everyone else, I was listening carefully to the speech by the member for Carleton right before question period, and we asked the government a lot of questions about what it plans to do about inflation. Unfortunately, we heard all kinds of talk, but no real action.

We can all see that the federal government has absolutely no plan to address inflation. What is worse, when government members are presented with the truth that Canadian families are all suffering so long as the inflation rate stays at 4.7% and that this inflation is one of the highest in the world, especially among our partners, the government keeps pointing out that the rate is comparable to that of the United States. However, the United States has an inflation rate that is much higher than Canada's.

Could the member for Carleton explain how the current government's economic policy compares to the U.S. government's?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, that is a very good question. What is the cause of real estate inflation?

First, it is not COVID-19. It should actually have driven housing prices down. There is no immigration, so there are fewer consumers buying houses; wages are lower, because people have lost their jobs; and there is a lot more uncertainty, which usually discourages people from buying anything at all; yet prices have gone up.

Second, international supply chains are not the issue, because that does not include land, since it is already here.

Third, Canada has the world's second-highest real estate inflation. We have the second-largest housing bubble after New Zealand. Other countries also have COVID-19, but real estate inflation is not as high elsewhere.

What is causing it? The government printed $400 billion in the last year and a half. The money went to the banks and was loaned to buyers, specifically to very wealthy investors, to inflate real estate prices and keep the dream of home ownership out of reach for many Canadians.

This means that we need to stop printing money to drive out inflation, and start building housing instead of printing money.

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

Mr. Speaker, the member for Carleton and I can at least agree that inflation is a problem for the financially vulnerable and that there are things that the federal government could do. However, there is much that we disagree on in his analysis.

I wonder why the member does not talk about some of the market forces, such as Canadians who did maintain their income but instead of spending money on travel decided to invest in real estate being one of the causes for inflation. I would go on but, unfortunately, his colleagues and the member have run out the clock.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member thinks that somebody cancelling their $3,000 vacation is what caused housing prices to rise 25% in one year, one-third since COVID, then he needs to pull out his calculator and do a little more math.

What actually happened is that mortgage lending went up 41%, most of it going to rich people and wealthy landlords, after the Bank of Canada began printing its $400 billion. Too many dollars chasing too few houses equals house price inflation.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking the hon. Leader of the Opposition for his remarks this morning on the Speech from the Throne.

In September, Canadians gave the government a very clear direction. They want us to finish the fight against COVID-19 once and for all and put forward bold, concrete solutions to meet the other challenges we face. As shown in the Speech from the Throne, that is exactly what we will continue to do.

During this election campaign, we presented Canadians with a clear vision to fight COVID-19 even harder by making sure that everyone on planes and trains is vaccinated, which has in fact become a reality, in addition to bringing the same intensity, expertise and energy to bear on our other challenges, such as the housing crisis, climate change, intolerance and reconciliation. That is exactly what we promised Canadians, and that is exactly what we laid out in our throne speech.

Of course, job one remains ending the pandemic. We will always put the health of Canadians first. From the very first day of the pandemic, we had a straightforward message to Canadians: We would have their backs. That is what has guided us every step of the way.

Having people's backs was not just about making sure we were handling the health crisis. It was also about making sure that we were giving the economic supports to Canadians that they so desperately needed while we made sure they could stay safe through the first wave of the pandemic. Every step of the way and through the subsequent waves, the guiding principle of being there to support Canadians, to allow them to do the necessary things to keep themselves and their families safe from this health crisis and make it through the economic crisis, meant that we were there to support Canadians every step of the way.

Now, Conservative politicians kept telling us in the House that we were doing too much, that we were making a mistake by investing so much to support Canadians: to support families, to support workers, to support small businesses and to support students. However, not only did we know that investing in Canadians would be the right way to ensure that our economy would come back as quickly as possible as we made it through the worst of the pandemic, but we knew that showing Canadians they had a government they could count on, that would have their backs and could deliver income supports, deliver health supports and deliver the vaccines that were necessary, would give people confidence to continue being true to our values as Canadians.

