Debates of Dec. 2nd, 2021

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I could not agree more with the member opposite on his call to action on connectivity across the country.

I had the privilege to travel to Newfoundland and Labrador earlier this year and really got to see first-hand the issues rural communities face with respect to connectivity. This government has made significant investments in ensuring that Canada is connected. We saw just how important that connection was as we moved to a more virtual workspace.

I know that the party opposite may have plans and may have promises, but the government has been delivering on this issue for the past number of years.

[Caroline Desbiens, Bloc, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague opposite's speech. However, when we heard the Speech from the Throne, we were concerned about how the government wanted to address the issues that we had with health care during the pandemic. It is once again forcing its way into a Quebec jurisdiction. However, all the provinces and Quebec have been asking for a very long time for health transfers to be increased to around 35% of costs. We in the Bloc Québécois have proposed to the government that a major health care summit be held.

I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on that.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Mr. Speaker, over the past 20 months, we saw just how critical investments in health care really are. We have to work together with provinces and territories to ensure that Canadians have access to that health care. In our campaign, we made the commitment that we would continue to invest in health care, not only creating new hospital beds but also ensuring that we fill the labour shortage and hire more doctors and health care professionals. We look forward to working with the member opposite to ensure that this is implemented.

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

Mr. Speaker, congratulations on being in the chair.

My colleague talked about reconciliation. She is well aware of the shootings of Chantel Moore, who died last year on a wellness check; Julian Jones, who was shot in Opitsaht earlier this year; and another woman in Hitacu. These are three people from the Tla-o-qui-aht nation in my riding.

The Speech from the Throne says:

The Government will also continue to reform the criminal justice system and policing.

It has not even started, so I do not know where the “continue” comes from.

It has been very clear. The report, “Systemic Racism in Policing in Canada”, was done at the public safety committee. None of those recommendations has been put into place, and I am hoping my colleague will champion bringing that report back and actually implementing the calls to action.

The Tla-o-qui-aht need answers, and the mothers of those victims need answers. People need change. They do not trust the police anymore where I live. They need accountability, they need reform, and they need oversight and transparency. The recommendations from the report are critical to earn the trust of indigenous people in this country, and to save lives and prevent further unnecessary deaths.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have been on the justice committee for the past six years, and we have done significant work on access to justice. We know that there is institutionalized racism. That is exactly why we introduced Bill C-3: to ensure that judges had that training. It is why we continue to make those investments within the police force and within our justice system to ensure that access is there. The work is being done. The damage was done over 150 years, and we need to make sure that we take it seriously and continue to chip away and push that needle further towards progress.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

Before we continue debate, I would note that we know members are very passionate about the questions they are asking and the answers they are giving, but if they go on too long, the problem is that other members do not have the opportunity to ask questions. Let us try to keep our comments and questions as short as possible so that we can get as many members in as we possibly can.

Continuing debate, the hon. member for Edmonton Mill Woods.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would like to start by expressing my deep gratitude to my community of Edmonton Mill Woods for their continued trust in me to represent them here in the House of Commons. It is a privilege and a great honour to stand here on behalf of such an amazing and diverse community. They have shown incredible resilience during times of uncertainty and many challenges.

I also want to thank my family for their unconditional support, and to personally thank my amazing campaign team and the dedicated group of volunteers who worked tirelessly during the last election campaign. I thank them for all of their outstanding efforts.

I do not know if you, Mr. Speaker, have ever been to Edmonton Mill Woods, but if you went you would find a diverse community in every sense. It is an economically diverse group of mostly middle-class, hard-working Canadians. There are young families and seniors, and Mill Woods is really known for its cultural and faith diversity. That makes it the great place that it is.

I am proud that I grew up in Mill Woods, and proud that the son of an immigrant cab driver can have a seat here in the House of Commons. My father is the hardest-working person I know. He is out there driving a cab right now because he just does not want to sit at home. I believe that says a lot about the people of Edmonton Mill Woods, and it says a great deal about this amazing country we live in and the opportunities that it provides.