When a storm hits it is easy to want to hunker down and just take care of ourselves, but Canadians are really, really good at stepping up in a crisis. That is what Canadians did because they had confidence that governments were there to support them. It was not just the federal government either, although the federal government delivered eight dollars out of every $10 to Canadians to help them through the pandemic. The provinces and the municipalities were all there working hand in hand to make sure we were delivering for Canadians. The fact that Canadians could be reassured that their institutions were there to support them, our health professionals were working hard for them and political leadership in all orders of government were there for them gave them the confidence to do the right thing and continue to step up to be there for each other.

Even as Canadians were watching their governments and frontline workers be heroes to keep them safe during the pandemic, Canadians themselves, from small business owners to young people to seniors, were there to support each other through this time. That, quite frankly, has been the story of the pandemic: Canadians have been there for each other.

As we continue to deal with the pandemic, which is going through new phases now, and even as so much of our economy has been able to come back and many people are now safely vaccinated and feeling a lot more confident about how they and their families are, we know there is still more to do. That is why in the throne speech we talked about everything from implementing enhanced border measures to address variants of concern; to securing boosters, doses for kids and the next generation of COVID-19 vaccines; to investing in more opportunities to create vaccines and health products in Canada.

These are the kinds of things we need to do not only to get this pandemic behind us as quickly as possible, but also to ensure that Canadians can continue to thrive into the coming months and years. That is why we need to finish this fight against the pandemic. The single most impactful thing we can do to help Canadians grow the economy and create opportunities for themselves and their kids is to end the pandemic for good. That is why we are so focused on ensuring that people have access to life-saving vaccines, that science guides our way every step of the way and that we work with the provinces and territories to ensure that if lockdowns and more public health measures are necessary, the federal government will be there to support small businesses, families and the people who need help to get through the pandemic. That is how to ensure we will continue to do well.

That is what Canada laid out as a plan from the very beginning, and not on our own. We cannot take full credit for knowing that investing in Canadians was the best way through the pandemic. Those were the recommendations of international economic organizations such as the IMF, the World Bank, the OECD and a range of others. They said countries that have the fiscal capacity to support their citizens should do so as we enter the pandemic and get through it.

Of course, Canada had the best fiscal capacity of any of our partners in the G7, with the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio, and we continued to move forward in ways that supported Canadians every step of the way. Unfortunately, members opposite, such as the member for Carleton, said that we were doing too much too fast to support Canadians. We disagreed, and what we have shown is that our economy has bounced back faster than the economy in the United States, for example. We have recovered over 100% of the jobs lost during the pandemic while the U.S. has only recovered about 81%.

There is much more to do, so we have a real plan to keep building a strong, resilient economy that works for everyone. At the heart of our work is continuing to tackle the rising cost of living. We know that families across the country are looking at rising costs with real concern. They are facing significant inflation, which is a reality right around the world. However, Canadians also have the tools to get past it.

We recognize that a huge part of the costs that families bear these days is the cost of child care. That is why we moved forward to build the first-ever, Canada-wide child care system that will provide $10-a-day child care to families within five years. We also know that families need help now, so the money we are putting forward to invest in child care in places right across the country will result, in many places, in immediate reductions of child care costs. Indeed, the Province of Alberta has announced that as of January 1, because of the investments made by the federal government and the deal signed with the federal government, they will be able to cut child care costs in half for families across Alberta. They are not the only ones; other provinces are doing the same thing.

This really does beg the question: If governments in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and other Conservative provinces across the country have stepped up so strongly in moving forward on child care and reducing costs for families, why are the Conservatives here in Ottawa so opposed to signing child care agreements? They promised in the election that they would rip up child care agreements signed with the provinces. If they are actually concerned about costs and expenses for families, reducing child care to $10 a day is one of the best ways to do exactly that.

We also know that the housing crisis is a reality for middle-class families across the country. The cost of affordable housing and the cost of a home are higher than ever. Families need help.

The big challenge we face in Canada is that, for 10 years, Stephen Harper's Conservative government kept saying that the federal government had no role to play in housing and no obligation to invest in housing. Ten years of nothing, with no leadership from the federal government, has long-lasting effects.

That is why, when we took office in 2015, we made a promise to Canadians that we would recommit to housing and deliver ambitious plans.

That is exactly what we did in 2017 when we created the national housing strategy, a plan that started at $40 billion and is now up to $80 billion.Through that strategy, investments have provided hundreds of thousands of families with more housing, more spaces and the ability to find affordable housing—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I am sorry to interrupt the Prime Minister, but a member is being disrespectful.

I would ask the member for Carleton to wait. He will have an opportunity later to ask questions and make comments. I would ask that all members be respected when they have the floor.

The hon. Prime Minister.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Madam Speaker, we have put in place measures that have made a real difference in helping Canadians access home ownership over the last few years. However, we definitely know that we have more to do.

One of the commitments we made during the election was a $4-billion housing accelerator fund for municipalities. That $4 billion will help them move faster in building supply, issuing permits and developing low-income and middle-class housing, creating the supply that is so needed to take the pressure off families and communities. This is in addition to the other initiatives we have had, whether it is the Canada housing benefit or the rapid housing initiative that has worked with municipalities.

However, we will also do more. We will help families buy their first home sooner, with a more flexible and generous first-time home buyer incentive and a new rent-to-own program, and by reducing closing costs for first-time buyers. These are all concrete, tangible solutions that will help move things in the right direction for Canadians.

Even as the Conservative politicians these days are rending their shirts about the housing crisis, they offer no solutions. Indeed, the only concrete solution they had in their platform during the 2021 election was, get this, to give a tax break to wealthy landlords to help them sell their buildings. It really takes a federal Conservative to think we are somehow going to help people rent or buy homes they cannot afford by giving tax breaks to wealthy landlords. That simply does not work. What we have is a comprehensive plan that will indeed support Canadians in buying affordable housing and finding lower-priced places to stay. We are working on housing affordability.

Every step of the way our focus has been on supporting Canadians, whether it is by indexing the Canada child benefit to the cost of inflation or through a child care program that is not only going to help families with their costs, but also get more women into the workplace while giving kids the level playing field they need to succeed. We are making investments for the longer term of our future. We are standing up for the middle class, and will continue to address the labour shortages by boosting economic immigration levels and investing in skills training.

Obviously, Canadians are concerned about the economy, and they want to know that we are there to help them. We are going to be there to do that, and we are going to be there to invest. However, there are other issues that Canadians expect us to work on, and that is exactly what we are going to do.

Canadians want concrete action, and that is what we will do. They want us to take action on climate change, to innovate in new technologies and clean energy, and to create green jobs. They want us to build a more inclusive country and move faster on the path to reconciliation.

We recognize that climate change exists. Furthermore, we have long recognized what the Conservatives refuse to recognize, even today in 2021, which is that we cannot have a plan for the economy if we do not have a plan for the environment.

The Conservatives refuse to address climate change. They refuse to build an economic future for Canadians that will achieve net zero by 2050, not just for our country, but for our planet. We need to make the investments necessary to transform our economy in order to have lower carbon emissions, more innovation, more green jobs and, most importantly, green careers.

Unfortunately, these are the issues that the Conservatives continue to block, from putting a price on pollution to capping greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas sector until they reach net zero by 2050. This is how we will prepare our economy, our industries, our workers and our energy needs for the 21st century.

These are investments we are making, not only for the economy and jobs, but also to protect nature.

When we took office in 2015, barely 1% of our coastlines and oceans was being protected by the Harper government. In just a few years, we brought that up to 14%, and we are on track to reach 25% by 2025 and 30% by 2030. The same goes for our lands, 30% of which will be protected by 2030.

We know that protecting the environment means more than just preserving its beauty and resources for future generations. It also means taking meaningful action to fight climate change now. That is our vision. It means understanding that by protecting nature, wetlands, and our rivers, lakes and oceans, we can ensure a better future with less climate change, while making unprecedented investments to transform our economy the right way.

As for reconciliation, we know that we need to build partnerships and that we need to find solutions to address climate change. In fact, we would not have been able to protect as much of our coastlines and oceans if not for the leadership of indigenous peoples and our partnerships with them. I am thinking specifically of the Inuit, who have shown a solid understanding of the fact that addressing climate change and spurring economic growth in their communities and across the country must go hand in hand.

I appreciate the Leader of the Opposition raising reconciliation in his address to Parliament a little earlier. One thing we can all do concretely in the House is work towards the full implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Unfortunately, however, the Conservative Party voted against the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the last Parliament. I hope that the indication by the Leader of the Opposition that reconciliation is important to him means that the Conservatives are going to change their approach on UNDRIP, and actually realize that the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is an important thing for Canada and the world to lead on. We will also continue to work with all parties in the House on these sorts of issues as we move forward.