Nav Bhatia, the superfan and now Canadian icon, says that Canada is heaven on earth. I agree with him. In Mill Woods, we have tremendously generous organizations that have stepped up to help each other in the past couple of years.

These include organizations such as the Edmonton Care Closet, which provides food and clothing based out of Calvary Community Church, and our Rotary Club of Edmonton Southeast. Fulton Meadows Community League provides food for the food bank and a clothing drive, Millhurst Community League created a coats for kids campaign, Leefield Community League provided Thanksgiving turkey dinner for hundreds of people, and Youth Rise provides great support for youth in our community.

United Aid and Sikh Youth Edmonton recently teamed up with the All India Super Market and New Way Trucking to donate and send food free of cost to B.C., to help people during these devastating floods.

Sangat Youth YEG has been doing a great job. Hope City Church has been providing support in our community. Our local mosque, Markaz-Ul-Islam mosque, has also been helping. Ahmadiyya Jama'at Edmonton, the Hindu temple Bhartiya Cultural Society, Philippine Business Society of Alberta-Edmonton and Guru Nanak's Free Kitchen are all organizations in our community that have been helping their neighbours. There are many more that I could list. My heartfelt thanks and gratitude go to them and to their supporters for all of their great work.

The reason they have had to step up and help their neighbours now more than before is because from coast to coast to coast life is getting more expensive for Canadians. We see it everywhere we go: at the gas pumps, in the grocery stores and even when we try to buy Christmas gifts. Conservatives have repeatedly warned the government that its reckless spending would cost Canadian families. For more than a year, we warned that this flood of money would fuel inflation. Now, we are watching the consequences of the Prime Minister's reimagined economy in real time.

Unfortunately, the Prime Minister's political priorities announced in the Speech from the Throne do nothing for middle-class working Canadians. The cost-of-living crisis that we are in right now is pricing families out of homes and driving up the costs of essential goods. It is clear that families in Alberta are not a priority for the current government. Instead of presenting an economic plan for families, seniors and small businesses that have been left behind by the government, the government's approach means more of the same: More deficits leading to higher taxes. One thing is clear. Middle-class Canadians cannot afford more of the current Liberal government's reckless spending.

Being a middle-class Canadian no longer means living comfortably. Being a middle-class Canadian in Alberta, especially an energy worker, comes with an even greater set of challenges.

The Prime Minister has waged a war on our energy sector. At a time when the world is facing an energy crisis and the President of the United States is calling on OPEC and other energy producers to increase the production of oil and gas to lower soaring energy prices, the Prime Minister and his new environment minister want to deny our energy sector the opportunity to supply the world with ethical, lower-emission Canadian energy at a time when it is desperately needed.

Through the Speech from the Throne, the Prime Minister continues to attack our energy workers. The only time he mentions Alberta energy is when he talks about putting a cap on the work they do. He makes no mention of the world-class, ethically sourced energy that is using world-leading technology to reduce its environmental footprint.

The demand for energy is not going away soon. What the Prime Minister does not understand is that our made-in-Canada energy will be replaced by unethically produced energy. His attack on our energy sector is not out of concern for the environment, but, instead, it is about furthering his own Liberal agenda.

The Liberal government's short-sighted plan to limit made-in-Canada energy will only embolden foreign oil-producing dictatorships. Its plan will drive up the prices of oil and gas and make it more expensive for Canadian families to drive to work and heat their homes.

The Conservatives know that it is possible to work with our energy sector, lower emissions and provide jobs and opportunity in Canada. We should be proud to supply the world with sustainable and ethical energy to developing countries, which want to source their energy from a country like Canada where our environmental and labour standards are world class.

On top of inflation and the rising costs of food and gas, we are also in the midst of one of the worst housing crises the country has ever seen. The dream of home ownership is being pushed impossibly out of reach for first-time homebuyers. Home prices in Canada have shot up over 20% since 2020. We need to reduce inflation and increase supply, increasing housing availability. One of the ways we would do that through the Conservative plan would be to release at least 15% of federal surplus land holdings to allow for more housing. The rise in cost of affordable housing is a serious issue that requires a serious plan, which has not been provided by the government.