I want to respond to a few of the points the Conservative leader made in his approach this morning. Unfortunately, he did not really demonstrate all that much in the way of leadership as much as he tried to score cheap political points.

We all know that the best thing for our economy is to put the pandemic behind us, yet the Conservative Party will not even confirm how many of its own MPs are vaccinated. That is simply not leading by example. We can hear from the members opposite that they hate it when people bring this up. At a time when we know the way through this pandemic is through vaccinations, they cannot be unequivocal on the need to get vaccinated and the need to lead by example. It is really disappointing. If the Conservatives had won in this past election, right now people would be travelling on planes and trains without the need to be fully vaccinated and would be putting Canadians at risk. That was a commitment the Conservatives had made to Canadians: that they would not have to be fully vaccinated to travel on a plane or a train.

That is simply not the kind of leadership Canadians expected. It is certainly not the kind of leadership they chose. It is also something that would be bad not just for the course of the pandemic in our country, but indeed for the economy. The Conservatives continue to demonstrate that they do not understand that the best thing to do to grow our economy is to finish this pandemic.

The members opposite have spoken a lot today about Canada's relationship with the United States as well. We will continue to stand up for Canadian interests. We will continue to stand up in the fight for the removal of softwood lumber tariffs, the fight to continue producing electric vehicles in Canada and the fight to continue making sure that our products, such as potatoes, continue to have access to the United States.

When the Conservative leader talks about the fact that we are not doing enough to go at the United States, it reminds me of what he said when we stood up for steelworkers and aluminum workers against the last American administration. His comment was that those retaliatory tariffs were dumb. That was the word he used. He said that it was a dumb thing to push back against the United States when they were imposing tariffs on steelworkers and aluminum workers and threatening massive waves of protectionism.

We did not listen to the Leader of the Opposition then. We went ahead in standing up strongly and firmly for Canadian interests, and that U.S. administration backed down. We protected our steelworkers and our aluminum workers, so members will understand that I am not going to take lessons from the leader of the official opposition on how to capitulate to the Americans. We will instead stand up strongly and firmly every step of the way.

Our government is focused on concrete solutions that deliver results. We have one of the most successful vaccination campaigns in the world. This reminds us, again, of the complaints and the partisan, personal attacks made by members of the official opposition, the Conservative Party, that when we were getting our vaccines they were not coming fast enough, we did not do well enough and we were not covering Canadians. Here we are, with one of the top vaccination rates in the entire world, and the party that spent all its time complaining that we were not doing enough to get vaccines into this country is now the only party in the House that did not bother to get fully vaccinated. That sort of playing political games and scoring cheap rhetorical points while not actually following up on the substance of what needs to happen to keep Canadians safe is, unfortunately, par for the course for the Conservative Party of Canada.

Despite all the talking down of the Canadian economy and our approach to supporting Canadians during the pandemic by the Conservatives, we have now recovered over 100% of the jobs we lost during the peak of the pandemic and have created new jobs on top of that. That is something that happened because we have been investing in Canadians and supporting small businesses across the country.

Over the past few months I could not go into a small business or a restaurant across the country without someone telling me, “Thank you for that wage benefit,” or “Thank you for the support that you were able to give us to get through it.” In return, I thanked them for hanging in there and staying open, and now for getting going again. I say yes, we will continue to support them in fighting the labour shortage that we are facing.

We had a year of closed borders to immigration when we were able to accept only a small number of people as immigrants. We now know that we have to get back to bringing people in to continue to grow our economy. We need to work on skills training. We need to give young people opportunities. We will continue to work not just to make sure people have jobs, but that jobs are filled. Growing the economy requires a government with a commitment to do what we have said from the very beginning: that every step of the way, we will have Canadians' backs.

We continue to be there for the economy and for small businesses. We continue to be there for families, with the Canada child benefit indexed to inflation and $10-a-day child care.

We will provide targeted support for the hardest-hit sectors, such as tourism. The leader of the official opposition talked about support for the tourism industry. I hope his party will work with us and we will get their support, because right now coming before the House we have Bill C-2, which will have targeted supports for the tourism industry. This is a sector that is very worried about what consequences the omicron variant might have for its industry and people's plans.

We have a piece of legislation we are putting forward that would make sure we are there to support those industries that are hardest hit. It would make sure we are there to support small businesses or businesses that are facing challenges, but would also make sure that we have lockdown supports if provinces have to move forward with targeted measures.

We will be there as a federal government, as we have been from the very beginning, to allow Canadians to make it through this health crisis knowing that their government has their backs and that we will bounce back and come roaring back stronger than ever. That is what is in Bill C-2 that we are moving forward. I certainly hope that the Conservatives and the other parties in the House realize that Canadians deserve a Parliament that is focused on them and is there to support them every step of the way.

We are committed to establishing the Canada mental health transfer to expand the delivery of high-quality free mental health services. We know that Canadians, like people around the world, have suffered because of the pandemic. The isolation, the pressures, the anxiety and the challenges they have faced have left their mark, and that is why investing historic amounts in mental health supports across the country will go a long way to help Canadians.

In the first days of this Parliament alone, we have introduced legislation to bring in 10 days of paid sick leave for workers in the federally regulated private sector and we will work with the provinces on echoing that across the country.

We want to protect health care workers from unacceptable intimidation. We are going to ban conversion therapy. However, there is always more to do.

Of course, we know that there is always more work to be done, but Canadians expect us to work collaboratively and respectfully in the House of Commons.

They fully understand that there are different points of view and that there will always be robust debate about how best to help and serve Canadians. I look forward to these discussions.

However, Canadians expect to see parliamentarians who are there for them, who think every day about how to serve them better and how to provide them with support and growth that they can benefit from. That is what they expect, and that is what this government is prepared to do.

I am reaching out to all parliamentarians with this Speech from the Throne, which focuses on concerns that we agree on. As I said, I look forward to the debates on how best to meet the expectations of Canadians.

The key question is whether we will be there for Canadians. I can assure the House that on the government side, the answer is yes.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I have been a member of Parliament for a little over six years now and I have heard many allegations in the House that the Prime Minister has no great respect for Parliament, and sometimes I have seen some evidence of that.

Today, I note he went well over 20 minutes, which is normally the amount of time members have to speak. I would direct you, Madam Speaker, to Standing Order 50(2), which gives the Prime Minister the right to speak longer, and it is nice to see the Prime Minister engage today with Parliament.

If the he is in the mood, I would seek unanimous consent of the House to extend the question and answer period by another 10 minutes, for a total of 20 minutes, so he might continue this engagement.

Before you seek that unanimous consent, Madam Speaker, it would be appropriate to hear the Prime Minister on this point of order. Therefore, I would invite you to ask him for comment and then seek unanimous consent of the House to extend his question period by a further 10 minutes.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Does the hon. member have unanimous consent to allow for 20 minutes of questions and comments?

[Some hon. members]

No.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Questions and comments, the hon. member for Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola.

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

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the Prime Minister's presence here today to share with us his response to the Leader of the Opposition.

Canadians want to see a little more statesmanship when it comes to the big issues they have. I must confess, and maybe it is the smallness on my side and my character, but I found the Prime Minister's speech today very partisan. Actually, maybe it is for the best, because when the Leader of the Opposition is getting under the skin of the Prime Minister, it is probably because there are some legitimate criticisms.

I would ask the Prime Minister to consider those criticisms, because usually we hate in others what we do not like in ourselves. Maybe that might drive him to take a bit of a different stance, be more consolatory and be a little more prime ministerial.

I am going to give him the opportunity to talk about something I hope we both can agree on and I think Canadians want to hear. Obviously my province of British Columbia is under a tremendous amount of pain right now, and I do appreciate the help the Prime Minister and his cabinet have extended to British Columbia and the conciliatory way that they are trying to be there for people in a very difficult time.

The mayors, Spencer Coyne from Princeton, B.C. as well as Linda Brown from Merritt, B.C. have both said to me that the bill required to fix what is necessary to get people back in their homes will be in the tens of millions of dollars and those communities do not have it. Under the DFA, the 80/20 sharing, where 20% is paid by municipalities, will be beyond their ability to pay.