Earlier I spoke about a number of the great organizations that were helping their fellow Canadians in Edmonton Mill Woods, and I know there are organizations like that right across the country. Many of these organizations are faith-based and cultural-based organizations and many of them may not have the same values as the Liberals do. However, that is just part of our diversity in Canada.

In 2017, the Liberal government required organizations to sign a values test to receive funding to hire summer students. Because of this values test, many worthy organizations were excluded from the program just because their values did not line up with the Liberal Party. Thankfully, the federal government changed course after considerable outcry from across the country.

Now I am hearing considerable concern from many people in my community about a Liberal campaign promise to take tax-exemption status away from organizations that do not align with Liberal values. Once again, the Liberals love diversity as long as we all agree with them. I hope the Liberals will listen to all voices across Canada and represent them all.

Another issue is the rise in gun crime. This has been an issue in many major cities, including Edmonton, and we have to have serious solutions to this. Instead, the government relentlessly continues to go after law-abiding gun owners, hunters, farmers and sport shooters. It is simple. Every time the government spends $1 taking firearms away from a law-abiding Canadian, it is $1 not going to fight the core issue of firearm crime in Canada, which is illegally smuggled guns.

Canadians across the country elected the Conservatives to hold the Liberal government to account, and we are doing just that.

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

Mr. Speaker, we continually hear this narrative from the Conservative Party that we need to drill more oil, yet the world is moving in the direction of electrification. More electric cars are being sold than ever before. We see initiatives in place to limit and phase out fossil fuel-burning vehicles by the middle of 2035.

Why is the Conservative Party so focused on talking about extracting more oil when it has an opportunity to push the agenda forward on bringing these new developing jobs right to Alberta?

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

Mr. Speaker, we support Canada's energy sector because we support science. Canada's energy sector has reduced its environmental footprint. It is using world-leading technology. It is ethically produced energy right here in Canada, supporting Canadian jobs and families, such as the families in my riding of Edmonton Mill Woods. If we can take that technology and export it around the world, we would actually bring global emissions down, because countries would be producing at the same high standards we do.

The Liberal government should be promoting our industry and the way we do things in the Alberta energy sector, and sell that as its environmental plan.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I wondered for a few seconds if my colleague was joking and being ironic when he said that the government had declared war on the energy sector.

If it has, then it is certainly a gentle war, one that would no doubt leave the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development flabbergasted. In 2018, 2019 and 2020, the government invested $14 billion annually in the oil and gas industry. I would like to remind my colleague that it also purchased a pipeline.

If the government is looking to wage war on a natural resource sector, I encourage it to declare war on the softwood lumber sector. If that is what qualifies as waging war on a sector, then I am all for it, anytime.

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

Mr. Speaker, if the member would like to see proof of the Liberal government's war on Alberta's energy sector, all he needs to do is come to my riding. People had good well-paying jobs in the energy sector and were able to provide for their families and put their children through university. They no longer have a job and are now struggling to provide for their families.

The war on the energy sector is real and it is having a real affect on Canadian families.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, that is classic for the Conservatives. They do not care if it is true as long as they repeat it often enough.

I keep hearing about foreign oil against ethical oil, when almost zero oil is coming from overseas into Canada. That is a fact. The issue of the International Energy Agency saying that Canadian high-carbon oil is affecting the market is a reality.

I did not hear the member talk about hydrogen in Alberta. I did not hear him talk about geothermal. I did not even hear him talk about how Jason Kenney was trying to blow the rooftops off the Rocky Mountains to get at coal. The reason Alberta is falling behind is because of the Conservative refusal to stand up for a new energy economy.

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

Mr. Speaker, the oil that is coming from other parts of the world into Canada is in the same tankers that people protest against and try to stop.

The fact is that the government has hurt jobs and economic viability in Alberta. We need to champion that industry and all the Alberta energy sector. Yes, oil and gas is important to the energy and gas sector, but so are other sectors as well. When Alberta does well and the energy sector does well, we provide roads, bridges and schools right across the country.