Is the Prime Minister willing to help these communities? It will take years to restart, and I hope we will get a positive response.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Madam Speaker, I regret the partisan tone of the introduction to the member's question, but I recognize that he has been a solid voice for his community, which has been hit very hard by these extreme weather events.

I highlight that I know we need to not only be there for people right now, as I told Mayor Brown of Merritt, who I spoke a few weeks ago, that we would be there for her and her community, as we will for people right across British Columbia, but we need to do more in fighting climate change into the future as well, on ensuring that we are cutting our oil and gas sector emissions, that we are moving forward on investing in clean, renewable energies and that we are building climate resilient infrastructure. These are the things that matter.

On the disaster response support, I have simply said that the federal government will be there. We will work hand in hand with British Columbia and we will support Canadians who need help.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Madam Speaker, I want to thank the Prime Minister for his speech. However, I must say that the people of the Lower St. Lawrence and Gaspé, the region I represent, were a little disappointed with what was in the throne speech.

Several things were left out. There was nothing about farmers, health transfers, or the need for EI reform, especially for a region like ours. As well, one segment of the population was particularly overlooked: seniors 65 and over.

I represent a large region with four constituency offices, and every week, if not every day, we get calls from seniors asking us to explain why this government does not think that they deserve proper support.

There were $500 cheques sent out, randomly, just before the election. Some seniors were very happy to tell me that they took some of that money and gave it to my party, because we are the only party that stands up for seniors.

However, it is not too late. The increase in the guaranteed income supplement for seniors 75 and over has not been brought in yet. Why not give it to seniors 65 and over?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Madam Speaker, when we came to power in 2015, one of our first initiatives was to increase the guaranteed income supplement by 10% for the most vulnerable single seniors.

This truly helped lift tens of thousands of seniors out of poverty, and we will continue to help seniors, whether it is in this pandemic, during which we have paid record amounts to Canadians, or with the promise we made several years ago to increase old age security for seniors 75 and older.

We all know that seniors are living longer, which is very good news, but we must recognize that costs increase as well. That is why we chose to target those whose costs are increasing. It was to help them even more.

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Madam Speaker, Canadians expect their Prime Minister to take climate action that matches the scale and urgency of the crisis, but instead the Liberal government has been increasing fossil fuel subsidies to big oil and gas companies, the very companies that are fuelling the climate crisis.

In 2015, the Prime Minister promised to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies; he increased them. In 2019, he promised to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies; he increased them to the tune of $900 million a year. In 2020, he promised again; he broke that promise.

When will the Prime Minister stop breaking his promises to Canadians?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Madam Speaker, we have long committed to eliminating fossil fuel subsidies by 2025 and, indeed, have now brought that timeline forward. We know how important it is to reduce our carbon emissions to move forward in the right way.

However, I will point out that Canadians watching the House are used to people flinging accusations back and forth, making grandiose claims about their party's leadership or climate actions. It is better to look at the experts.

The member opposite should know full well that when it comes to climate action and a plan to fight climate change, her party's plan was completely panned by all the experts. Indeed, leaders like Andrew Weaver, the former Green Party leader, or Mark Jaccard, climate economist, gave the Liberal Party top marks for our ambitious, concrete and powerful plan to fight climate change. That is what we are delivering.

[Mike Morrice, Green, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Madam Speaker, housing is increasingly unaffordable across the country. In my community, for example, prices have gone up 35% in the last year alone. Homes should be for people, not commodities for investors.

While I was glad to see mention of a housing accelerator fund in the throne speech, I was also concerned by what was not there. There was no mention of proven tools like investments in co-op housing, including some that the current government has previously promised like a vacancy tax on empty homes.

Could the Prime Minister share if the government intends on following through on introducing a vacancy tax in 2022? If so, does it plan on introducing it at a level that would meaningfully have an impact on the housing crisis?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Madam Speaker, we are very concerned with the rising cost of housing across the country, and we have been since 2015. We set up the national housing strategy in 2017, with $40 billion on its way up to $80 billion in investments that will help Canadians. Whether it is the municipal accelerator we have invested in, or the first-time home buyer initiative, or the affordable housing Canada benefit, or rent to own programs, or the rapid housing initiative or the foreign buyers tax, they are things that we are moving forward on concretely. We look forward to getting the support of the member and all parliamentarians as we stand up for Canadians and support them through this housing challenge.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Madam Speaker, I represent a riding in a province that has not signed up for the child care agreement. What can we do to encourage the remaining provinces to join the child care agreement?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Madam Speaker, we have seen families across the country rejoicing about the savings in costs over the coming years, which will save them thousands, in some cases, tens of thousands of dollars a year in child care costs because we have finally moved forward on a national initiative for $10-a-day child care.

Conservative-led provinces like Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and others are moving forward. They have heard directly from stakeholders, families and organizations that moving forward on child care is not just good for kids, it is not just good for families and moms, but it is also good for our workforce and for our economy because people have more choices to get into the workforce.

I am very optimistic that Ontario and New Brunswick will be able to sign the deal so their families are able to save thousands upon thousands of dollars and build a better future for their kids and their communities.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise and deliver my first-ever speech in this place. I will begin with my congratulations to you on your re-election, and to all of the other 336 fellow members in the House, each of whom has a story that brought them to this chamber, a reason that led them to initially put their name on a ballot, and motivations for service that are as distinct as the diversity of our country.

If I may, I would like to take a moment to thank the people who have played such a major role in my own journey to this seat in the House, starting of course with the voters of Thornhill, a remarkable, thriving, growing community in the GTA. I thank the voters who elected me to be their Conservative member of Parliament for putting their trust in me. I would say to those who voted for one of my opponents that I have work to do to bring them onside.

In the meantime, I plan to be the best representative for our entire community because to look at Thornhill is to look at a community that represents so much of the future of Canada. It is a community that contains incredible diversity and families that have immigrated to Canada from all over the world, including the Lantsman family. I am the grandchild of a man who came to Canada and started one of the community's most iconic small businesses.

He came to Canada, to Thornhill, to ensure that his children and grandchildren would have a better life than the one of repression and poverty in Communist Russia. When my parents arrived here, they did not speak English. They learned to. They faced the sometimes direct and sometimes subtle bigotry of anti-Semitism, a hatred far older than our country, which is sadly tolerated by far too many far too close to this House. They persevered and taught their daughter how to persevere. That perseverance was tested during the last 18 months.

I lost my mother during this journey. I know that she is watching, and if anyone likes anything I say in this House at all, it will almost entirely because of her. My father was truly far ahead of his time. He never answered, “No, you can't do that.” He and my older brother are foundational to my success and embody the spirit of hard work and empathy in this country.

I have a chosen family that has been instrumental in my achievements, and most important, I have a partner who is eternally patient, unconditionally supportive and who I am absolutely nothing without.

I want to pay tribute to the remarkable team of volunteers who brought me to this seat. Everyone knows that it takes a village, but a political village of volunteers is a particularly remarkable place, starting of course with my predecessor for this seat, Peter Kent, who taught me so much about how to serve our community and the high standard that I need to strive for as its MP.

I also want to thank my incredible campaign team, each and every one of them helped and gave their time and trust to put me here. Many supported this journey long before I ever knew I would embark on it. That is the summary of the path that brought me here, but I want to use the rest of this time to talk about the road ahead.

I know, as do hon. members, that to serve in public office is both an honour and a privilege, but it is also not easy. We take on these challenges because all of us have causes that we champion and communities we are committed to serve. I know this chamber is supposed to be a place where we recognize and reconcile those differences because I worked on Parliament Hill long before I was elected to come here.

That is how representation and democracy is supposed to work, but I come here questioning if it is really working. At the time of Confederation, Canada had its democratic structure, but also its democratic deficiencies in how women, indigenous people, immigrant populations, religious minorities and others were often relegated to second-tier status, or worse, and denied the fundamental, political and social rights held by the elites.

Parliament back then was often a talking club, where political elites spent their time talking only to one another and very little time talking to the public, and still less time listening. While we have so much work to do, we have come a far way to correct these injustices. I am standing here today as a Jewish woman who identifies as LGBTQ, and it is hopefully indicative of that.

However, truly inclusive politics is not about who can collect the most identity politics baseball cards, though that is too often how elected politicians and their cliques approach this job. It is about solving the fundamental challenge that is our Parliament, that is our government, as this is still too often a bunch of elites talking to each other.