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

Mr. Speaker, for my friend from Edmonton Mill Woods, the problem is that the discussion is taking place in the wrong time frame. Had he given that speech 20 or 30 years ago, I could have agreed with him, that reducing our footprint mattered. What matters now is that we are living within a carbon budget that is shrinking so fast that the chances of our children living to our age in a habitable climate, one they can live in, is rapidly disappearing, and we have to go off all fossil fuels as quickly as possible. In that scenario, there are no ethical fossil fuels; there are only threats to the survival of our children. Also, our workers want to move to renewable energy.

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

Mr. Speaker, the problem is that the Green Party and the Liberals do not understand that we can do both. We can reduce our emissions, we can provide for our future and we can use those resources to help to diversify our economy and produce new greener technologies. We can use the energy sector to be the guiding path into the future.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise for my first speech in the 44th Parliament. I want to thank the constituents of Foothills for once again placing their confidence and trust in me to be their voice in Ottawa as their member of Parliament.

I also want to take a moment to thank my campaign team, Bryan Walton and the team he put together. We had an amazing crew door knocking and putting up signs in a large rural riding, which is always a challenge.

Most important, I want to thank my wife Louise, and my kids Graeden, Kinley and McKenna. This has been a trying time to be an elected official. I think all of us in the House understand what this past two years has been like. Often we take that home to our loved ones. My wife Louise has been a counsellor, a confidant and my best friend. I want to take a moment to thank her for her love and support through all that it is to be a politician. I certainly could not do it without her.

It is very good to be back in Ottawa. I am sure I was getting on her nerves being home as much as I was over the last two years.

Canadian who listened to the throne speech, who were looking for inspiration and a clear strategy for economic recovery were probably very disappointed. What they heard were more platitudes, more word salad and empty promises. Whether it is balanced budgets, clean drinking water for first nations, affordable housing, rural Internet or even transparency and openness, these promises by the Liberal government have been broken again and again over the past six years.

What the Liberals have left us with are deficits, debt, crippling inflation, the housing bubble, higher cost of living, a labour crisis and an eroding relationship with some of our most trusted trading partners, including the United States. I do not think our relationship with our southern partners has been any worse in our history. There are real consequences to these mistakes.

The Liberal policies have put our finances on a very rocky footing. Clearly the Liberals have no concrete plans to solidify Canada's financial footing. Our foundation is rocking and there is no plan to fix it.

If there were a plan, the Liberals certainly would have talked about two of Canada's most critical industries, agriculture and energy. My colleague, the member for Edmonton Mill Woods, spoke eloquently of Canada's energy industry, so I want to focus on agriculture.

Agriculture employs 2.1 million Canadians. One in nine jobs in Canada are linked with agriculture and agribusiness. It has generated $140 billion in GDP in Canada, about 7% of Canada's total GDP. One would think that would be a pretty important part of the Liberals' throne speech. How many times was agriculture mentioned in that speech? Not once.

When we have primary industry that Canada relies on, and it could be an integral part of our economic recovery post-pandemic, being completely ignored, that tells me clearly that the Liberals have no plan to get Canada's finances back on strong footing.

It actually goes the opposite way. Rather than embracing and ensuring that Canadian agriculture and agribusinesses have the resources they need to reach their full potential, the Liberals are going the other way. They are attacking one of our most important industries. Let me take a few moments to outline the ways.

The Liberal agriculture Minister recently said, “it’s not like we can adopt a law for reducing the price of food.” I have a message for the Liberal government. In fact, it can. It just has to get out of the way. Liberal policies are increasing the cost of everything, including food at the grocery store, the escalating carbon tax, the cap on fertilizer, trade failures, labour crisis. This is having an impact on farm families across the country, and it is increasing the cost of food that we put on our table.

Adding the carbon tax to the farm fuels and escalating that carbon tax to $170 per tonne would devastate Canadian agriculture.

As an example, I had Michel and Jeannette from Ontario contact my office earlier this week. They provided my staff with a spreadsheet of the impact the escalating carbon tax would have on their operation. When it gets $170 per tonne, they will be paying more for the carbon tax than what they actually pay for the natural gas they use to heat barns and dry grain, essential practices for modern agriculture. At $170 per tonne, they will pay $19,477 in carbon taxes and $8,800 for natural gas. They will be losing money as a result of the Liberals' escalating carbon tax. There is no way they can operate.