There is much missing from the discourse here. In fact, there was much missing from the throne speech. On the fight against climate change, many in this House, and those close to it, care only about how many tweets and endorsements they can get from single-issue activists and NGOs rather than a truly inclusive effort to fight this challenge.

When it comes to families that are stuck holding the bill for promises made and repeated, or displaced workers in the energy sector, whose future livelihoods are being sacrificed, the chattering classes are silent.

How about the million Canadians who are motivated by faith in public life? Many in politics, who so routinely embrace the hip social cause of the day, will also gleefully sign off on, what I see as, a deliberate attack that targets the faith of Canadians, including so many members around me, for the crime of daring to express their values in the public sphere.

How about the cause that is so foundational to me and my dream? That is the place of Jewish people in this country. Our country's commitment to human rights, diversity and respect quickly evaporates because some close to this House believe that not every minority deserves equal protection and respect. If I asked members how many Jews were elected to the House of Commons, remembering that we elect 300 at a time, over 44 Parliaments, what do they think that number would be? It is 38. I am number 38. That is fewer than one per Parliament, and nobody can ever tell me that Jewish voices are overrepresented in corridors of power.

If that were the case, it would not be socially acceptable for so many in official Ottawa to freely denigrate the Jewish people under the guise of criticising their homeland as part of some perverse social justice performance theatre. We have seen it. If this had been about indigenous people, the LGBTQ community, Canadians with disabilities or so many other groups, many would have impaled themselves on a microphone to grandstand the condemnation of such intolerance, but apparently the Middle East is complicated. However, the thing is, it is actually not that complicated.

There is a rising tide of anti-Semitism in this country, in my community and in all communities across the country, and it is not just rising out of some far-right-wing chat room on the Internet. It is rising out of faculty clubs, social justice organizations and too many government offices.

When there is an attack in Paris or London, it matters. It matters to how we set the rules, fund basic security and protect our citizens, but when terrorists launch rockets targeting civilians on the other side of the world, we can count on two things: politicians trying to play both sides and, the usual suspect in the social justice community, victim blaming.

It is not that complicated. There is right, and there is wrong. Self defence is right, and terrorism is wrong. It needs to be said. The mistake I will not make is believing that moral clarity will prevail because sadly it has not. Why cannot a Canadian born in Jerusalem, like those in my family, have that in their passport? Why is the world's sole Jewish state also the sole state that is told it cannot choose its own capital city? If that does not make members think, then maybe it should. Any responsibly thinking Conservative knows the capital is Jerusalem, and this country should say so.

A few years before I was born, Joe Clark promised to move the embassy to Jerusalem. I have been there. I know where it is. It is not there, and yes, this is not a partisan failure. This is Conservative and Liberal governments alike that have failed on the original promise. However, I am not going to be quiet about it, because where I come from, it is a matter of right and wrong, and it is not that complicated. I am a proud Canadian, a proud Conservative and a proud Jew, and it took a lot of work and a big fight for me to get here.

Now that I am here, this fight and this work does not end, and I will be unrelenting in holding the government to account whenever it chooses to expediently coddle the prejudiced instead of defending the principled, and when it excludes those who do not conveniently fit its narrative. However, in the same breath, I am prepared to work constructively across the aisle, should members be prepared to change their ways. I stand, a part of this caucus, because I believe that the best protector of my community is a Conservative government, but we cannot afford to wait until the next election, so I implore those who have a voice to take their concerns and the concerns of my community seriously and recognize that their past record is just not good enough.

If they ever choose to do so, they can count on allies from this side of the House, including from the member of Parliament for Thornhill.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Madam Speaker, if we take a look at the throne speech, we will find a very ambitious plan. Part of that plan is the materialization of bills that are so important to all Canadians. I am talking about one that we were debating yesterday, Bill C-2. Canadians understand the sacrifices that have been made over the last 18 months and the importance of government stepping up to the plate to be there for small businesses and individual Canadians, to support health care workers and Canadians in general.

This is something I believe Canadians want us to do. Does my colleague across the way see herself recognizing the need to see Bill C-2 advance? The principles of Bill C-2 would continue to provide the support Canadians want, and it is just a part of what we saw in the throne speech.