Hessel Kielstra, in my riding, has Mountain View Poultry. His carbon tax right now is $25,000 a month to heat his poultry barns. That is before it starts escalating to $170 a tonne. If we cannot grow food, we cannot feed Canadians. If we cannot grow food, we cannot play our integral role in feeding the world. It is that simple. The Liberal policies are pricing Canadian agriculture out of business.

The Liberals have also announced recently, at COP in Scotland, that they are going to put a cap on emissions and fertilizer use. There are real consequences to this decision. They want to reduce it by 30%, a number that they just grabbed out of the sky. They did that with no consultation with agriculture, no consultation with stakeholders and no consultation with agribusiness. They just picked it out of the sky, and now it is up to Canadian agriculture to try to meet that standard. There are real consequences to that.

According to a study by MNP, the 30% reduction in fertilizer will cost our economy about $48 billion by 2030. What does that have to do with each province? Let us go with canola and wheat. In Alberta, that is $2.95 billion gone. In Saskatchewan, that is $4.61 billion gone. In Manitoba, with corn, that is $1.5 billion gone. That is funding, money and revenue that is gone out of local communities and rural businesses, affecting rural economic opportunities.

Those numbers do not include an escalating carbon tax. They do not include the Liberals' clean fuel standard, and they do not include lost global markets. Basically, what is happening is Canadian agriculture will be bankrupt under the Liberal policies. Can the Liberals make changes to reduce the price of food? They absolutely can, by backing off from their ideological policies, which are devastating one of our most important industries.

However, it continues to get worse, so they are going to be putting on these regulations, red tape and imaginary numbers that Canadian farmers are going to have to try to meet, which really have no basis in reality. It does not even take into consideration the incredible job that Canadian farmers have done to improve their carbon footprint. Our Canadian farmers and ranchers are at the front line of conservation. Let us talk about 4R, zero-till farming and precision agriculture. None of those things were taken into consideration when these numbers and policies were put forward. Our yields are much higher on much less, but this is going to put us back decades, and we are going to have to be growing more on more land.

We also have issues with trade and transport. We asked the Prime Minister this week about the crisis with shipping containers, and he said it is an issue about global supply chains. It is not about global supply chains. The Americans have figured it out. President Biden has put on penalties and a shipping czar, and they have resolved their problem. As a result of that, shipping lanes are being rerouted from Canada to the United States. Meanwhile, Canadian agricultural commodities and manufactured goods are stuck at the ports in Vancouver and Montreal. This is having a significant impact on our relationship with our most trusted trading partners. We are losing our reputation as a reliable partner, and as a result, those contracts are going to other countries.

We have seen what is happening with the United States, but I also want to go back to February 2018. The Prime Minister made this big announcement. He said we were having a huge breakthrough in resolving the fumigation issue with India. It is 2021; we still have that issue in place and we have lost our pea and pulse market to India. We have lost canola trade with China. All these things continue to add up and can lead to food insecurity and a labour crisis. Members can understand why Canadian farmers and ranchers feel they do not have a friend in the Liberal government.

The disappointing thing with this throne speech is that if the Liberals truly had a plan to rebuild Canada's economy coming out of the pandemic, they would have ensured that Canadian agriculture and energy were key players in that plan. However, they are missing. Obviously, they are not a priority for the Liberal government.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, pre-election, I met with the Minister of Agriculture in the province of Manitoba. We talked about the floods, and both of us had the opportunity to visit a cattle farm. Post-election, the Minister of Agriculture was in Winnipeg again, and we were at Merit Foods, where we are expanding markets for a state-of-the-art company. The Minister of Agriculture continues work with the different provinces and other stakeholders to make sure we stay on top of that particular file.

My question is more in regard to this member, and other members now, who have talked about the price on pollution, or the carbon tax, as they refer to it. I am having a hard time understanding and following where the Conservative Party is on this issue. It was not that long ago that they were actually quite honest and said they were against the carbon tax. Then, just prior to the last election, their newly minted leader said they supported a price on pollution or a carbon tax.

I am hearing that the Conservatives now seem to doing another flip-flop. Can they tell the House today what their position is on a carbon tax? Do they support it or do they not support it?

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Mr. Speaker, we support working with our stakeholders to ensure they have the resources they need and the policies in place that are going to ensure they can still be successful. Policies such as putting on a $170 per tonne carbon tax, putting a 30% cap on fertilizer use, not addressing a storage container crisis and not addressing the relationships with our most trusted trading partners are devastating Canadian agriculture. That is not a path forward.

In contrast, Conservatives are ensuring that we work and meet with our stakeholders to let them know they have policies in place to be successful.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague’s speech was very important, because he spoke about agriculture, and therefore food. Everyone agrees that this is a necessity. However, is my colleague really focusing on the right problem?

The current situation in British Columbia is causing food supply and access problems in certain parts of the province, including shortages of certain staples such as milk, eggs and poultry. The supply chain will be disrupted for some time to come.

Climate change is also causing droughts in some areas, forcing entire herds to be abandoned because they cannot be fed. Why is my colleague unable to make the connection between climate change and the problems facing the agricultural sector?

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Mr. Speaker, there is no question our producers are front-of-the-line when it comes to conservation and environmental stewardship, and I understand the crisis and the devastation that has impacted the Fraser Valley in B.C. This is a critical breadbasket of our country, and it is going to take a long time to recover. It is going to take years to rebuild herds, poultry barns, equipment and all those types of things.

Yes, there is no question that this is going to impact our food supply, but that is why it is so important to have some resiliency throughout the supply chain across the country, whether it is rail lines, trade markets or other types of things. Yes, this is going to be an issue we are all going to have to try to resolve.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague will not be surprised by the question I am going to ask him today.

I agree with him that there needed to be much more focus on agriculture within the throne speech, and I was very disappointed we did not see that, but I have spoken to people in his riding who are very concerned about the attacks on water in the very drought-prone area that would be the result of coal mining in that area.

I just wonder if the member would be willing to work with me to push back against the attacks on our water, our wild spaces and our endangered species by coal mining in his riding.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate it when the member for Edmonton Strathcona continues to campaign for a provincial MLA seat on an issue that is a provincial issue. We have spoken about this on several occasions. The Province of Alberta has been going through a very deep public consultation on this issue. The project she was talking about went through the proper joint review panel.

I will leave it up to the Province of Alberta to make the decision on land use in its province.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Milton.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for giving me an opportunity to speak on the throne speech.

I will start by thanking the residents of Ottawa Centre for giving me this incredible honour and opportunity to serve them in this House.

I welcome all the members to my riding of Ottawa Centre as well. We feel quite privileged, as we are often referred to as “riding number one” in Canada. This is where all our national institutions are located and where decisions are made for the well-being of our country. I am excited to see so many members make Ottawa Centre their second home while they are here serving their constituents.

Ottawa Centre has been my home for decades. It is where both of my children were born and where they go to school. My son, Rafi Naqvi, who is nine years old, and my daughter, Elliana Naqvi, who is five, will be excited to know that they were mentioned today in the House, as we talked about this a little yesterday.

My children, Rafi and Elliana, attend a local French public school.

They often now tell me that I have to work on my French and my French accent, and I continue to commit to that.

I pledge to continue learning French.

This is important to me as well.

I have had the great honour of serving the riding of Ottawa Centre as a member of the provincial Parliament for almost 11 years. As a result, I have built deep connections within the community. I know our neighbourhoods and I have community connections where we have worked together on issues that are important to our community, from protecting our waterways like the Ottawa River, the Rideau River or the Rideau Canal to making sure that our post-secondary institutions, like Carleton University, which is located in my riding, continue to thrive. We have helped countless individuals, whether they are new to Canada and new to the city of Ottawa or residents who have lived here for a very long period of time. Again, I want to say a big “thank you” to them, from Carleton Heights to downtown and from Old Ottawa East to Westboro, for putting their faith and trust in me to be their strong voice in this great House.

I would be remiss if I did not take some time to thank my parents, Anwar and Qaisar Naqvi. My family and I came to Canada almost 33 years ago. We moved to Niagara Falls, where we made our home and, like any newcomer family, we worked hard so my parents could ensure that all of us could have a better life. The circumstances under which my parents left were not ideal. Both my parents were involved in a pro-democracy movement in the country of my birth. In fact, my father led a pro-democracy march. For that he was arrested and tried in a military court and served nine months as a political prisoner. I was 10 years old. Members can imagine the profound impact of that experience on me to this day. I saw my father pursuing and standing up for democratic rights, and I saw my mother fight for his rights while he was imprisoned, while at the same time raising a family and running a law practice so that we were all taken care of. Members can imagine where my drive for public service comes from, and how indebted I feel to this great country of Canada, which has given us the opportunity to live in a free country and enabled me to devote my professional life to serving my community and my country.

I was often asked in the last federal election why I had decided to come back to public service and put my name forward to be the member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre. I thought quite deeply about this, and the answer was simple. We find ourselves living in a very pivotal moment. This pandemic has impacted all of us. It has really shone a light on the inequities that exist in our society, and this is our opportunity to rebuild Canada in the most inclusive way and make sure no one is left behind.

We often talk about building back better. Well, here is my take: We cannot build back better by building back the same.

There are issues I have identified that are important to me, such as making sure that we end chronic homelessness in our communities. I want to do that in my city of Ottawa. We must fight climate change so that our children have a better future. We must put an end to systemic racism and systemic barriers against indigenous people, Black people and people of colour. These are the kinds of things that I want to work with all members on and champion in this House. I was so excited and heartened to hear very precise language used in the Speech from the Throne on these three issues. I look forward to working with the government and each member of this House on these important issues, because that is how we are going to build a Canada for everyone.

As my time is winding down, I have a commitment that I want to make today in my inaugural speech. Please hold me to account if I do not live up to my commitment. I am 100% committed to serving my community and my country. I want to do that by working with every member of this House. We all have come here because we want to challenge the status quo. That is why we knocked on doors and asked for this mandate. We may have different ways of getting to that, but at the end of the day we all want to build a better country. I want to work with everyone, regardless of their political affiliation.

There is a Latin phrase that I am often reminded of, that is audi alteram partem, or “listen to the other side”. My commitment is that I will listen and I will pay attention. We may disagree, we may debate, as the case should be in a democratic society, but we shall work together.

I look forward to working hard on behalf of my community of Ottawa Centre. I thank them and my family for getting me here today.

It is an honour to serve the people of my riding.

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

Mr. Speaker, we know that the Liberals are all about the rapid housing initiative with a billion dollars in the first round. There were subscriptions of $5 billion in applications, yet only 20% were funded.

One of the applications came from my riding in Port Alberni to buy the old Beaufort hotel, and it was supported by the Salvation Army, the Bread of Life, KUU-US Crisis Line, the Canadian Mental Health Association and Lookout. ESDC said that this was a great application supported by the city, our local MLA and the local Shuswap Nation. It was filling a gap that the province of B.C. identified for the hardest to house. The parole board even wrote a letter of support. It said it had no housing for inmates when they were released. In fact, 98% of those inmates were indigenous. As well, it was identified that two-thirds of the people in our local homeless count are indigenous.

They applied again. They were just told that they were denied. More people are going to be dying on the streets of this country. We are spending over $75 billion on buying fighter jets and we are putting $1 billion toward homelessness. This is shameful.

My colleague made a commitment. Is the commitment there that he is going to help get this deal done, because we will lose this property and this opportunity by April 1. I hope he will live up to his words and his commitment.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I share the member's passion to fight homelessness. I am sure all of us in our respective communities have very important projects that could be supported, so that we can help those who are marginalized.

I am very excited that finally we have a federal government that has put forward a national housing strategy. I was a member of the provincial government at a time when the federal government was not there to address housing. There is a real opportunity for us to end chronic homelessness. It is right there, stated clearly in the Speech from the Throne. I look forward to working with the member opposite on that important issue.